About Hugo.
Hugo is a Performance Designer, working across disciplines of set, lighting, and video design.
He trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, graduating in 2022 with an MA in Performance Design. Prior to his design training, Hugo received his BA (Hons) in Italian and History of Art from UCL in 2021, with the highest marked dissertation in his cohort, titled After Dark: Light as a Material for Placemaking. In 2019, Hugo spent a year working as an electrician and lighting design assistant at Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
Hugo likes to work in a collaborative and interdisciplinary way, often working across design disciplines and working closely with collaborators to find alternative ways of creating and making theatre. Much of his work uses technology as a tool for design and communication, and he is particularly interested in how creative technologies can enhance collaborative processes.
Hugo is based in Bristol, UK and is Resident Designer for Dark Skies Ensemble, a Bristol theatre company producing new writing for audiences in the South West and beyond.
CV.
CURRENT & UPCOMING
Set & Lighting Design | FRENCH TOAST | Riverside Studios | dir. Marianne Badrichani
2024
Set & Lighting Design | DEAR ANNIE, I HATE YOU | ZOO Playground | dir. James Meteyard
Lighting Design | THE VISIT | Embassy Theatre (RCSSD) | dir. Shani Erez & Morwenna Rowe
Lighting Design | ANGELS IN AMERICA | Tobacco Factory Theatre | dir. Stuart Wood
Set & Lighting Design | THE WHITE DEVIL | The Courtyard (RCSSD) | dir. Tom McClane
Lighting Design | DEAR YOUNG MONSTER | Bristol Old Vic Studio | dir. Sammy Glover
Set, Lighting, Costume & Video Design | HOW YOU DIED | Old Red Lion Theatre | dir. Ellie Jay Stevens
Lighting & Projection Design | THE LAST ONE | Arcola Studio 2 | dir. Imy Wyatt Corner
2023
Set & Lighting Design | MACHINAL | Embassy Theatre (RCSSD) | dir. Shani Erez & Anna Healey
Lighting Design | DARKNET | Tobacco Factory Theatre | dir. Jay Zorenti-Nakhid
Lighting & Projection Design | THE CHERRY ORCHARD | Tobacco Factory Theatre | dir. Stuart Wood
Set & Costume Design | HENRY V | Bristol Old Vic Studio | dir. Gemma Fairlie
2022
Lighting Design | BETWEEN THE ROOTS AND WINGS | The Courtyard (RCSSD) | dir. Martin Wylde & Rachel Wise
Lighting Design | BABYTALES | Bristol Old Vic Studio | dir. Lisa Gregan
Lighting Design | THE TELEPHONE / LA VOIX HUMAINE | Playground Theatre | dir. Benjamin Schilperoort
Lighting Design | MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN | Webber Douglas Studio (RCSSD) | dir. Shani Erez & Morwenna Rowe
Lighting Design | FAME WHORE | King’s Head Theatre | dir. Tom Ratcliffe
Lighting Design | SPOONS | Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Festival Fringe | dir. Paul Schlesinger
Lighting Design | THE STRONGEST GIRL IN THE WORLD | Alma Tavern and Theatre | dir. Lowri Mathias
Projection Design | YOUNG THEATRE MAKERS | Tobacco Factory Theatres | dir. Holly Meechan & Liz Felton
Lighting & Projection Design | LOAM | Bristol Old Vic Theatre | dir. Marcus Romer
Lighting Design | CATASTROPHE BAY | Bristol Old Vic Theatre | dir. Derek Bond
Set, Costume, Lighting & Video Design | GIRL IN THE MACHINE | Wardrobe Theatre | dir. Ellie Jay Stevens
Festival Lighting Rig Design | BOVTS DIRECTORS’ FESTIVAL | Wardrobe Theatre
Set & Lighting Design | THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT | The Station | dir. Nik Partridge
2021
Lighting Design | ROMEO AND JULIET | Redgrave Theatre | dir. Aaron Parsons
2019
Lighting Design | LITTLE LIGHT | Tower Theatre | dir. Shani Erez
Lighting Design | ILLUSION | Bloomsbury Theatre | dir. Mel John
2018
Lighting Design | NOT THE END OF THE WORLD | Cockpit Theatre | dir. Amy Reade & George Jibson
Lighting Design | SAINT JOAN | Bloomsbury Theatre | dir. Rosemary Moss
Lighting, Sound & Video Design | BODY SHOP | Greenside, Edinburgh Festival Fringe | dir. Florence Woolley
Lighting Design | EMPTY CHAIR | Pleasance Theatre and Duchess Theatre | dir. Seren John-Wood
Lighting Design | ELECTRA | Shaw Theatre | dir. Lovis Maurer
Lighting Design | BIRDLAND | Shaw Theatre | dir. Jamie Barker
2017
Lighting Design | AS YOU LIKE IT | RADA Studio | dir. Polly Creed
As an electrician, Hugo has worked on productions at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre, the egg, Bloomsbury Theatre, and productions in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons at Teatro alla Scala (including Rigoletto, Quartett, Giulio Cesare, Die ägyptische Helena, Giselle, Tosca, Il Trovatore, Roméo et Juliette).
Press.
DEAR ANNIE, I HATE YOU
★★★★
“Surrounded by the television screens and glowing cables of Hugo Dodsworth’s canny set design, Sam’s journey unfolds.”
★★★★
“[Sam Ipema] proves herself an assured performer taking us through her early life while home video clips appear on monitors linked by LED cables to mimic the synapses of the brain. It’s slick and dynamic, poignant and funny.”
- Susan Mansfield, The Scotsman
★★★★
“The staging is inventive, techno-fuelled and loaded with neurological symbolism. Flexible neon tube lights plug and unplug into retro TVs that balance atop white columns. They are intelligently programmed to change as Sam’s brain does, starting off bright and stable, then flickering and flashing as she re-learns the use of her bodily functions.”
★★★★★
“The performance space at Zoo Playground is quite compact and I’ve rarely seen such a modest stage used to such great effect […] The simple but utterly practical props work a treat, light cables pulsing and flashing to accentuate the action, and there’s one bit of business – which I won’t spoil – that actually makes me gasp out loud.”
HOW YOU DIED
★★★★★
“The set and lighting subtly convey the futuristic setting, whilst leaving ample space for the performances and writing to take centre stage. They gesture at a future where technology makes beyond the grave reunions possible, whilst keeping the drama focused on the characters.”
- Alastair Ball, Everything Theatre
★★★★
“Hugo Dodsworth’s minimalistic yet effective design gives the old attic-like stage at the Old Red Lion Theatre a sci-fi vibe. While vintage orange shades set the tone for the past, stark lighting yanks us back to the present…”
THE LAST ONE
★★★★
“I loved the use of sound and lighting throughout, which veered from a bright and breezy summer’s day to the dark and stormy days [and] helped in tying up the message regarding climate change.”
Henry V
“This cast looks very cool and au point fashion-wise, a band of raggle-taggle street brats whose style is a punky mash-up of Adam Ant, Sid Vicious/Vyv Basterd, Roxy Music lounge lizard, and Jean Paul Gaultier-meets-Jean Genet, with a touch of Rocky Horror thrown in. Bravo to designer Hugo Dodsworth for his amusing stylistic nods to all those sources.
The set too is worthy of a mention and pretty ornate for a studio production: we’re at the rumpside of a French meat market complete with a metal fire escape, steel beams and a graffitied roller shutter, which evokes the mean streets of NYC at the same time.”
Catastrophe bay
“Hugo Dodsworth[‘s lighting] delivers clarity while retaining that most precious commodity: not being too obvious while transforming the mood literally at the flick of a switch.”
Girl in the Machine
★★★★
“The machine has a personality […] and in Hugo Dodsworth’s clever set design we see it/him projected onto transparent gauze screens.”
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
“Mirrored blocks and strips of mobile lighting make up a clever set and lighting design from Hugo Dodswerth, that serve to shine a light and hold up a mirror to those of us watching on. We, of course, are the jury who sit in judgement as the perspectives of good and evil in scriptures are played out in front of us.”
