Ryan Joseph Stafford

Ryan works across the UK and Europe as a Lighting Designer for theatre, musicals, and dance.

He trained at Rose Bruford College, graduating with a First Class BA Honours Degree in Lighting Design.

Theatre includes: Not Quite Jerusalem (Finborough); When the Sea Swallows Us Whole (Vault Festival, London); Wind of Heaven (Finborough); Cyrano de Bergerac (The Watermill); Crave (The Other Room/RWCMD); Hauntings & Pork Pies (Theatre Clwyd/National Trust); Easy Virtue (The Watermill); The Island (Fio/UK Tour); Cardiff Boy (Red Oak Theatre/The Other Room); The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives (Elufowoju, Jr. Ensemble/Arcola Theatre); Dames (Siberian Lights/Pleasance London); Finding Mr Hart (Blackburn Cotton Exchange); The River (Red Oak Theatre); Landmines (Bridge Company/Ovalhouse); Flew the Coop (New Diorama Theatre).

Musicals include: Sleeping Beauty (Rhodes Arts Theatre/Wisecracker Ent.); Pippin (UWTSD, Cardiff); Becoming (Stratford Circus); Robin Hood (The Watermill); Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Bournemouth Pavilion); Wondertown (Bohemian Theatre Co.); Assassins (Rose Bruford/Stratford Circus).

Dance includes: Left from Write (Norwegian National Ballet II/Linbury, Royal Opera House; European Tour); CODI (National Dance Company Wales/National Tour); When It Arrives; Shall We Just Retire to the Lake? (Messums Gallery, Wiltshire); Together, Not the Same (Sadler’s Wells).

Ryan regularly works as an Assistant/Associate Lighting Designer for LDs including Michael Hulls, Richard Howell, Hansjörg Schmidt, Nic Farman, and Dan Saggars.

As Associate: Umm Kulthum & The Golden Era (London Palladium); Faustus: That Damned Woman (Headlong Theatre/UK Tour); Spiral Pass (Lyon Opera Ballet); The Thread (Sadler’s Wells; Megaron, Athens); Toujours et Près de Moi (ERRATICA/Edinburgh Fringe; Operadagen Festival, Rotterdam); Under Glass (Clod Ensemble/UK Tour); Orfeo ed Euridice (LFO/Greenwood Theatre).

Ryan is an Associate Artist of Red Oak Theatre Company and Bohemian Theatre Company.

In 2019, Ryan received the ‘Michael Northern Award for Excellence in Lighting Design’, from the Association of Lighting Designers.