5 – 15 September

From Thursday the third World Stage Design will open in Cardiff, previously hosted in Toronto in 2005 and in Seoul in 2009.   Increased from 3 days to 10 days this is a really significant event in the theatre calendar, and huge thumbs up for Cardiff and the team at RWCMD.

Firstly check out the What’s On page http://www.wsd2013.com/whatson/ this lists everything that is going on, and there is lots for everyone.

Some of the highlights for me are:      

The Design Exhibition from over 100 international designers that will run from 8^th 14^th.  

http://www.wsd2013.com/exhibition/

This is the heart of the event – check out the list of exhibitors

http://www.wsd2013.com/exhibition/exhibitors-2/

The Theatre Architecture Seminar organised by Tim Foster and the OISTAT Architecture Committee – this whole day will look not just at buildings but most relevantly for NTW, also at temporary and provisional theatre spaces.   One of the speakers is Rob Firman who has just produced ‘Theatres and Performance Buildings of South Wales’ http://www.wsd2013.com/whats-on/theatre-architecture-all-day-seminar

Our own Ceri James will be holding a seminar on Touring Relights – A Welsh Viewpoint. 

http://www.wsd2013.com/whats-on/recreating-a-lighting-design-on-tour/

This is bound to be interesting.

Peppers Ghost gets an outing  in a workshop led by RoweBeddoe

http://www.wsd2013.com/whats-on/peppers-ghost-an-old-effect-using-c...

There are lots of costume workshops and seminars, ranging from upcycling:

http://www.wsd2013.com/whats-on/costume-upcycling-talk/

and

http://www.wsd2013.com/whats-on/costume-upcycling-exploring-feminin...

through to talks from the Royal Opera House Costume Department.

http://www.wsd2013.com/whats-on/the-royal-opera-house-costume-depar...

Lea Anderson’s session on Gesture into Costume is sadly already sold out.

http://www.wsd2013.com/whats-on/gesture-into-costume-2/

Many of the costume sessions are hands one with at least one very clearly stating that if your skills are not up to it you will not be allowed to attend.

Puppetry, a great strength at RWCMD is well represented with 12 sessions,  including the intriguing The Performing Object workshop http://www.wsd2013.com/whats-on/the-performing-object

Sound Lighting and Projection are very well represented and I will certainly try and get to one of the Projection Mapping Sessions

http://www.wsd2013.com/whats-on/projection-and-image-mapping-1/

http://www.wsd2013.com/whats-on/projection-and-image-mapping2/

There are 1:4 scale lighting lab workshops which look fascinating

http://www.wsd2013.com/whats-on/introduction-to-lighting-design-in-...

and

http://www.wsd2013.com/whats-on/light-and-space-in-the-model-theatr...

And Georgios Koukoumas will be giving a workshop on Site Specific Lighting Design.

http://www.wsd2013.com/whats-on/hamlet-48-a-site-specific-lighting-...

And do not miss Lighting for the West End and adapting for International Productions with Rick Fisher – One of the real great Lighting Designers and a very charming person.

http://www.wsd2013.com/whats-on/lighting-for-the-west-end-and-adapt...

And these just scrape the surface.

There is a fascinating workshop on using musical techniques to create a scenographic score

http://www.wsd2013.com/whats-on/workshop-just-one-thing-after-anoth...

and the dryly titled “A new way to Archive Theatre Sound Design” explores capturing 360 degree audio and combining that with 60 degree vision.

http://www.wsd2013.com/whats-on/a-new-way-to-archive-theatre-sound-...

Sustainability sits at the core of the event with one of the venues being The Willow Theatre – This theatre is the winning entry of the Sustainable Theatre Competition and it is currently being built for the event.  Have a look at the competition brief http://www.wsd2013.com/competition/ and check put the live webcam http://www.rwcmd.ac.uk/other/webcam.aspx

This project alone is extraordinary, that it forms only part of the whole project fluently demonstrates the sheer scale and ambition of the  WSD 2013

There are so many events, lectures, seminars, and workshops going on that a couple of pages cannot cover it.  This must be the largest collection of international theatre practioners to be gathered in one city at a time and I for one will be spending as much time as possible at the RWCMD learning from them.