In 2022 Set and Costume Designer Isabel Hudson was the recipient of the Thelma Afford Award. In the following report Isabel describes some of her study experiences in Avignon, Paris, Rome and London that were supported by the award…

Receiving the Thelma Afford Award has given me the rare opportunity to step into a position of learning and curiosity. I planned the trip around opportunities to develop my skills through courses, conversations and exposure to different ways of making theatre. Spending time in Avignon, Paris, Rome and London allowed me to step outside my normal practice and return home with new knowledge that is already influencing the way I design.

One of the most valuable parts of the trip was completing a lighting course. As a set and costume designer, I work closely with lighting designers all the time, but I realised there was a gap in my understanding of their language and process. The course gave me a much stronger grasp of lighting terminology, different lighting effects, and the way lighting designers think about shaping a production.

It also introduced me to the practical side of lighting design. I learnt how to read and draw lighting plans and sections, and gained a much better understanding of how lighting is planned and communicated within a production team. Having that knowledge has made me feel much more confident collaborating with lighting designers and discussing ideas from the beginning of the design process.

What I found most interesting was seeing how dramatically light changes the way we experience scenery. A surface can feel completely different depending on the direction, colour and quality of light falling across it. Texture can become richer or almost disappear, colours can become warmer or cooler, and the same materials can read in completely different ways. It made me realise that, as designers, we are never simply designing a physical object; we are designing something that continues to change once light is introduced.

One idea that has stayed with me is the concept of lighting creating a visual reset. Without changing a single piece of scenery, light has the ability to completely shift the audience’s perception of a space. The same set can feel warm, cold, intimate, expansive or unsettling simply through changes in colour temperature, intensity and direction. It reinforced that lighting isn’t something added after the design is finished; it is part of the design itself. Since returning home, I have found myself thinking much more carefully about how materials, textures and paint finishes will respond under different lighting states, and how those choices can either enhance or work against the visual storytelling.

During my time in London, I also completed a fashion illustration course at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Spending dedicated time drawing by hand was a welcome reminder of how important observation is within the design process. The course focused on proportion, movement, silhouette and fabric, encouraging us to really slow down and look. In an industry where so much work happens digitally, returning to drawing felt incredibly valuable. It strengthened my confidence in communicating ideas quickly and reminded me that drawing remains one of the most useful tools I have as a designer.

I was also lucky enough to spend time at the Festival d’Avignon. Seeing work by international artists, speaking with makers and attending discussions around theatre-making gave me a much broader understanding of contemporary scenography. Productions such as Le Soulier de Satin, La Distance and Brel demonstrated completely different approaches to storytelling through space, image and movement. I also had the opportunity to meet Tiago Rodrigues, Artistic Director of the festival, and hear about the thinking behind the programming and development of new work. Conversations like these reminded me how important it is for designers to be involved in creative conversations from the beginning of a process, rather than simply responding to a finished idea.

Productions that Isabel attended on her travels: La Distance at Festival d’Avignon, West Side Story at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, and Brel at the Festival d’vignon.

The sustainability sessions held during the festival were equally valuable. They challenged me to think beyond what a set looks like on opening night and instead consider where materials come from, how they can be reused and what happens to them once a production finishes. It was a practical way of looking at design that I know will continue to influence my work.

Outside the formal training, visiting exhibitions such as La Galerie Dior and the Dolce & Gabbana exhibition expanded my thinking about storytelling beyond theatre. I was fascinated by the way these spaces used light, texture, material and sequencing to guide an audience through an experience. Although they weren’t theatres, they were deeply theatrical, and there were many ideas I found myself bringing back to my own practice.

Looking back, the greatest value of this trip wasn’t any single production or learning experience. It was having the time to properly invest in my own development,  to ask questions, learn new skills and step outside the pace of making one production after another. The lighting course has already changed the way I think about colour, texture and space. The drawing course reminded me of the importance of observation and craft. The conversations with artists and exposure to international practice gave me new perspectives on collaboration, sustainability and the role of design within performance.

I am incredibly grateful for The Thelma Afford Award, it gave me the time and space to develop skills that will continue to shape my work for years to come, and I have returned to Australia with greater confidence, practical knowledge and a renewed curiosity about the way I approach design.

Learn more about Isabel’s design practice by visiting her website.

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Credits: images supplied by Isabel Hudson, illustrations by Isabel Hudson and photos taken by Isabel Hudson

The APDG is proud to manage the Thelma Afford Award. The Thelma Afford Award for Costume Design in Stage and Screen was established to promote the further study of theatre, film or TV costume design, in various visual dramatic media, for young matriculating high school art students or students from drama and art schools. The award is an initiative of the late Thelma May Afford, an Australian designer, theatre performer and journalist. In 1934, she was commissioned to design costumes for the Melbourne centenary pageant, then, in 1936, to design the South Australia’s centenary celebrations and she was later called to Sydney to design the costumes for the sesqui-centenary pageant. She enjoyed costume designing on a large scale and professed that period costumes’ gave a designer more scope than modern clothes. 

Live Performance designers are very fortunate to have a number of generous benefactors who have left a scholarship for designers as part of their legacy. The Thelma Afford Award, Mike Walsh Fellowship and Loudon Sainthill Scholarship all carry the name of these benefactors, and support a new generation of designers, as does the Kristian Fredrikson Scholarship which was set up by friends and theatre colleagues in his memory.