Biography

Sophia Lovell Smith studied Theatre Arts at Bretton Hall and designs for theatre, opera, dance and interactive performance for children.

Recent designs inc. work with Polka Theatre Hatch, Operation Magic Carpet, Property of Polka, Spitalfields Music Musical Rumpus Programme, inc. Catch A Sea Star, Run Rindle Rill, The Fairy Queen, Opera Up Close Peace At Last; Southbank Centre A Child’s Guide To Brutalism, Barbican & ZArts Sponge; Trestle Theatre Rachel, Tonight we Fly, Royal & Derngate Theatres, Flathampton, Waves, Theatre by the Lake seasons inc. The Caretaker, Hello & Goodbye, Flame, The Bogus Woman, Crucible & The Fingersmiths My Mother Said I Never Should; Unicorn The Snow Queen, plus shows for Royal Opera House, Regents Open Air Park Theatre, Theatre Rites, Kali, English Touring Opera, Full House, Theatre Centre, GLYPT, alongside other theatre, education and community projects.

Rachel is a full mask, devised performance for theatres and schools based on Rachel Levy’s memories of loss and survival. Rachel has told the story of her Jewish family life in a village in the Carpathian Mountains and their subsequent deportation to Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen concentration camps. Rachel has always said that her survival from these horrific experiences was a miracle and feels strongly, that her story should be told to younger generations. The production emerged from a relationship with The National Holocaust Museum, Laxton and Lewisham Council, funding memorial Holocaust workshops in schools.

Rachel is the work of a personal testimony, of experiences that have a huge impact. Our masks, like the Classical Greek chorus although half mask and text take on the enormous psychological scale of momentous experiences. It has been a fascinating process as designer to decide to use full masks to convey the human trauma, a personal thread for a monumental historical narrative and bridging two companies, Small Nose’s clowning with Trestle’s masks.