Cardamon Buns & Winding Drums: Royal Danish Theatre Upgrade Reflections

I walk my normal route back from the grid, my favourite route, past the costume department, along the long corridors covered in posters from shows long before I was born. I can't help but look in through the large glass windows as I walk past, all the busy hands creating beautiful items, everyone obsessing over their craft.

Further down the corridor I pass a group of ballet dancers hurrying to their rehearsal, followed by a group of set designers holding stacks of sketches and models.

I find my seat next to the coffee machine, the early evening Danish sunlight streaming through the skylights, the corridors bathed in piano music from a far-off dance rehearsal.

These tranquil moments between busy days commissioning and late night testing give me time to reflect on all of the brilliant people we cross paths with as part of our work and reinforce just how far reaching the effort is which makes shows possible. My role as a Stage Engineering Designer is given total context in this one short journey through the Royal Danish Theatre Gamle Scene.

We were there having designed a complete stage machinery refurbishment and control upgrade, having navigated many challenges including heritage revolves from the 19th Century and some very constrained machinery spaces and structural conditions.

Walking into the grid for our first commissioning visit was an immensely rewarding moment, seeing the results of our work and all the details we had obsessed over from our desks in London materialised, in this theatre with so much history and such a collection of creative individuals within its walls.

Knowing that our designs will be part of this theatre now and into the future is an amazing outcome of what we get to do, leaving our own breadcrumb trail of design and innovation in the spaces we get to work in.

As a designer, my driving force is bringing ideas and concepts into existence, solving complex problems with elegant and beautiful solutions. Therefore, the opportunity to do this in some of the most prestigious theatres around the world for my work is a constant source of excitement, satisfaction and pride.