Paul Keogan : Lighting Design
Focusing. Photo ©Ste Murray
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Born in Ireland, Paul studied drama at Trinity College Dublin and at Glasgow University. After graduating he worked as Production Manager for Project Arts Centre Dublin, prior to embarking on a freelance career as a set and lighting designer.
Paul has designed lighting for a number of productions at The Abbey Theatre Dublin including; Tales From The Holywell, Translations, Portia Coughlan, Walls and Windows, The Great Hunger, Last Orders at The Dockside, Citysong, Observe The Sons of Ulster Marching Towards The Somme, The Plough and The Stars, Cyprus Avenue, Heartbreak House, The Risen People, Drum Belly, Curse of the Starving Class, The Rivals, B for Baby, No Escape, Ages of the Moon, Marble, Lay Me Down Softly, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Woman and Scarecrow, The School for Scandal, Homeland (also set design) The Electrocution of Children, Amazing Grace, Living Quarters, Making History, The Map Maker's Sorrow, Cúirt an Mheán Oíche, Mrs Warren's Profession, Bailegangáire, Down the Line, Eden, The Wild Duck, The Cherry Orchard and Heavenly Bodies.
His designs for the Gate Theatre Dublin include; The Steward of Christendom, Constellations, The Visiting Hour, The Glass Menagerie, Hamlet, The Red Shoes, A Streetcar Named Desire, Molly Sweeney (also set design), The Last Summer, The Birds, God of Carnage, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Festen, Performances, and The Gates of Gold.
Other lighting designs include; Scandaltown and Love Love Love (Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, London); I Think We Are Alone (Frantic Assembly UK tour); The Big Chapel X (Asylum Productions, Kilkenny Ireland), A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, The Gaul (Hull Truck); Happy Days, Blood in the Dirt Postcards from the Ledge, The Walworth Farce, Breaking Dad, Between Foxrock and a Hard Place, Underneath The Lintel (Landmark Productions, Dublin); A Tale of Two Cities (Royal & Derngate Northampton); Afterplay and Blasted (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); The Epic Adventure of Nhamo, the Manika Warrior and his Sexy Wife Chipo (Tiata Fahodzi, Tricycle Theatre) Novecento (Trafalgar Studios, London); Harvest (Royal Court Theatre, London) Blue/Orange (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield and UK Tour) The Stock Da’Wa, Born Bad and In Arabia We’d All Be Kings, (Hampstead Theatre London) Sadie (Lyric Theatre Belfast/BBC), Shirley Valentine, Here Comes The Night, Mixed Marriage, The Blind Fiddler and Ghosts (The Lyric Theatre, Belfast) The Treaty, Duck Duck Goose, Tiny Plays For Ireland 1&2 and Strandline (Fishamble, Dublin) The Massacre at Paris (also set design) Quay West, Blasted and Far Away (Bedrock Productions, Dublin) Down onto Blue, Danti Dan and Olga (Rough Magic, Dublin) The Silver Tassie (Almeida Theatre London) The Tempest (Theatre Royal Plymouth and UK Tour) Miracle on 34th Street, The Hudsucker Proxy, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Misanthrope and Tartuffe (Playhouse, Liverpool) Twelfth Night, Intemperance (Everyman, Liverpool).
He has designed set and lighting for; Ballads and The Rite of Spring (CoisCéim, Ireland) Chair, Angel Babel and Here Lies (Operating Theatre, Ireland) Trad (Galway Arts Festival) The Sugar Wife (Rough Magic, Dublin) Family Stories and Tejas Verdes (B*spoke, Dublin), Far Away, The Winter’s Tale, Request Programme, Plasticine, medEia, The Hairy Ape, Woyzeck (Corcadorca, Cork) Dead Man Walking and Turandot (Opera Ireland) Boss Grady’s Boys (Gaiety Theatre, Dublin).
His lighting designs for dance include; Sama and Flight (Rambert, London and UK Tour); No Man's Land (English National Ballet, London, Queensland Ballet, Brisbane) Hansel and Gretel and Cassandra (Royal Ballet, London); Lost (Ballet Ireland); Sweat and Beautiful Tomorrow (ManDance, Ireland) Macalla and Intimate Gold (Irish Modern Dance Theatre) SAMO, (Blok & Steel, Netherlands) and Catalyst, a collaboration between Rex Levitates (Ireland) and The National Ballet of China in Beijing.
Paul’s lighting designs for opera include; Ainadamar, The Gondoliers and Utopia Unlimited (Scottish Opera), 20 shots of Opera (Irish National Opera Film), Elektra and The Marriage of Figaro (Irish National Opera), Falstaff (Vienna State Opera), Powder her Face (Teatro Arriaga, Bilbao), Maria de Buenos Aires (Cork Opera House), La Bohème, Samson et Dalila, Don Quichotte, i Puritani, Les Dialogues des Carmelites, Eugene Onegin, Idomeneo and Pique Dame (Grange Park Opera), La Bohème and Wake (Nationale Reisopera, Netherlands), The Lighthouse (Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte, Montepulciano, Italy), Die Zauberflöte (National Opera of Korea), The Makropulos Case, Un Ballo in Maschera and Der Fliegende Holländer (Opera Zuid, Netherlands). The Queen of Spades, Madama Butterfly, Lady Macbeth of Mtensk, The Silver Tassie (Opera Ireland); The Lighthouse (Opera Theatre Company); Thérèse/La Navarraise, Cristina Regina di Svezia, Snegurochka, The Mines of Sulphur, Maria di Rohan, Pénélope, Susannah, Der Silbersee, Rusalka and Transformations (Wexford Festival Opera).
Paul devised and directed Man of Aran, Re-imagined, and co-wrote the libretto for Quicksilver the Opera.
Paul designed The Wishing Well, an outdoor projection piece for Kilkenny Arts Festival 1999, and the lighting for the Irish Pavilion at the Architectural Biennale in Venice 2004 and 2006. Paul was the recipient of the Gerard Arnhold Bursary at Wexford Festival Opera 2006.
Awards
2019 Irish Times Theatre Awards Best Lighting Design (The Big Chapel X, Blood in the Dirt & The Glass Menagerie)
2017 Irish Times Theatre Awards Best Lighting Design (Far Away)
2015 UK Theatre Awards Best Design (The Hudsucker Proxy)
2014 Knight of Illumination Theatre Dance Category (No Man's Land)
2008 Irish Times Theatre Awards Best Set Design (Dead Man Walking)
2006 Irish Times Theatre Awards Best Lighting Design (Tejas Verdes/Titus Andronicus)
1999 Irish Times Theatre Awards Best Lighting Design (Quay West)
See selected press clippings here.
Born in Ireland, Paul studied drama at Trinity College Dublin and at Glasgow University. After graduating he worked as Production Manager for Project Arts Centre Dublin, prior to embarking on a freelance career as a set and lighting designer.
Paul has designed lighting for a number of productions at The Abbey Theatre Dublin including; Tales From The Holywell, Translations, Portia Coughlan, Walls and Windows, The Great Hunger, Last Orders at The Dockside, Citysong, Observe The Sons of Ulster Marching Towards The Somme, The Plough and The Stars, Cyprus Avenue, Heartbreak House, The Risen People, Drum Belly, Curse of the Starving Class, The Rivals, B for Baby, No Escape, Ages of the Moon, Marble, Lay Me Down Softly, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Woman and Scarecrow, The School for Scandal, Homeland (also set design) The Electrocution of Children, Amazing Grace, Living Quarters, Making History, The Map Maker's Sorrow, Cúirt an Mheán Oíche, Mrs Warren's Profession, Bailegangáire, Down the Line, Eden, The Wild Duck, The Cherry Orchard and Heavenly Bodies.
His designs for the Gate Theatre Dublin include; The Steward of Christendom, Constellations, The Visiting Hour, The Glass Menagerie, Hamlet, The Red Shoes, A Streetcar Named Desire, Molly Sweeney (also set design), The Last Summer, The Birds, God of Carnage, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Festen, Performances, and The Gates of Gold.
Other lighting designs include; Scandaltown and Love Love Love (Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, London); I Think We Are Alone (Frantic Assembly UK tour); The Big Chapel X (Asylum Productions, Kilkenny Ireland), A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, The Gaul (Hull Truck); Happy Days, Blood in the Dirt Postcards from the Ledge, The Walworth Farce, Breaking Dad, Between Foxrock and a Hard Place, Underneath The Lintel (Landmark Productions, Dublin); A Tale of Two Cities (Royal & Derngate Northampton); Afterplay and Blasted (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); The Epic Adventure of Nhamo, the Manika Warrior and his Sexy Wife Chipo (Tiata Fahodzi, Tricycle Theatre) Novecento (Trafalgar Studios, London); Harvest (Royal Court Theatre, London) Blue/Orange (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield and UK Tour) The Stock Da’Wa, Born Bad and In Arabia We’d All Be Kings, (Hampstead Theatre London) Sadie (Lyric Theatre Belfast/BBC), Shirley Valentine, Here Comes The Night, Mixed Marriage, The Blind Fiddler and Ghosts (The Lyric Theatre, Belfast) The Treaty, Duck Duck Goose, Tiny Plays For Ireland 1&2 and Strandline (Fishamble, Dublin) The Massacre at Paris (also set design) Quay West, Blasted and Far Away (Bedrock Productions, Dublin) Down onto Blue, Danti Dan and Olga (Rough Magic, Dublin) The Silver Tassie (Almeida Theatre London) The Tempest (Theatre Royal Plymouth and UK Tour) Miracle on 34th Street, The Hudsucker Proxy, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Misanthrope and Tartuffe (Playhouse, Liverpool) Twelfth Night, Intemperance (Everyman, Liverpool).
He has designed set and lighting for; Ballads and The Rite of Spring (CoisCéim, Ireland) Chair, Angel Babel and Here Lies (Operating Theatre, Ireland) Trad (Galway Arts Festival) The Sugar Wife (Rough Magic, Dublin) Family Stories and Tejas Verdes (B*spoke, Dublin), Far Away, The Winter’s Tale, Request Programme, Plasticine, medEia, The Hairy Ape, Woyzeck (Corcadorca, Cork) Dead Man Walking and Turandot (Opera Ireland) Boss Grady’s Boys (Gaiety Theatre, Dublin).
His lighting designs for dance include; Sama and Flight (Rambert, London and UK Tour); No Man's Land (English National Ballet, London, Queensland Ballet, Brisbane) Hansel and Gretel and Cassandra (Royal Ballet, London); Lost (Ballet Ireland); Sweat and Beautiful Tomorrow (ManDance, Ireland) Macalla and Intimate Gold (Irish Modern Dance Theatre) SAMO, (Blok & Steel, Netherlands) and Catalyst, a collaboration between Rex Levitates (Ireland) and The National Ballet of China in Beijing.
Paul’s lighting designs for opera include; Ainadamar, The Gondoliers and Utopia Unlimited (Scottish Opera), 20 shots of Opera (Irish National Opera Film), Elektra and The Marriage of Figaro (Irish National Opera), Falstaff (Vienna State Opera), Powder her Face (Teatro Arriaga, Bilbao), Maria de Buenos Aires (Cork Opera House), La Bohème, Samson et Dalila, Don Quichotte, i Puritani, Les Dialogues des Carmelites, Eugene Onegin, Idomeneo and Pique Dame (Grange Park Opera), La Bohème and Wake (Nationale Reisopera, Netherlands), The Lighthouse (Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte, Montepulciano, Italy), Die Zauberflöte (National Opera of Korea), The Makropulos Case, Un Ballo in Maschera and Der Fliegende Holländer (Opera Zuid, Netherlands). The Queen of Spades, Madama Butterfly, Lady Macbeth of Mtensk, The Silver Tassie (Opera Ireland); The Lighthouse (Opera Theatre Company); Thérèse/La Navarraise, Cristina Regina di Svezia, Snegurochka, The Mines of Sulphur, Maria di Rohan, Pénélope, Susannah, Der Silbersee, Rusalka and Transformations (Wexford Festival Opera).
Paul devised and directed Man of Aran, Re-imagined, and co-wrote the libretto for Quicksilver the Opera.
Paul designed The Wishing Well, an outdoor projection piece for Kilkenny Arts Festival 1999, and the lighting for the Irish Pavilion at the Architectural Biennale in Venice 2004 and 2006. Paul was the recipient of the Gerard Arnhold Bursary at Wexford Festival Opera 2006.
Awards
2019 Irish Times Theatre Awards Best Lighting Design (The Big Chapel X, Blood in the Dirt & The Glass Menagerie)
2017 Irish Times Theatre Awards Best Lighting Design (Far Away)
2015 UK Theatre Awards Best Design (The Hudsucker Proxy)
2014 Knight of Illumination Theatre Dance Category (No Man's Land)
2008 Irish Times Theatre Awards Best Set Design (Dead Man Walking)
2006 Irish Times Theatre Awards Best Lighting Design (Tejas Verdes/Titus Andronicus)
1999 Irish Times Theatre Awards Best Lighting Design (Quay West)
See selected press clippings here.