An Introduction to Set & Costume Design for Young People

What does it take to bring drawings to life? Think Dame dresses, intricate sets, historical costume and anything you can dream of – expert Set and Costume Designer Heidi will take you through the process of designing for the stage in this two-hour creative workshop!

Meet Heidi McEvoy-Swift: Heidi is a freelance artist and designer. Her work is multi-disciplined, moving freely between theatre, education, participatory and fine-art. Her current practice uses costume related sewing skills to make mixed-media stitched vessels and artworks combining waste fabric or garments with organic matter. This work was exhibited in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex last summer, and most recently with the Suffolk Craft Society at the Guildhall.

Heidi worked for Theatre Royal BSE for ten years as the in-house costumier, designing, making and supervising all their costume requirements. Since leaving this role, Heidi gained an MA in Historical Costume, began exhibiting her artwork, and continued her theatre design work with full set and production work. During the past five years, she has designed A Christmas Carol (2021), Tuesday, Small Fry, Changing Rooms (2023) Second Person Narrative, and Kaspar the Wild (2024) for Theatre Royal and the Christmas production Staged Splendor for Ickworth House (2023). She has also designed and made costumes for other theatre companies in East Anglia. One of Heidi’s favourite jobs is making dame dresses, which she has done for the past fifteen of Theatre Royal’s pantomimes, including the most recent, Rapunzel, making the outfits for Rusty McBusty alongside its designer and creative team.