JOSIE IRELAND

CREDITS            

    
LIGHTING  DESIGN
L’Olimpiade
Vache Baroque Opera
September 2024


Based on the story of the ‘Trial of the Suitors’ by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, it has all the materials necessary for a work of high drama – loyal friends, crossed lovers, secret backstories, deception, disguise, and possible ruin. For our 2024 Summer production, a cast of seven delivered the story through Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s thrilling Italian ariasand a newly-created English script by director Laura Attridge. In true VB Festival fashion the grounds became an extension of the stage, with sports-themed activities filling the hours before the main show. 

“Distinguishing it throughout is an innate grace, consistently captured in the airborne playing of the 15-strong Vache Baroque Band… Resounding under a dusky sky on a balmy evening, the period trumpets, horns and timpani offered a special thrill.”
Opera Magazine

Music Director: Jonathan Darbourne
Director: Laura Attridge
Designer: Caitlin Abbott
Lighting Designer: Josie Ireland

Movement Director: Ami Nagano
Associate Director: Rachel Wise
Associate Designer: Sophie Andrews
Associate Lighting Designer: Eli Hunt

Production Manager: Daniel Makharinsky
Production Assistants: Phil Clack, Phoebe Benson
Sound: Martin Audio

Photography: Michael Wheatley

Opera Makers
Milton Court Studio Theatre
June 2024



In the 10th year of Guildhall’s Opera Making & Writing course, First Year Opera Studies students showcased the debuts of three operas, interspersed with scenes from three Puccini works. Set on a composite traverse stage, designed to tell each story individually, the themes of grief, growing up, and angst were highlighted in a monochrome wilderness. Presented as part of Guildhall’s Making It Festival.

Featuring Snyder’s Casserole; Gardner’s Time and Tide; and De Somogyi’s Ursa Minor, and excerpts from Puccini’s La rondine; Turandot; and Edgar.

Director: Ashley Dean
Conductor: Dominic Wheeler
Designer: Louie Whitemore
Lighting Designer: Josie Ireland

Chief Electrician: Sam Bernstein
Production Electrician: Ethan Harris
Programmer: Tom Shackleton

Assistant Director: Laurie Slavin
Assistant Conductor: Alistair Burton

Photography: Zoë Birkbeck
Autumn Opera Scenes 2023
Silk Street Theatre
December 2023



An array of scenes from classical and contemporary operas, performed by First Year students of Guildhall’s Opera Studies course (Class of 2025). Taking place on a traverse stage in Guildhall’s Grade II Listed theatre for the first time, amongst debris and red bungee, the pieces centred around the idea of deceit and human cruelty, each in their own universe.

Featuring scenes from Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia; Berlioz’ Béatrice et Bénédict; Strauss’ Die Fledermaus; Bizet’s Carmen, Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel; Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro; Thomas’ Hamlet; Donizetti’s Don Pasquale; Debussy’s L’Enfant Prodigue; Puccini’s La Bohème; and Verdi’s Luisa Miller.

Director: Martin Lloyd-Evans
Music Director: Ashok Gupta
Designer: Nate Gibson
Lighting Designer: Josie Ireland
Sound Designer: Jan Robotycki

Production Electrician: Benjamin Yeo
Associate Production Electrician: Dan Basnett
Programmers: Dan Basnett, Linus Pomroy

Assistant Director: William Byram
Assistant Musical Director: Michael Rose

Photography: David Monteith-Hodge
Autumn Opera Scenes 2022
Milton Court Studio Theatre
December 2022


A selection of excerpts from classical and contemporary operas, performed by First Year students of Guildhall School of Music & Drama’s Opera Studies course (Class of 2024). Taking place on a traverse stage in a black box studio space, the set design was based within a decrepit mannequin factory, with action commenting on the patriarchal images of women often portrayed in opera. With support from Colour Sound Experiment for our hire of Astera Titan tubes to create a modern, industrial space that could transform across time periods. 

Featuring scenes from Mozart's Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte; Donizetti’s La Favorita; Janáček’s Jenůfa; Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande; Massenet’s Chérubin; Britten’s Albert Herring and Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites.
 
Director: Martin Lloyd-Evans
Music Director: Jonathon Swinard
Designer: Nate Gibson
Lighting Designer: Josie Ireland
Sound Designer: Nick Dyne

Production Electrician: James Calliss
Programmers: Sam Bernstein, Farah Ishaq

Assistant Director: Anne Sutton
Assistant Music Director: Marlowe Fitzpatrick

Photography: David Monteith-Hodge
SALT
Theatre503
September 2022



Save London, one drop at a time: Lewisham MP Alan Powell is the paragon of virtue, fighting to save the city in the midst of a water emergency and political storm. But when Alan dies unexpectedly, his three daughters (Rhu, Tess and Eve) must deal with his loss, legacy and the ever mounting London water shortage.

When their father’s murderer is found, the truth begins to leak and a conspiracy grows. Will this family stay together as the world around them changes?

Writer: Magdalene Bird
Director: Laura Clifford
Designer: Helen Hebert
Lighting Designer: Josie Ireland
Composer: Iris Jaouën

Photography: Edward Baxter
Sexquisite Presents: Impurity!
Bishopsgate Great Hall
May 2022



Inspired by real sex worker history from the Bishopsgate Institute archives, Sexquisite presented a cabaret show of multidisciplinary performances, with poetry, burlesque, dance, comedy, and more.

This show explored sex work through the ages - specifically how sex workers have been treated by the police, the media, and society over the years, exploring how sex workers have always existed at the mercy of legislation and public opinion, and still do.

Each academic term, Bishopsgate Institute collaborates with a university music or drama department, allowing artists to respond to the Grade II-listed space and their extensive archives to present unique pieces.
 
Artists: Maedb Joy, April Fiasco, Samantha Sun, Betty, Black Venus
Lighting Designer: Josie Ireland
Producers: Georgie Gwynne, Iona McTaggart
Stage Manager: Devon James-Bowen

Photography: Christa Holka
Ernest and the Pale Moon
March 2020





Inspired by the likes of Edgar Allan Poe and Alfred Hitchcock, ‘Ernest and the Pale Moon’ is a spinechilling tale of obsession and murder based upon a short story by Oliver Lansley about a man who spends his days watching the beautiful young woman who lives in the apartment block opposite.

This production took excerpts from the play and placed them in a pollution-plagued urban landscape, with marionette-like movement to the beat of a metronome.

Performers: Charlotte Armitage, Mariam Mikeladze, Juliette West
Lighting & Set Designer: Josie Ireland

Photography: Josie Ireland
Porphyria
October 2019




This devised piece follows Tom as he recounts his love story with his ‘Porphyria’, shown through poetic flashbacks. The parley between Tom’s past & present reaches a climax when ‘Porphyria’ wakes to find Tom in her apartment, and his illusion is shattered, for she has no idea who he is. In an effort to preserve his ‘perfect’ love story, Tom kills her and sits in silence with her body.

Be sure I looked up at her eyes
       Happy and proud; at last I knew
Porphyria worshipped me; surprise
       Made my heart swell, and still it grew
       While I debated what to do.
That moment she was mine, mine, fair,
       Perfectly pure and good: I found
A thing to do, and all her hair
       In one long yellow string I wound
       Three times her little throat around,
And strangled her. No pain felt she;
       I am quite sure she felt no pain.
- Excerpt of Porphyria’s Lover, Robert Browning

Writer: Charlotte Armitage
Performers: Charlotte Armitage, Mariam Mikeladze, Juliette West
Lighting & Video Designer: Josie Ireland

Photography: Josie Ireland

Legally Blonde
June 2019




A classically camp, all-female production of the teen classic, staged exactly as you’d expect it. Follow Elle Woods as she unexpectedly finds her calling at Harvard University. By staying true to herself and disregarding the expectations and biases of others, she thrives under pressure and makes a name for herself outside of her college sorority status.

In only 2 weeks, this production went from its first rehearsal to opening night. This production’s creative team, cast, band, and production crew were all comprised entirely of students.

Directors: Olivia Blythe, Mhairi Forgan, Charlotte Armitage
Costume Design: Phoebe Menges, Maddie Wakefield
Technical Director & Designer: Josie Ireland
Technical Supervisor: Lewis Logan-Fowler

Photography: Laura Hirons