Takis
| Takis | |
|---|---|
| File:Takis-performance-designer.jpgTakis-performance-designer.jpg | |
| Born | 24 April 1980 Sikyona, Greece |
| 🏫 Education |
|
| 💼 Occupation | Performance designer |
| 🌐 Website | takis |
Takis (born 24 April 1980) is a Greek set and costume designer based in London, working across opera, theatre, musicals, and circus.[1][2][3] He has received two Laurence Olivier Award nominations for Outstanding Achievement in Opera[4] and was nominated for Best Designer at the International Opera Awards in 2025.[5]
Early life and education
Takis was born on 24 April 1980 in Sikyona, Greece.[6] He studied set and costume design at the Romanian National University of Arts in Bucharest from 1998 to 2002, then spent a year working in Berlin and Düsseldorf on a scholarship before enrolling at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.[2][1][7] At RADA he was the first student to be given the responsibility of designing a third-year production.[2] He completed a PhD at Aalto University in Helsinki in 2021, where his research explored the men's suit as a site for performance design.[8]
Career
Takis has been a regular designer for Opera Holland Park in London, creating sets and costumes for productions including Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus (2016), Puccini's La Rondine (2017), and Verdi's Un ballo in maschera (2019).[3][2][1] James Clutton, director of Opera Holland Park, has described Takis as having "an exceptional eye for style, beauty and detail," adding that he is "always very inventive but at the same time very practical, capable of finding feasible solutions — always for the good of the production, not his own ego."[1][3] Writing in the German theatre journal Bühnentechnische Rundschau, Wiebke Roloff Halsey described his set for Un ballo in maschera as resembling "a magic box" of moving walls that opened progressively to reveal the masquerade ball, noting that the three-dimensional panelling refracted light with no visible fixings.[2]
He has designed three Baroque operas for English Touring Opera, including Handel's Ottone (2014), for which the set comprised three rotating sections of Byzantine apses with hand-painted golden mosaics.[2][3] His designs for Phaedra (2019) at the Royal Opera House and HMS Pinafore (2021) at English National Opera each received Olivier Award nominations for Outstanding Achievement in Opera.[4]
In musical theatre, Takis designed the London production of In the Heights at Southwark Playhouse (2014) and its transfer to King's Cross Theatre, where he devised a telescopic set that could be stored in an hour to share the venue with another production.[7][1] He has also designed internationally, including Flashdance at Château Neuf in Oslo (2018) and The LKY Musical at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore (2015).[2][1]
His circus designs for Giffords Circus were included in the Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibition From Waterloo to the World: 250 Years of Circus (2018).[9][1] He represented Greece at the World Stage Design exhibition in Taipei in 2017 and has been selected for four consecutive editions of the Society of British Theatre Designers' UK Design for Performance exhibition.[10][11] He is a member of faculty at RADA.[12]
Recognition
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | International Opera Awards | Best Designer | Nominated | |
| 2022 | Laurence Olivier Award | Outstanding Achievement in Opera | HMS Pinafore | Nominated |
| 2020 | Laurence Olivier Award | Outstanding Achievement in Opera | Phaedra | Nominated |
Publications
- The Meta-Suit: De-Re-Constructing The Ultimate Masculine Attire (Aalto Arts Books, 2021). ISBN 978-952-64-0566-7 Search this book on
.[13] - "The Apotheosis of Man, the Forgotten Peacock" in Scene 2.1 & 2.2 (Intellect, 2014)[14]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Matheopoulos, Helena (12 August 2018). "«Ντύνει» από όπερες έως τσίρκο" ["He dresses" from opera to circus]. Kathimerini (in Ελληνικά). p. 3 (Arts & Letters supplement).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Roloff Halsey, Wiebke (2020). "Freiraum für die Fantasie". Bühnentechnische Rundschau (in Deutsch). Berlin: Der Theaterverlag (4/2020): 46–51.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Matheopoulos, Helena (October 2022). "Doing it with style". Opera Now: 31–33.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Olivier Awards Winners". Society of London Theatre. Retrieved 19 December 2025.
- ↑ "2025 International Opera Awards". International Opera Awards. Retrieved 9 April 2026.
- ↑ Paridis, Christos (16 December 2025). "Ο takis ξεκίνησε από το Κιάτο και έφτασε στα κορυφαία θέατρα του κόσμου". LiFO (in Ελληνικά). Retrieved 4 February 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Vale, Paul (5 June 2017). "Set designer Takis: 'We risk losing traditional skills'". The Stage. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
- ↑ The Meta-Suit: De-Re-Constructing The Ultimate Masculine Attire. Aalto University. 2021. ISBN 978-952-64-0567-4. Retrieved 19 December 2025. Search this book on
- ↑ "From Waterloo to the World: 250 Years of Circus". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 19 December 2025.
- ↑ World Stage Design 2017. Taiwan Association of Theatre Technology. 2017. pp. 193–196. Search this book on
- ↑ Hello Stranger: UK Design for Performance 2019–2023. Society of British Theatre Designers. 2023. p. 48. Search this book on
- ↑ "Takis - Faculty". Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Retrieved 19 December 2025.
- ↑ The Meta-Suit. Aalto Arts Books. 2021. ISBN 978-952-64-0566-7. Retrieved 19 December 2025. Search this book on
- ↑ Takis (2014). "The Apotheosis of Man, the Forgotten Peacock". Scene. Intellect. 2 (1–2): 169–174. doi:10.1386/scene.2.1-2.169_1. Retrieved 19 December 2025.
External links
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