Alice Sales (She/Her)
Performance Design MAÂ
Alice is a Bristol based performance designer and maker, working across both set and costume design. Her design style focuses on creative and engaging storytelling, allowing space for the actors to create a world whilst visually guiding the audience through the narrative. Prior to studying at BOVTS, Alice worked in vintage fashion having studied her BA at London College of Fashion.
BOVTS credits:
Set design  Emilia (Circomedia), directed by Sally Cookson.
Set and costume design Out of Love (The Wardrobe Theatre) directed by Lydia Mckinley.
Set design for Emilia
‘I am seventy-six years old and I hold in me a muscle memory of every woman who came before me and I will send more for those that will come after.’ Working closely with director Sally Cookson and costume designer Rhiannon Binnington, we strived to create a world which put the all female and non binary cast at the front and centre. Inspiration for the set design came from 16th century architecture, creating a series of platforms with facias to represent timber framed buildings. As it was the society that oppressed Emilia and her peers, we left the colour palette of the set neutral so that it would fade back from the actors and their colourful costumes.
Photography credit: Craig Fuller
The Wonderful World of Dissocia
Created in collaboration with director Natalie Simone, this project aimed to produce a thought provoking design for a play with difficult subject matter. We took inspiration from childhood to create the magical world of Dissocia, using school gym equipment as the main elements of the set. Sunflowers were used as a narrative tool to suggest the health of the main character, Lisa, at different times during the play; decaying (depression), oversized and growing from the ceiling in Dissocia (mania), and fresh (care).
Photography credit: Alice Sales
Out of Love
Out of Love charts the relationship between two female characters over the course of 35 years. Directed by Lydia Mckinley, we created an abstract set to help guide the audience through the non-chronological storytelling. Using suspended lights, we created a timeline which lighting designer Lydia Morgan used to create beautiful transition moments. VHS tape was used to dress the set and the component parts of the tape were recreated in a large scale as stools to give the illusion that the play was taking place in an unravelled tape of the characters lives.
Photography credit: Craig Fuller
