Katharine Heath
Katharine trained in Design for Performance at Wimbledon School of Art and Central Saint Martins. She designs Set and Costume for Theatre, Music and Opera and is drawn to unconventional and innovative forms of storytelling. Collaboration, play and experimentation are at the heart of Katharine’s work, entwining design with narrative from the start of the process.
Recent designs include: The Forest of Forgotten Discos, Contact Theatre; Bridges y Puentes, Ragroof Players; A Curious Quest, Punchdrunk Enrichment; The Hollow Hotel, DifferencEngine; The Isle of Brimsker, Frozen Light; This is Not a Safe Space, My Heart is Hitchhiking; Big Feast; You’ve Changed, Big Girl’s Blouse, Trans Creative; Princess Charming, Spun Glass, Cosi Fan Tutte, Bury Court Opera; The Redux Project, Richard Dedomenici, BAC/BBC; The Importance of Being Earnest, The Two Worlds of Charlie F, Theatre Royal Haymarket; Fire in the Machine, Sounds Like Chaos, Marylebone Gardens; Henry V, Shelf Life, Theatre Delicatessen.
Image credit: Stephen Dobbie/ Punchdrunk
Featured Work
A Curious Quest
A Curious Quest is a whole primary school, design–led show which tours without performers or technicians. A long-forgotten museum cabinet of lost and found historical artefacts is presented in assembly; each year group is allocated an exhibit to study. Year six research Folklore; a box enchanted with ancient Celtic magik to trap a mischievous sparrow-like sprite. Intrigued, they illicitly unlace it…Over the next three weeks the sprite comes alive through chalky scurried footprints, piles of rusty treasures, nests in books and technical wizardry. It is under threat, only the students’ exploration of local history can lure it to safety.
The manifestation of this character was a complete collaboration. Rather than traditional drawings and models, the design process utilised a series of prototypes. The creative team trialled how the sprite might move, the noises it makes, its reaction to fear, to create an awe-inspiring narrative through the smallest of objects.
