Crispin Lord

Crispin is a multi-disciplinary performance maker based in London, working across design, opera, dance theatre and film. He graduated from Durham University in 2016 with BaHons in Music, where he focused on experimental electronic music, transcultural performance practices, and non-clinical music therapy.

His performance work is centred around queer structures, the body in motion, insidious violence, disability access, and creating a dialogue between Opera and Live Art practices.

Since early 2018, he has worked with Composer Jonathan Packham to interrogate the performative capabilities of Virtual Reality and its conceptual ties to fluid understandings of gender and sexuality. Crispin and Jonathan presented their first work untitled (THEY) at Candid Arts Trust, and are currently working on a longer “operatic” work, untitled (THERE). He also created a VR film in collaboration with the Live Art Development Agency in September 2018, entitled Self Portrait Experiments in 360.

In 2017 Crispin launched MaloMalo - a platform for developing interdisciplinary queer performance - with Dancer/Researcher Marcus Bell. This has seen them collaborate with several visual and multimedia artists already including Jake Elwes and Kate Davis. In June 2019 they premiered a new installation work with Berlin-based sex-positive collective Pornceptual at Alte Muenze in Berlin.

Credits

DIRECTOR

2019 Director, A Father is Looking For His Daughter, Cockpit Theatre (Rough For Opera)

2018 Co-Director, Last Thursday, Central School of Speech and Drama, Collisions Festival

2018 Director, A Hand of Bridge, Waterperry Opera Festival

2016 Director / Designer, Carmen, Durham Opera Ensemble

2015 Director / Designer, Orpheus and Eurydice, Durham Opera Ensemble

2015 Director / Designer, The Voyage: Scenes of Travel, Durham Opera Ensemble


ASSISTANT / STAFF DIRECTOR

2019 Staff Director, The Mikado, ENO (Rev. Dir. Elaine Tyler-Hall)

2019 Assistant Director, Contemporary Opera Scenes, National Opera Studio (Dir. Michael McCarthy)

2019 2nd Assistant, Britten On Film, National Opera Studio (Dir. Keith Warner)

2018 - 19 Staff Director, La Boheme, English National Opera (Rev. Dir. Natascha Metherall)

2018 Assistant Director, Don Giovanni, Waterperry Opera Festival (Dir. Laura Attridge)

2018 Assistant Director, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Grange Festival (Dir. Stephen Barlow)

2018 Assistant Director / Costume Designer, Don Giovanni, Manoel Theatre (Dir. Jack Furness)

2017 Assistant Director, The Lighthouse, Shadwell Opera (Dir. Jack Furness)

2017 Assistant Director, Written On Skin, Melos Sinfonia (Dir. Jack Furness)


DESIGNER

2018 Production Designer, Wie Verklaert (Independent Film), (Dir. Glen Shepherd)

2018 Costume Designer, OperArt: Seven Angels, V&A Museum (Dir. Jack Furness)

2018 Assistant Production Designer, Right Place, Wrong Tim, Channel 4 (Des. Alex Berry)

2018 Set and Costume Designer, Curlew River, Ante Terminum Productions (Dir. Peter Thickett)


LIVE ART & INSTALLATION

2019 ...Was Already Screaming Its Name (Film and Live Art installation), Pornceptual Berlin

2018 Self Portrait Experiments in 360 (Film in VR), created with Live Art Development Agency

2018 untitled (THEY) (VR Performance), MaloMalo & And What? Queer Arts Festival

2018 Me, Myself & Danny Dyer: An Anti-Drag Performance, Our Gay Maria & Theatre N16


CURATOR & PRODUCER

2019 Curator / Producer, Chvrch of the Holy Virgin Xtravaganzah, MaloMalo

2018 Curator / Producer, Digital Bodies, MaloMalo & And What? Queer Arts Festival