Alison Chitty trained at St Martin's School of Art and at Central School of Art and Design. She won an Arts Council bursary to the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent, where she became Resident Designer for seven years and designed over 40 productions. In 1979 she returned to London to work at the Hampstead Theatre, Riverside Studios, Royal Shakespeare Company and in the West End.She was resident designer at the Royal National Theatre for eight years. Her work there has included "A Month in The Country", "Don Juan", "Much Ado About Nothing", "The Prince of Homburg", "Danton's Death", "Major Barbara", "Kick for Touch", "Venice Preserv'd" (British Drama Award), "Tales From Hollywood", "Antigone", "Remembrance of Things Past" (Olivier Award for Best Costume Designer), and "Fool for Love" which transferred to the West End, and "Luther". She received Olivier Award nominations for "She Stoops To Conquer" and "Martine". She also designed Sir Peter Hall's productions of "Antony and Cleopatra", the late Shakespeares. Other work with Sir Peter Hall includes "Orpheus Descending" (Haymarket and Broadway) and "The Rose Tattoo" (Playhouse).
Alison has designed numerous opera productions in the UK and around the world, including: "The Marriage of Figaro" (Opera North); "New Year" (Houston Grand Opera and Glyndebourne); "Gawain", "Arianna", "The Bartered Bride" (Royal Opera House Covent Garden); "Falstaff" (Göteborg); "Jenufa" (Dallas); "Billy Budd" (Geneva, Royal Opera: Olivier Award, Best Opera Production 1995; Paris: Best Opera Production 1996; Dallas; Houston; Los Angeles); "Blonde Eckbert" (Santa Fe); "Khovanshchina" (English National Opera: Olivier Award, Best Opera Production 1994); "Modern Painters" (Santa Fe); "Die Meistersinger" (Copenhagen); "Turandot" (Paris); "Der Fliegender Holländer", "Giulio Cesare" (Bordeaux); "Tristan und Isolde" (Chicago and Seattle); "Otello" (Munich), "Dialogue des Carmelites" (Santa Fe); "Aïda" (Geneva), "The Last Supper" (Staatsoper Berlin and Glyndebourne); "La Vestale" (ENO).
Her production designs include several Mike Leigh films, including "Life Is Sweet", "Naked" and "Secrets and Lies", winner of the Palm d'Or at Cannes and Academy Award Nominee for Best Picture.
Alison Chitty has advised on the design and construction of theatre buildings in Stoke-on-Trent, Delhi and Johannesburg.
She is a frequent lecturer and advisor in theatre design, and is director of the Motley Theatre Design School, an independent and internationally renowned post-graduate course.
Recent new productions include "Bacchai" at the RNT and Epidaurus directed by Sir Peter Hall, "Cavalleria Rusicana" and "I Pagliacci" at the Royal Albert Hall and the Peter Gill Festival in Sheffield.