A trip backstage at the Royal Opera House

A group of 30 GDST sixth formers took at trip to The Royal Opera House backstage centre in Thurrock as part of our Insight Day programme.

The ROH education programme aims to inspire, support and develop learning and creativity.  The group had the opportunity to discover the fascinating world of the artists and craftspeople who make sets and costumes for productions at the world-famous Royal Opera House. We were taken on a very informative tour of the Bob and Tamar Manoukian Production Workshop and Costume Centre, seeing first hand a range of costumes, wigs and shoes designed and produced for various operas and ballets; we even saw Darcy Bussell’s hair piece!

The girls then had a taste of costume designing, with a brief of designing a costume for ‘Frankestein’ complete with fabric cut offs. To finish the wonderful day, the girls were then given a practical workshop on how to use theatre make up to create characters for operas and ballets. We had lots of fun using the make up, especially as our task was to make ourselves look as old as possible!

“It was great fun getting to know other people with the same interests as me.” – Rebecca Kent, Sydenham High School

Overall, we had a wonderful day exploring the design and backstage processes of the Royal Opera House.