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Stage design is often a hidden art. While audiences marvel at the final grand result of an opera, few realize the months of drafting, sculpting, and building work that happen before opening night. Etienne Pluss is one of the opera world's most sought-after stage designers and a master of using physical spaces to tell deep, emotional stories. MELODRAMA caught up...

BY Louise Snouck
Date 01. June 2026
6 min. read

At nineteen, the Royal Central student Leo Simpe-Asante can already list his work as a composer, poet, playwright, and actor on his resume. He has been writing plays and musicals for ten years and as a self-professed "nerd," he shares that without a writing project to throw himself into, he would just be sat “twiddling his thumbs.” This relentless artistic...

BY Louise Snouck
Date 27. May 2026
5 min. read

Whether she is transforming actors into neon-hued trolls or mechanical dolls, the Berlin-based costume designer Teresa Vergho views the human body as a site of radical construction. Having collaborated with many of the most avant-garde directors of today—from Susanne Kennedy to Ersan Mondtag—Vergho’s work is a study in Tim Burton-meets-Bauhaus surreal eccentricity. Drawing from a lifelong fascination with everything from...

BY Louise Snouck Hurgronje
Date 30. April 2026
5 min.
Interviews

THE AUDIENCE SEES EVERYTHING: STAGE DESIGNER ETIENNE PLUSS ON VISUAL STORYTELLING

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

Stage design is often a hidden art. While audiences marvel at the final grand result of an opera, few realize the months of drafting, sculpting,...

THE AUDIENCE SEES EVERYTHING: STAGE DESIGNER ETIENNE PLUSS ON VISUAL STORYTELLING

LEO SIMPE-ASANTE: THE NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD UPDATING BECKETT

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

At nineteen, the Royal Central student Leo Simpe-Asante can already list his work as a composer, poet, playwright, and actor on his resume. He has...

LEO SIMPE-ASANTE: THE NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD UPDATING BECKETT

DESIGNER TERESA VERGHO’S NEON-HUED TROLLS AND MECHANICAL DOLLS

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

Whether she is transforming actors into neon-hued trolls or mechanical dolls, the Berlin-based costume designer Teresa Vergho views the human body as a site of...

DESIGNER TERESA VERGHO’S NEON-HUED TROLLS AND MECHANICAL DOLLS

CUTTING, ASSEMBLING, AND BUILDING WITH SET DESIGNER SABINE THEUNISSEN

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

For over two decades, the Belgian set and exhibition designer Sabine Theunissen has been the close collaborator of renowned South African artist William Kentridge. While...

CUTTING, ASSEMBLING, AND BUILDING WITH SET DESIGNER SABINE THEUNISSEN

FROM COLLAGE TO CREATURES: DESIGNER ANJA VANG KRAGH’S JEWEL BOX

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

From years spent working for John Galliano during his Christian Dior reign, to the hallowed stages of the Royal Opera House and the Royal Danish...

FROM COLLAGE TO CREATURES: DESIGNER ANJA VANG KRAGH’S JEWEL BOX

RAKIE AYOLA ON FINDING THE HUMOUR IN THE DARK

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

Rakie Ayola, a powerhouse of the British stage and screen, is barreling toward an ADR session in an Uber for a film she can’t quite...

RAKIE AYOLA ON FINDING THE HUMOUR IN THE DARK

QWEEN JEAN ON THE RADICAL SPIRIT OF CATS: THE JELLICLE BALL

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

The ecstatic, high-energy revival of Cats: The Jellicle Ball at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York reimagines the feline competition at the heart of the...

QWEEN JEAN ON THE RADICAL SPIRIT OF CATS: THE JELLICLE BALL

JOCELYN BIOH’S COMEDY TRAVELS (WELL) FROM HARLEM TO HAMMERSMITH.

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

At the London premiere of Jaja’s African Hair Braiding last week at the Lyric Hammersmith, the air was alight with shrieks and uninhibited, riotous laughter—the...

JOCELYN BIOH’S COMEDY TRAVELS (WELL) FROM HARLEM TO HAMMERSMITH.

SETTING THE SCENE WITH DESIGNER GARY MCCANN

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

From a childhood spent building worlds out of Lego in rural Ireland to designing for the historic stages of La Fenice and La Scala, set...

SETTING THE SCENE WITH DESIGNER GARY MCCANN

THEODORA SKIPITARES: THE PUPPET MASTER

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

Theodora Skipitares has spent forty years building a puppet population in New York City. Her work emerged from the 1970s feminist second wave, a time...

THEODORA SKIPITARES: THE PUPPET MASTER

WHITNEY WHITE’S THEATRICAL PILGRIMAGE

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

Theatre polymath and artistic force Whitney White spent the last month on a sort of pilgrimage to the "Holy Land" of theater makers. Otherwise known...

WHITNEY WHITE’S THEATRICAL PILGRIMAGE

The Ruffled Universe of Costumier Hannah Oellinger

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

Getting a peak into opera costumier Hannah Oellinger’s mind is a wondrous thing. In this conversation with Melodrama she shares how her imagination is fed...

The Ruffled Universe of Costumier Hannah Oellinger

“Oh—you’re still playing the clarinet?” Spotlight On Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

The young Armenian-American clarinetist Anoush Pogossian is at the start of her career, thinking carefully about who classical music is for. She is a fellow...

“Oh—you’re still playing the clarinet?” Spotlight On Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect

Downtown Theater’s Scott Shepherd on the Wild, Hilarious, and Lyrical beauty of James Joyce

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

Actor and practitioner Scott Shepherd has an “extreme‑sport attitude toward performance.” A beacon of The Wooster Group and Elevator Repair Service—experimental theatre ensembles known for...

Downtown Theater’s Scott Shepherd on the Wild, Hilarious, and Lyrical beauty of James Joyce

From Flash Mobs to Opera: Meet Colombian Soprano Julieth Lozano Rolong

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

Opera found Julieth Lozano Rolong by accident—and she followed it all the way from Colombian flash mobs to international stages. Calling in from rehearsals in...

From Flash Mobs to Opera: Meet Colombian Soprano Julieth Lozano Rolong

KEENAN TYLER OLIPHANT ON THE PROCESS OF DIRECTING

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

Keenan Tyler Oliphant is a theatre-maker and director from Cape Town, South Africa. Melodrama’s Kate Purdum recently spoke to Oliphant over the phone about his...

KEENAN TYLER OLIPHANT ON THE PROCESS OF DIRECTING

SAM PRITCHARD ON MYTHS OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A MAN

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

Sam Pritchard is a theatre director and the former Associate Director at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Most recently, he directed Romans: A Novel,...

SAM PRITCHARD ON MYTHS OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A MAN

SOUTRA GILMOUR IS INTERESTED IN HOW THEATRE FEELS IMMEDIATE AND CLOSE

from: Louise Snouck Hurgronje

Costume and set designer Soutra’s creative partnership with director-of-the-moment Jamie Lloyd has shaped some of the most talked-about productions of the past few years—Evita, Sunset...

SOUTRA GILMOUR IS INTERESTED IN HOW THEATRE FEELS IMMEDIATE AND CLOSE