Steve Howell

Scenic Designer

Steve is a freelance scenic designer based in the UK. He studied at the University College of Wales and the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

He began his professional career at the Theatre Royal, York before moving to Salisbury Playhouse, where he was Head of Design for a number of years. During this time he designed sets and costumes for over 80 productions including classic dramas, contemporary works, musicals and world premieres. Favourite productions included Amadeus, Passion Play,  A Tale of  Two Cities, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Duchess of Malfi, Wild  Honey, Pravda, She Stoops To Conquer, Mary Stuart, Wuthering Heights, The Forsyte Saga, Man and Superman, Cabaret, Sweeney Todd and West Side Story.

Freelance work included productions for various regional theatres in the UK as well as national and international tours for commercial producers. He also designed productions for the Chester and Salisbury International Music Festivals, the English Theatre of Vienna and the Olivier stage at the Royal National Theatre.

Opera work includes a number of productions for the Dorset Opera Festival including  Il Trovatore, Suor Angelica, The Flying Dutchman and La Traviata (directed  by Sir Jonathan Miller), Un Ballo in Maschera, L’Elisir d’Amore, Aida, Fidelio, Eugene Onegin , Macbeth, Faust and Le Comte d’Ory . He is currently designing La Boheme and Le Cid for this summer’s season.

In recent years he has worked extensively for a number of prestigious cruise line companies in the UK, Europe and America and is currently designing shows for Celebrity, Silversea, Viking Cruises, P&O Cruises and Marella Cruises.

He has just designed Remembering Fred, starring Aljaz & Janette from Strictly Come Dancing, which is currently on a UK Tour and is about to start work on Rip It Up, starring Aston Merrygold, HarryJudd and Louis Smith, which will begin a national tour in the autumn. He has also designed the musical, Summer Holiday, which has just begun an extensive UK tour.