ABOUT

Sophie is a stage director, CEO of SWAP’ra (Supporting Women and Parents in Opera), and Artistic Director of HeadFirst Productions.

Recent work includes Silent Night (Assistant Director, Opera North); Silent Night Creatives (Director, Opera North Education) the SWAP’ra Gala (Co-Producer and Co-Director, SWAP’ra/Opera Holland Park); La Traviata (Director, Hampstead Garden Opera/Jackson’s Lane); Madama Butterfly (Assistant Director, Opera North); Idomeneo (Assistant Director, Buxton International Festival); A Festival of Sex, Love and Death (Producer, HeadFirst Productions/Pleasance Theatre Islington); and Don Giovanni (Director, HeadFirst Productions/Pleasance Theatre Islington). 

Previous opera directing credits include Strauss’ Die Fledermaus for Celebrate Voice; Puccini’s La Bohème for HeadFirst Productions; Gounod’s Romeo & Juliet for Riverside Opera at the Rose Theatre Kingston; Puccini’s Tosca; Donizetti’s Don Pasquale (scenes); and the premiere of two new compositions: Quays & Laila for the Grimeborne Festival at the Arcola Theatre and The Peasants’ Opera for Herne Hill Music Festival. 

Sophie has also directed numerous pieces of new writing at venues including the Park Theatre, Theatre 503 and The Firestation Arts Centre in Windsor. Highlights include Katherine Armitage’s Duet for Re:Sound Music Theatre - a new commission by The Oxford Lieder Festival; Solitude, the winner of the Kenneth Branagh Drama Award; And Then He Came Back and Him, Her & Us both at the Park Theatre (Park200). Promenade productions include Macbeth, A Dickensian Christmas, and Narnia on the Pantiles.

Work as an Associate or Assistant Director includes Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte for Metta Theatre at the New Theatre, Oxford; Verdi’s La Traviata for Iford Arts; Verdi’s Otello for Dorset Opera; Bizet’s Carmen for Riverside Opera; Louis Nowra’s Cosi at the Kings Head Theatre; Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci for Opera up Close; a new translation of Euripides’ The Women of Troy; and Shakespeare’s King Lear.

Upcoming work includes La Traviata (Hampstead Garden Opera/Teatro Comunale, Sicily) and Il Prigioniero/Fidelio (Welsh National Opera, dir: David Poutney)