April Dalton is a UK based Set and Costume Designer for Theatre, Opera and Dance. She graduated from The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with a First Class (BA Hons) in Theatre Design, winning the Costume Design Award and was later shortlisted for the Linbury Prize 2015.
Recent work includes Jane Eyre/ Carousel (Royal Academy of Music), The Odyssey: Episode 1 – The Lotus Eaters (Restoke/ National Theatre Public Acts), Baroque Encounters, Solace, Remembrance and Four Seasons (New English Ballet Theatre/Linbury Theatre, ROH/Sadler’s Wells), Silla (Northern Opera Group), La liberazione di Ruggiero and Spell Book (Double bill, Longborough Festival Opera), Migrations (Welsh National Opera), Le Vin Herbe, Freedom Season (Welsh National Opera), Imminent (Birmingham Royal Ballet) and Der Zaubertrank (Theater und Konzert St. Gallen).
April is also Co- Artistic Director of Red Oak Theatre in Cardiff, the company in residence at the Sherman Theatre.
Welsh National Opera/ UK Tour
Music by Will Todd
Directed by David Poutney
Set Design by Loren Elstein
Costume Design by April Dalton
Lighting Design by Zoe Spurr
Sound Design by Sebastian Frost
‘With exuberant singing, captivating choreography, effects, and costumes, the neo-realization of the “total work” schema had found its embodiment’ Opera Wire
‘thought-provoking and profoundly moving’
★★★★ The Stage
★★★★ The Times
Royal Academy of Music
Directed by Bruce Guthrie
Set & Costume Design by April Dalton
‘April Dalton’s set is another delight. She does a lot of ingenious things with half staircases and balconies over bookcases which are manually pushed round the stage into different formations.’
★★★★ Musical Theatre Review (Jane Eyre)
★★★★★ Musical Theatre Review (Carousel)
Restoke/ National Theatre Public Acts
Written by Gabriella Gay
Costume Design by April Dalton
Lighting Design by Alex Shenton
To mark the fifth anniversary of Public Acts, The Odyssey is reimagined for today in this epic retelling with hundreds of community members across the country.
New English Ballet Theatre/ Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House
Choreography by Georgie Rose
Costume Design by April Dalton
Lighting Design by Andrew Ellis
‘Top marks to April Dalton’s costumes’
Seeing Dance
Longborough Opera Festival
Director: Jenny Ogilvie
Conductor: Yshani Perinpanayagam
Set and Costume: April Dalton
Lighting: Jake Wiltshire
‘set in a sort of de luxe south sea paradise, all vulgar pinks, oranges and scarlets, with massage parlours and cocktail bars’
★★★★ The Arts Desk
‘a colourfully dynamic production’
The Classical Source
The Royal Academy of Music/ World Premiere
Director: Polly Graham
Composer: Freya Wayley-Cohen
Set and Costume design: April Dalton
Video design: Hayley Egan
Lighting: Jake Wiltshire
‘a remarkable new work’
★★★★ Telegraph
‘inventive…brilliant staging’
Opera Today
Storyhouse, Chester
Directed by Martin Constantine
Set and Costume Design by April Dalton
Lighting Design by Tim Mitchell
‘As visualised by director Martin Constantine and designer April Dalton, the show is an awfully high adventure. The cast deserve a frequent flyer card as they reach for the lights, expertly counterweighted by shadowing technicians moving in unison. With characters also frequently descending through the floor, there is an unusually strong sense of the stage as a vertical space’
★★★★ The Guardian
Blackheath Halls Opera
Direction: James Hurley
Conductor: Christopher Stark
Set and Costume Design: April Dalton
Lighting Design: Ben Pickersgill
‘an outstanding production’ ★★★★ The Guardian
Royal Academy of Music
Directed by James Hurley
Set and Costume Design by April Dalton
Lighting by Ben Pickersgill
Red Oak Theatre/ Loco Klub, Bristol
Play by Jez Butterworth
Director: Matt Holmquist
Set and Costume: April Dalton
Lighting: Ryan Joseph Stafford
‘The space is transformed through innovative set design by the up and coming designer April Dalton’
Theatre Bath
★★★★ The Reviews Hub