Theatre Design Panel Talk

Hannah Sibai, Rosie Elnile, Katharine Williams and Tom Wright

Hannah Sibai is a British/Syrian performance designer based in Yorkshire. Since training at Wimbledon School of Art in London, she has designed over 90 productions across 15 years in the UK and Europe. This includes theatre, film, music videos and installations. She is currently working on designs for Arabian Nights which is Bristol Old Vic’s Christmas show, and Northanger Abbey at The Orange Tree.

Selected Theatre Design credits: A Play for the Living in the Time of Extinction (Mingyu Lin, Headlong, York Theatre Royal and Barbican), 24(Day)The Measure of my Dreams (Almeida Theatre), The Lost Spells (Andy Barry, Goblin, Polka, Watford Palace, Theatre by the Lake), The City and the Town (Riksteatern Sweden and Matthew Linley Creative Projects), A Christmas Carol (Shakespeare North), The Doncastrian Chalk Circle (National Theatre and Cast), A Tale of Orpheus & Eurydice (Opera North), REGNANT (Xavier de Sousa, HOME), Love n Stuff (Gitika Buttoo, Oldham Coliseum), The Travelling Pantomime (Juliet Forster, York Theatre Royal), Two (Tom Wright, Gala Theatre), Pygmalion and Handbagged (Tom Wright, English Theatre Frankfurt), Instructions for Border Crossing (Daniel Bye), WANTED (Chris Goode&Company, Leeds Playhouse), Instant Light Circus Company (Slung Low), Bassett (Javaad Alipoor, Sheffield Crucible), SET FIRE TO EVERYTHING!!! (RashDash) and Country Music (Leeds Playhouse).

Rosie Elnile is an award-winning theatre designer. She has designed shows across the UK theatre landscape such as at the Globe, Royal Court, Bush Theatre, The Yard, and Theatre Royal Stratford East, as well as designing for opera and live art. She has recently been working abroad designing a re-imagining of Medea directed and written by Jaz Woodcock-Stewart for the Dresden Staatschauspiel Haus and The Faggots and Their Friends Between the Revolutions for the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence.

Rosie has been an Associate Artist at the Gate Theatre. As part of her role she created ‘Prayer’ which imagined what it would be like to plant a garden in the theatre and what it would mean to engage in a theatrical space with active care. In 2021 she received a Jerwood Arts Grant to explore scenography as the solo narrative tool in a process. Rosie's work explores the uncanny, fragile life of objects and materials; she's particularly interested in using stage design to think about the way space informs and creates politics.  

Katharine Williams is a writer, project leader and award-winning lighting designer. Their lighting design credits include Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Leeds Playhouse and HOME Manchester), Oh Mother (RashDash), The Enemy (National Theatre of Scotland), Look At Me, Don’t Look At Me (RashDash), Mrs Puntila and Her Man Matti (Edinburgh Lyceum), and Hole (Royal Court Theatre). 

Tom Wright has been a theatre director for over twenty years, productions include: The Water Engine (Theatre 503/Young Vic), The Container (Edinburgh Fringe, winner Fringe First and Amnesty International Award, revived at the Young Vic), Home Sweet Home (Freedom Studios, Albany and Arc), Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange (Freedom Studios), Handbagged (English Theatre of Frankfurt), WOKE (Little Mighty/West Yorkshire Playhouse/Royal Exchange) Two (Durham Gala), Teechers (Gala Theatre, Durham and York Theatre Royal) and two short operas in Selfridges’ shoe section (The Opera Group).

He trained as an assistant with the Young Vic, RSC and West Yorkshire Playhouse and has trained actors at Rose Bruford, Mountview, Guildhall and others, as well as running training programs for emerging directors, including a series of workshops for the Young Vic on the director-designer relationship. His work is dedicated to his mentor, Daisaku Ikeda.