Creative team
Paul Higgins, Director
Paul was the founding Artistic Director of the award-winning Theatre 503 in London. He has worked as Associate and Assistant Director in the West End and for Royal Shakespeare Company, Chichester Festival Theatre and Almeida Theatre. In opera he has worked as Revival and Assistant Director for Covent Garden, La Scala, Glyndebourne, Rome, Copenhagen, ENO, Seiji Ozawa Festival Japan, Paris, Luxembourg and Amsterdam. He has directed Carmen (Dorset Opera), Il barbiere di Sivilglia (Diva Opera), Madama Butterfly (Opera Holland Park), Così fan tutte (English Touring Opera), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Fulham Opera). Revival credits include L’elisir d’amore and Don Pasquale (Glyndebourne); Don Carlo, La bohème, Manon Lescaut, and La traviata (Royal Opera), Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Bordeaux, Tours and Klagenfurt). In 2017 he won Best Opera Production at the Off West End Awards for Così fan tutte (Kings Head Theatre, London) and his production of Stanford’s last opera The Travelling Companion for New Sussex Opera was nominated for Best Rediscovered Work at the International Opera Awards 2019. In October 2020 he directed his first short film based on the stories of Damon Runyon.
Harry Pizzey, Set and costume designer
Harry Pizzey is a set and costume designer based between Cardiff and London. After studying architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture he went on to graduate from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with a master’s degree in Design for Performance in 2019. In the same year he was also a finalist for the Linbury Prize for Stage Design working with Birmingham Royal Ballet as part of the competition. Whilst studying he collaborated with director, Polly Graham to design Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers at the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff. He is a creative associate of the Watermill Theatre and credits there include the recent stage adaptation of Brief Encounter. He has worked with companies such as English Touring Opera, Longborough Festival Opera and Gothic Opera and enjoys making work across a range of disciplines including opera, animation and installation.
Ali Hunter, Lighting designer
I am a freelance lighting designer working across theatre, dance and opera. I trained at RADA, gaining a distinction in the Post Graduate Diploma in Stage Electrics and Lighting Design. I frequently work on new writing and devised pieces, often being involved at an early stage to develop exciting high quality productions as part of a collaborative team. I am fluent in Spanish and French and hold a New Zealand passport so I can work in NZ and Australia visa free.