JOSIE IRELAND

CREDITS            

    
LIGHTING  DESIGN
Orphée
Buxton International Festival
July 2025



A revival of Vache Baroque’s production of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s ‘La Descente D’Orphee Aux Enfers’. Performed this time in the Pavilion Arts Centre for Buxton International Festival, this production was originally staged for Vache Baroque’s summer festival in 2023.

One of Charpentier’s shortest chamber operas, it is unclear whether he left this intentionally unfinished or if the third act was lost/never written. As such, the production finishes with Pluton granting Euridice back to Orphée, with conditions.

“[The team] create a staging with lots going on, and yet nothing distracts from the words, music and storytelling” - Opera Critic

Music Director: Jonathan Darbourne
Director: Jeanne Pansard-Besson
Choreographer: Simeon Qsyea
Designer: Laura Jane Stanfield
Lighting Designer: Andrew Ellis
Revival Lighting Designer: Josie Ireland

Assistant Director: Finn Lacey
Stage Manager: Rebekah Tunnel

Photography: Genevieve Girling

Dream Lovers
Stanley Arts
February 2025



Performed in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s home of Norwood, this Valentine’s adaptation of his romantic opera played with gendered roles and high camp. Sung in English, and interspersed with pieces from ‘Five Fairy Ballads’ and ‘Six Sorrow Songs’, this production aimed to make opera accessible to the local community. 

This one-act celebration of love was incredibly well-received by audiences. It was the first professional staging of ‘Dream Lovers’ since its premiere in Croydon in 1898.

The Reviews Hub

Music Director: Michael Rose
Director: William Byram
Designer: Jennifer Gregory
Lighting & Video Designer: Josie Ireland
Projection Artist: Laura Migliorino

Associate Director: Laurie Slavin
Stage Manager: Jan Robotycki

Photography: David Monteith-Hodge

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 arias and 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