Set designer · Leeds, West Yorkshire

Set designer for theatre, opera & dance

A model box is exact at 1:25 — until it meets a door that doesn’t scale. A 1:25 model box draws the shape of a set with no penalty at all — card doesn’t hit door frames. The built piece has to pass through a real venue’s real dock door, on a fixed day, or it gets designed from the outset to strike down into sections that do.

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An empty stage set with a table and chairs beneath a tall painted window, lit in cold blue from above

Shape first, colour second

The model box

Every design starts as a white card model at a fixed British convention: 1:25 scale. A director approves the shape of a scene — sightlines, entrances, the scale of one room against another — before colour or texture enters the conversation. Once the shape is signed off, the same model is rebuilt in full paint and texture as the final model.

White card to final model

An abstract white architectural model made of curved card strips on a wooden base, shown against a plain background — **White card model** Shape only — no colour, no texture, nothing to distract from whether the staging works.

A detailed, fully painted miniature model of a town with trees, a fountain and tiny figures — **Final model** Rebuilt in full paint and texture once the white card is signed off — the reference every later decision is checked against.

A pair of hands working on a paper craft project on a cutting mat, surrounded by pencils and tools — **Model-making** Card, scalpel and cutting mat — the same tools whether the model is a white card block or the final paint.

The convention this whole page runs on: an 8 cm doorway in the model box reads as a 2 m doorway once it’s built.

Glossary

White card model: The first model box built, in plain white card only — shape and proportion for a director to approve before colour or texture enters the conversation.
Final model: The fully painted, textured 1:25 model built once the white card is signed off — the reference every paint, prop and lighting decision is checked against.
Ground plan: The scaled overhead drawing of the set on the stage floor — every flat, truck and masking leg positioned against the venue’s own stage dimensions.
Get-in: The day (and the loading-dock door) a production’s scenery physically enters the receiving venue — a fixed width and height every truck, flat and frame has to clear.
Fit-up: The period after get-in spent flying, levelling and rigging the set inside the venue, before technical rehearsals begin.
Sightline / C-value: The vertical clearance, in millimetres, between one row’s line of sight and the head of the person in the row in front — the geometry that confirms the worst seat can still see the stage floor.
Strike: Dismantling the set at the end of a run, usually overnight, so the stage and the get-in dock are clear for the next production.

The axis this page runs on

Model to stage

A model box has no opinion about whether a piece fits through a door. Nidderdale Theatre’s own published technical specification states its dock door at 3.0 m × 1.8 m, with a 1.22 m drop to street level. Every set piece for La Bohème at Nidderdale Theatre was checked against that one fixed opening before a saw was switched on.

Set piece, model measurement, built dimension at 1:25, venue dock door, verdict
Set piece	Model (×25)	Built	Nidderdale Theatre dock door	Verdict
Garret flat run (Act 1)	10.8 cm (width)	2.70 m	3.0 m × 1.8 m	Passes assembled — under the 3.0 m dock width
Café frontage truck (Act 2)	13.6 cm (width)	3.40 m	3.0 m × 1.8 m	Struck to two bolt-together sections for the get-in
Rooftop snow rostrum (Act 3)	7.6 cm (height)	1.90 m	3.0 m × 1.8 m	Legs removed for transit — 190 cm assembled exceeds the 1.8 m dock height
Cyclorama frame	14.4 cm (width)	3.60 m	3.0 m × 1.8 m	Built in two sections — 360 cm assembled exceeds the 3.0 m dock width

Every flat, truck and rostrum in the ground plan above is drawn against this one fixed opening — Nidderdale Theatre’s own get-in door, published at 3.0 m wide.

Close-up of a band saw cutting a block of wood, with a hand steadying the timber — **Build** Every set piece checked in the table above is built from the working drawings before it ever reaches the dock door.

A closed loading-dock door with a rubber weather seal, warning signage and a traffic-light indicator beside it — **Get-in** A receiving venue's dock door doesn't negotiate — every truck, flat and frame passes through it, undamaged, on a fixed day.

The second geometry check

Sightlines

A raked rostrum or a low set piece is checked against a C-value — the vertical clearance between one row’s line of sight and the head of the person in the row in front — to confirm the worst seat in the house can still see the stage floor at the depth the set requires. It’s checkable geometry, not a design platitude, and it’s why a set’s ground-level detail sometimes has to be raised onto a rostrum rather than left flat.

Worked example

For the worst-affected row — seated eye height 1.15 m, a 300 mm rise over the row in front, checking a floor-level detail 4 m beyond it — a flat piece returns a C-value of -86 mm: blocked. Raised on an 800 mm rostrum, the same line clears by 61 mm, above the 60 mm figure UK guidance commonly treats as a practical working minimum.

Flat, the sightline to the stage floor runs 86 mm below the head in front — blocked. Raised on an 800 mm rostrum, the same line clears by 61 mm, above the 60 mm figure UK guidance commonly treats as a practical working minimum.

An empty, ornately decorated theatre auditorium with rows of red velvet seats facing a lit stage — **The house** Every sightline check starts from the worst seat the venue actually sells, not the best one.

Six productions, and how this practice works

Selected productions

Regional reps, an opera transfer and a dance commission — six productions with full credits, plus three practice notes on training, representation and recognition.

Opera · 2023

La Bohème

The flagship of this page’s arithmetic — a touring transfer whose garret, café frontage and rooftop snow rostrum all had to pass through Nidderdale Theatre’s own dock door on a fixed get-in day. See “Model to stage” and “Build & get-in schedule” below.

Director: Thomas Redfearn
Lighting: Priya Manku
Costume: Sable Winstanley
Venue: Nidderdale Theatre, Harrogate
Run: 14–28 October 2023

‘Osei’s garret is a masterclass in scale — you believe every draughty inch of it.’ — Priya Whitlock, Aire & Calder Review

A worn pair of pale pink ballet pointe shoes with ribbons, resting against a mirrored wall

Dance · 2022

The Nutcracker

A dance commission — the Land of Snow built as a raked rostrum deck, checked against the house’s own sightlines so the corps stays visible from the last row of the circle.

Director: Anke Solberg
Lighting: Connor Aldous
Costume: Freya Lindqvist
Venue: Bridgewater Theatre, Halifax
Run: 6–31 December 2022

‘The Land of Snow arrives on a rake so cleanly built the dancers never once glance down.’ — Callum Ashworth, West Riding Stage Review

A dimly lit, cavernous empty theatre interior with exposed roof trusses, a rigging grid and a red curtain at the far end

Theatre · 2021

Much Ado About Nothing

A Sicilian villa courtyard built from three reversible flats and a single ground row — a mid-scale regional rep budget stretched by reusing the same flats as the garden and the church interior.

Director: Priya Chandaria
Lighting: Owen Fairweather
Costume: Naledi Osafo
Venue: Kirkgate Playhouse, Wakefield
Run: 3–24 July 2021

‘A Sicilian villa built from three flats and real conviction.’ — Nadia Pemberton, Northern Arts Bulletin

Warm festoon string lights strung along a market stall awning, glowing against a dark evening sky

Theatre · 2020

The Frost Fair

A new family-friendly Christmas commission — a market-square set strung with practical festoon lighting, built to strike into a bare stage within the venue’s single overnight changeover.

Director: Callum Nesbitt
Lighting: Hana Vermeulen
Costume: Robyn Iqbal
Venue: West Riding Playhouse, Leeds
Run: 21 November 2020 – 5 January 2021

‘The market square set is as much a character as anyone in the cast.’ — Elias Thorncroft, Dales Cultural Digest

A large, dark storm cloud moving across the sky over open water, with a break of pale light at the horizon

Theatre · 2019

The Tempest

A shipwreck rendered as a single raked deck and a flown cyclorama, with no literal ship at all — the storm carried entirely by lighting and the rake underfoot.

Director: Marguerite Fenwick
Lighting: Aidan Okoye
Costume: Imogen Radley
Venue: Dovecote Theatre, York
Run: 12 September – 3 October 2019

‘A shipwreck rendered with more restraint, and more menace, than the play usually gets.’ — Ffion Radcliffe, Pennine Stage Notes

A horse and carriage outlined entirely in warm fairy lights, glowing in a dark garden setting

Theatre · 2018

Cinderella

A family Christmas production built around one practical effect: a pumpkin coach that opens out from a flown truck in full view, rigged to a strict eight-second cue.

Director: Joseph Okonkwo
Lighting: Delphine Marsh
Costume: Robyn Iqbal
Venue: Sable Row Theatre, Sheffield
Run: 8 December 2018 – 12 January 2019

‘The pumpkin coach’s transformation drew an audible gasp from the stalls.’ — Judith Okwuosa, White Rose Theatre Quarterly

Training

Training & background

Trained on the Motley Theatre Design Course, London, before six years assisting resident designers at mid-scale regional reps — the model-box discipline on this page is that apprenticeship’s habit, not a marketing device.

Representation

Commissioning enquiries that need to go through an agency are handled by Ridgeway Creative Management; most bookings, in practice, come direct — see Contact below.

Recognition

The white card model for La Bohème was selected for the Northern Stage Design Show, Leeds, in 2023 — a regional showcase, not a national award, and named here as exactly that.

Every credit, in one table

Production history

Production, venue, director and year, for every production named on this page.

Production, venue, director, year
Production	Venue	Director	Year
La Bohème	Nidderdale Theatre, Harrogate	Thomas Redfearn	2023
The Nutcracker	Bridgewater Theatre, Halifax	Anke Solberg	2022
Much Ado About Nothing	Kirkgate Playhouse, Wakefield	Priya Chandaria	2021
The Frost Fair	West Riding Playhouse, Leeds	Callum Nesbitt	2020
The Tempest	Dovecote Theatre, York	Marguerite Fenwick	2019
Cinderella	Sable Row Theatre, Sheffield	Joseph Okonkwo	2018

Press

Press quotes on this page are placeholder copy — plausible but entirely fictional, attributed to invented regional arts titles, never to a real critic or outlet. See /design/.

‘Osei designs like someone who has actually stood in the loading dock.’ — Marcus Hallewell, Ridings Arts Weekly

‘Regional theatre’s model boxes rarely reward close looking. Hers do.’ — Sinead Corcoran, Moorland Culture Post

Research to strike, in the order it happens

Process

Ten stages, from the first read of the text or score to the set coming back out through the dock door it went in through.

Research Reading the text or score, gathering period and place reference, and a first conversation with the director about the world of the production.
White card model A plain card 1:25 model exploring the shape of the design — no colour, no texture, nothing to distract from whether the staging works.
Director / production-manager sign-off The white card presented against the budget and the venue’s own stage dimensions — the shape is approved, or sent back, before any colour work starts.
Final model The white card rebuilt in full paint and texture at the same 1:25 scale — the reference the workshop, the paint frame and the props table all build against.
Working drawings Ground plans, elevations and paint elevations, dimensioned in full scale from the final model, issued to the workshop.
Build Flats, trucks, rostra and the cyclorama frame built from the working drawings at the workshop.
Paint Scenic paint and ageing applied on the paint frame, checked against the final model under work light.
Get-in & fit-up Scenery trucked to the venue, unloaded through its dock door and rigged, levelled and flown on stage.
Technical rehearsals Cue-to-cue and full runs with lighting, sound and the full creative team, in the venue, on the built set.
Strike The set dismantled at the end of the run and trucked back out through the same dock door.

Build & get-in schedule

The full build, get-in, fit-up and technical schedule for La Bohème at Nidderdale Theatre, 14–28 October 2023.

Stage, timing, detail
Stage	Timing	Detail
Build	Weeks 1–5	Flats, trucks and the cyclorama frame built at the workshop from the working drawings.
Paint	Week 5	Scenic paint and ageing applied on the paint frame, checked against the final model under work light.
Get-in	Day 1, 08:00–18:00	Trucks unloaded through Nidderdale Theatre’s 3.0 m × 1.8 m dock door; sectioned pieces re-bolted on stage.
Fit-up	Days 1–2	Cyclorama rigged and flown, rostra levelled and legged, masking hung.
Technical rehearsal	Days 2–3	Cue-to-cue with lighting, sound and the full creative team.
Dress rehearsal	Day 3, evening	Full run in venue conditions, on the built set.
Strike	Closing night, post-show	Set struck and trucked out through the same dock door within the venue’s overnight changeover window.

A range, not a false-precise figure

Fees

Design fees for a mid-scale regional production typically sit between £3,000 and £9,000, depending on the scope of the build — a handful of flats and a ground row reads very differently to a full rostra-and-cyclorama build — and on the rehearsal-period length. A touring production or an opera transfer sits toward the top of that range, or above it.

Where a production subsequently transfers, a further royalty is agreed at that point, following the banding set out in UK Theatre’s designer agreements — not a single figure quoted up front, because the terms of a transfer aren’t settled until there is one to transfer.

No fixed day rate or flat project fee is published here for the same reason a model box doesn’t state a venue’s dock-door width: the honest number depends on a scope this page can’t see yet.

Leeds, on purpose

About Elspeth Osei

Elspeth Osei works as a freelance set designer from Leeds — home to Leeds Playhouse, Opera North and Northern Ballet, one of the few UK cities with a producing house, an opera company and a dance company all based in the same postcode. A member of the Society of British Theatre Designers, work spans mid-scale regional reps, an opera transfer and a dance commission, deliberately not solely London’s commercial West End.

Elspeth is currently in early design for a not-yet-announced production with a regional receiving house — its dates aren’t settled by the producing theatre yet, so it’s described here in prose only, not marked up as a scheduled event.

Training & background

Trained on the Motley Theatre Design Course, London, before six years assisting resident designers at mid-scale regional reps — the model-box discipline on this page is that apprenticeship’s habit, not a marketing device.

A spiral-bound sketchbook of pencil design drawings, resting on a grey fabric surface beside two pencils — **Sketchbook** Every production starts on paper, before it starts in card.

Start a conversation

Contact

LinkedIn is fastest for a first message; email works too. Producers commissioning through an agent can reach Elspeth via Ridgeway Creative Management. There’s no form here — just say what you’re building.

Message on LinkedIn landix.ninal@gmail.com

Agent enquiries: Ridgeway Creative Management, landix.ninal@gmail.com