Edward Saunders

www.edwardjamessaunders.co.uk

Ed is a lighting designer for live performance.

Much of his work is for contemporary dance, although recent ventures have added opera, festival stages, and fashion shows to the scope of what he does with light.

In 2022, Ed was appointed ‘Lumiere’ by the Association of Lighting and Production Design, which partnered him as an assistant to leading lighting designers on the Glyndebourne Opera Festival and on new work from the English Touring Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange.

Earlier this year, Ed lit Holly Blakey’s ‘Cowpuncher My Ass’ at London’s Royal Festival Hall, as well as returning to previous designs for touring dance productions commissioned by The Place, where he also lit two pieces for the Resolution Festival of emerging choreographers. He was associate lighting designer to Malcolm Rippeth on a co-production of ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ between Garsington Opera, Irish National Opera, and Sante Fe, and was associate to Joshie Harriette on Richard Chappell’s ‘Hot House’. Since assisting in the spring for London and Paris fashion weeks, Ed lit a runway show of his own for Saul Nash’s SS24 collection, presented at the ICA. This summer, Ed was back at Glastonbury to light the San Remo stage, before heading to Opera Holland Park to collaborate on Figure’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Ed has toured and relit work by the likes of Hofesh Shechter and National Dance Company Wales. 

Ed was represented by the Society of British Theatre Designers at the 2019 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, and was the recipient of a Commendation for Design from the National Student Drama Festival.

Ed is based in London.