By Dulcie Johnson and Francesca Leonard, Drama Reps

On Wednesday the 24th of February, this year we were lucky enough to hear the incredible Lizzie Clachan talk about all things set design.

I came onto the call, sceptical about how the talk would work virtually, however it was an amazing experience that was made even better by having Sixth Form Drama and Theatre A Level students from both NHEHS and Waldegrave School, as well as keen Year 11 A Level pupils from both schools able to listen and ask questions.

After reading Lizzie’s incredible resume and getting a sense of her body of design work in both theatre and opera spanning a brilliant and global career over the past 26 years, we were all full of questions and the discussion went on for over two and a half hours. Lizzie’s minimalistic and striking design featured last year during the pandemic, when the Donmar Warehouse was one of the only theatres in the country to open its doors to theatre goers on a socially distanced level to stage a dramatic installation of an adaption by Simon Stephens of Jose Saramago’s novel Blindness, with incredible binaural sound by the Ringham Brothers. Ms Moore was lucky enough to bear witness to this installation and was left feeling deeply moved by the experience of togetherness through separation at a time when there has been so little opportunity to experience the creative arts.

Something that Lizzie discussed that was particularly pertinent to our A level class was about her work on Yerma, After Lorca. Her work was described as ‘magician- like’, by the production’s director Simon Stone, and I think Lizzie is just that – a weaver of magic, whose imagination knows no bounds, as proven by the multiple lessons spent discussing and trying to figure out the technicalities of the set design within Yerma, which luckily, she revealed to us! I think everyone left the call feeling inspired and ready to act which is an amazing feat on a virtual call. This talk was a fun and exciting way to experience what a real-life theatre maker does and how she got to where she is.

Thank you, Lizzie!!