The Naomi Wilkinson Award for Stage Design 2025
Created to honour a friend, collaborator, and extraordinary designer
The Naomi Wilkinson Award for Stage Design was established by Told by an Idiot in 2019 to recognise an emerging female designer with a unique visual imagination, in memory of the late Naomi Wilkinson; a hugely talented and renowned theatre set and costume designer.
‘Naomi Wilkinson changed the way we looked at design. Over a ten-year period she was a close and wonderful collaborator, designing nine utterly unique worlds, and helping us define our visual aesthetic. She provoked us, challenged us, and inspired us to think differently. She never settled, constantly questioned, and was always curious. We would love for the legacy of her work, to give an opportunity to an aspiring female visual imagination.’ Paul Hunter, Artistic Director of Told by an Idiot
The recipient of the Naomi Wilkinson Award for Stage Design 2025 will be the third recipient of the award and will be given the opportunity to develop their craft in collaboration with Told by an Idiot. They will be employed to design the set and costume for our next stage production, directed by Paul Hunter, a co-production with the Unicorn Theatre, London, to open in the Weston Theatre, November 2025. The chosen designer will be mentored by a freelance theatre designer well acquainted with Told by an Idiot’s style, with support from Told by an Idiot’s Artistic Director Paul Hunter and Unicorn’s Artistic Director Rachel Bagshaw.
HOW TO APPLY:
Email us (recruitment@toldbyanidiot.org) using the subject line ‘Naomi Wilkinson Award Application’.
Include:
* Two examples (digitally) of your previous set and costume designs
* Your CV including where you are based and details of 2 referees
* An answer to the question ‘What interests you most about working with Told by an Idiot and the Unicorn Theatre?’ (Either written – max 300 words, or send a video of you answering the question – max length 3 mins).
The only requirements are that you:
* identify as female
* have permission to work in the UK until Feb 2026
* have at least two years’ experience of designing professional productions (including fringe work)
* can submit digital evidence of 2 previous designs
* have an inventive approach to your practice
* have an interest in creating transformative theatrical experiences for children and young people
* are available for the workshop / interview production dates listed below
* have a base in London
Application deadline: Monday 6th January 2025, 12pm.
Those shortlisted from submissions will be invited to a workshop with Told by an Idiot on Monday 13th January 2025. From the workshop, finalists will be invited to an industry panel interview on either Thursday 16th or Friday 17th January 2025.
We are committed to being an equal opportunities employer and actively encourage people from a wide variety of backgrounds, experience and skills to join us and influence and develop our working practice. We particularly encourage applications from people who are Black or from the Global Majority and candidates who are disabled. All candidates who are disabled and demonstrate that they meet the essential criteria will be invited to the workshop, in line with the Equalities Act 2010.
Winner to be announced: w/c 3rd February 2025.
Prize: £5,500 to the designer to design set and costumes. £575 fee for attendance at the April 2025 Research and Development week.
PRODUCTION DATES:
R&D 2: w/c 28th April 2025 – Winning designer in the room to develop design ideas
White card meeting: late May 2025
Model box showing: mid July 2025
Rehearsals: Beginning w/c 13th October 2025
Tech and Open: Tech from Tuesday 11th November 2025, first preview Sunday 16th November 2025
FURTHER INFORMATION:
About Told by an Idiot
Told by an Idiot has been creating the unexpected since 1993. We explore the human condition through theatre that is ambitious but never pretentious, experimental but always accessible, and we avoid boredom at all costs. We take creative risks, tell universal stories and make theatre for anyone who breathes.
About the Unicorn Theatre
The Unicorn Theatre offers innovative and thrilling theatre experiences for children aged up to 13, producing and presenting new shows alongside adaptations of classic texts. They are the largest children’s theatre in the UK, welcoming 65,000 families and schools to the venue every year, and thousands more through their Unicorn Online programme of free digital theatre experiences.
About the Charles Mason and Naomi Wilkinson Foundation
The Foundation supports the advancement of the arts and the advancement of education primarily through: (i) the grant of bursaries to students and others to enable them to pursue creative endeavours of art, theatre and design; and (ii) promoting, preserving and making available the work and archives of the artist, Charles Mason and theatre designer, Naomi Wilkinson for exhibition and research purposes.
The inaugural Naomi Wilkinson Award was given to Ioana Curelea in 2019, who subsequently designed Told by an Idiot’s show, Charlie and Stan, which since enjoyed three UK tours and international runs to 5-star acclaim. Lulu Tam was the second recipient of the award in 2022, in which she designed The Killing of Sister George, a co-production with the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle Under Lyme.
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