Performance Designers To Represent UK At Prague Quadrennial Before Display At V&A

Every four years the Society of British Theatre Designers represents the work of performance designers based in the UK at the largest scenography event in the world. This year the process has been redesigned as a digital submission to encourage set, costume, lighting, sound, video and experiential designers across every genre of performance design including theatre, opera, dance, live art, circus, carnival and outdoor festivals to apply.

• Designers can submit work from up to three different productions realised between 2015-2019
• Submissions will make up an online gallery showcasing the extraordinary breadth of theatre design talent in the UK today
• 12 pieces of design will be selected to appear at the Prague Quadrennial
• A further selection of work will then be displayed in the Theatre & Performance Galleries at the V&A from 24th July 2019 to 5th January 2020

'Let's put it like this, when you go to a concert and you take the picture in the middle of the show, are you taking a picture of the music or are you taking a picture of the stage?' Tupac Martir, Satore Studio

STAGING PLACES is a four-part initiative by the Society of British Theatre Design, beginning this January with applications opening to submit design work created between 2015 and 2019. Every designer who submits will have an example of their work shown in the online Staging Places exhibition, with 12 selected designs to be shown at the Prague Quadrennial in June and a further selection to be presented at the V&A museum in London from July 2019. Staging Places will also be hosting a series of regional events across the UK to engage with designers across a diverse range of media, many of whom may not yet consider themselves as performance designers. Key themes for 2019 are Design Creation, Design Realisation, Design Futures and Designers Taking the Lead.

Fiona Watt, Honorary Secretary for SBTD and the project curator said, Staging Places will celebrate the work of performance designers and makers based in the UK. Performance Designers are 21st century polymaths with a global reach, we invent imaginary worlds and extraordinary environments in the staging places we call theatres and in the ones we don't. In a diverse, multi-cultural visual age, we are the storytellers now. Our work exists on your blog, in your Twitter feed, your Instagram, your Facebook, your Tumblr, your Flickr, your You Tube channel and your livestream. Staging Places aims to celebrate the diversity of performance design and making practices today and to inspire young people to invent it for the future.

The Society of British Theatre Designers is an organisation for designers, run by designers. Founded in 1975, they represent UK designers nationally and internationally by mounting exhibitions, promoting awareness of theatre and performance design, contributing to design education opportunities and acting as a hub for the sharing of information and communication between members. They are the rst point of communication in the UK for the international scenographic community, and for International companies seeking professional designers. SBTD have 3.1k members to their Facebook group and full society members include the multi Olivier award winning Bunny Christie. This year is set to be an important one for SBTD as they continue their Value of Design campaign with Equity and BECTU to promote increased understanding of the design process, better working practices and employment structures, improved credit and visibility for stage design work in the media leading to the renegotiations of the UK Theatre and SOLT collective agreements.

The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space is the largest scenography event in the world. It explores a huge diversity of scenographic practice, from stage and costume, lighting, sound and digital media design, to landscape, urban and found space performance, as well as the design of performance spaces and theatre architecture. In previous years SBTD have presented work by Ralph Koltai, Paul Brown, Leslie Travers, Es Devlin and Gary McCann. The 14th edition of PQ will be held in June 2019.

The Victoria and Albert Museum is the world's leading museum of art and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.3 million objects that span over 5,000 years of human creativity. The museum holds many of the UK's national collections and houses some of the greatest resources for the study of architecture, furniture, fashion, textiles, photography, sculpture, painting, jewellery, glass, ceramics, book arts, Asian art and design. The Theatre & Performance collections at the V&A are an incredible resource that document current practice and the history of all areas of performing arts in the UK, including drama, dance, opera, circus, puppetry, comedy, musical theatre, costume, set design, pantomime and popular music.

Photo credit: AriadneAufNaxos - Designer Gary McCann, Nederlandse Reisopera 3, 4. Photos by Marco Borggreve, directed by Laurence Dale, lighting Thomas Hase

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