fresh voices in the art of stage design

The Wimbledon College of Arts is a member of the University of Arts London collective, which includes prestigious design schools like Central St. Martins and the London College of Fashion. Wimbledon College of Arts specialises in set and costume design for theatre and production, and its Graduate Showcase is on at venues around the city.

Doyeon Kim's design for Foucault's Heterotopia
at Kings Cross Station

wonder | wander | women are suckers for stage design, and the student display at Cannon Street Station caught our eye. 

Zhen Meng's proposal for Mozart's The Magic Flute

Many of the proposed productions were some of our favourite works. This design for the Mozart opera The Magic Flute is set at Regent Park's open-air theatre.

Zhen Meng designed a geometric stage based on Freemason symbolism to contrast with the natural shapes of the park greenery and echo the rhythmic, fable-like themes of the opera.

Shiyu Deng's design for Alice in Wonderland

Shiyu Deng created an interactive experience of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, using the UCCA Dune Art Museum in China as a proposed space. The audience is meant to move through several stages in no particular order, changing the story as they experience it.

The sets and costumes are influenced by historical Chinese costume, pop culture, and the original story's Victorian fairytale aesthetic.

Simon Fraser's design for Swan Lake
at the London Coliseum

Simon Fraser took Tschaikovsky's classic Swan Lake ballet and created a modern gothic environment. The   swan costumes are based on anatomical drawings in the style of David Bainbridge.

Huazheng Qi's design for Into the Woods
at the Lyceum Theatre

Huazheng "Watson" Qi's proposal for Into the Woods by Sondheim took heavy inspiration from Salvador Dali and the darker works of Van Gogh.

Yuetong Zhao's design for the Nutcracker
at The Tanks, Tate Modern 

Yuetong Zhao's whimsical design for Tschaikovsky's Nutcracker imagines a show where audience and performers mix, with sofas and scattered seating and a dreamlike, fairytale space.

Alex Morgan's design for Borges' The Aleph

There were also submissions for more modern stories, like Alex Morgan's retelling of Jorge Luis Borges's short story The Aleph set in 1940s Buenos Aires, or Youkang Cao's David Hockney-inspired sets for Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis and Cleansed.

Youkang Cao's design for 4.48 Psychosis

It was fascinating to see the wild imagination and concepts of the next generation of theatre designers. As lifelong fans of theatre, we look forward to experiencing these ideas in the future.