Paul Keogan

Born in Ireland, Paul Keogan studied drama at Trinity College Dublin and at Glasgow University. After graduating he worked as production manager for Project Arts Centre Dublin, prior to embarking on a freelance career as a set and lighting designer.

Paul has designed lighting for a number of productions at the Abbey Theatre Dublin including Tales From The Holywell, ​Translations, Portia Coughlan, Walls and Windows, The Great Hunger, Last Orders at The Dockside, Citysong, Observe The Sons of Ulster Marching Towards The Somme, The Plough and The Stars, Cyprus Avenue, Heartbreak House, The Risen People, Drum Belly, Curse of the Starving Class, The Rivals, B for Baby, No Escape, Ages of the Moon, Marble, Lay Me Down Softly, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Woman and Scarecrow, The School for Scandal, Homeland (also set design), The Electrocution of Children, Amazing Grace, Living Quarters, Making History, The Map Maker's Sorrow, Cúirt an Mheán Oíche, Mrs. Warren's Profession, Bailegangáire, Down the Line, Eden, The Wild Duck, The Cherry Orchard and Heavenly Bodies.

His designs for the Gate Theatre Dublin include The Steward of Christendom, Constellations, The Visiting Hour, The Glass Menagerie, Hamlet, The Red Shoes, A Streetcar Named Desire, Molly Sweeney (also set design), The Last Summer, The Birds, God of Carnage, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Festen, Performances and The Gates of Gold.

Other lighting designs include Scandaltown and Love Love Love (Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, London); I Think We Are Alone (Frantic Assembly UK tour); The Big Chapel X (Asylum Productions, Kilkenny Ireland), A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, The Gaul (Hull Truck); Happy Days, Blood in the Dirt Postcards from the Ledge, The Walworth Farce, Breaking Dad, Between Foxrock and a Hard Place, Underneath the Lintel (Landmark Productions, Dublin); A Tale of Two Cities (Royal & Derngate Northampton); Afterplay, Blasted (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); The Epic Adventure of Nhamo, the Manika Warrior and his Sexy Wife Chipo (Tiata Fahodzi, Tricycle Theatre), Novecento (Trafalgar Studios, London); Harvest (Royal Court Theatre, London), Blue/Orange (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield and UK Tour) The Stock Da’Wa, Born Bad, In Arabia We’d All Be Kings (Hampstead Theatre London), Sadie (Lyric Theatre Belfast/BBC), Shirley Valentine, Here Comes The Night, Mixed Marriage, The Blind Fiddler and Ghosts (The Lyric Theatre, Belfast), The Treaty, Duck Duck Goose, Tiny Plays For Ireland 1&2, Strandline (Fishamble, Dublin), The Massacre at Paris (also set design), Quay West, Blasted, Far Away (Bedrock Productions, Dublin), Down onto Blue, Danti Dan and Olga (Rough Magic, Dublin), The Silver Tassie (Almeida Theatre London), The Tempest (Theatre Royal Plymouth and UK Tour), Miracle on 34th Street, The Hudsucker Proxy, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Misanthrope, Tartuffe (Playhouse, Liverpool), Twelfth Night, Intemperance (Everyman, Liverpool).

He has designed set and lighting for Ballads and The Rite of Spring (CoisCéim, Ireland), Chair, Angel Babel, Here Lies (Operating Theatre, Ireland), Trad (Galway Arts Festival), The Sugar Wife (Rough Magic, Dublin), Family Stories, Tejas Verdes (B*spoke, Dublin), Far Away, The Winter’s Tale, Request Programme, Plasticine, medEia, The Hairy Ape, Woyzeck (Corcadorca, Cork), Dead Man Walking, Turandot (Opera Ireland) and Boss Grady’s Boys (Gaiety Theatre, Dublin).

His lighting designs for dance include productions for English National Ballet, Queensland Ballet, the Royal Ballet in London, Ballet Ireland and Irish Modern Dance Theatre.

Paul’s lighting designs for opera include Ainadamar, The Gondoliers and Utopia Unlimited (Scottish Opera), 20 shots of Opera (Irish National Opera Film), Elektra and The Marriage of Figaro (Irish National Opera), Falstaff (Vienna State Opera), Powder Her Face (Teatro Arriaga, Bilbao), Maria de Buenos Aires (Cork Opera House), La Bohème, Samson et Dalila, Don Quichotte, I Puritani, Les Dialogues des Carmelites, Eugene Onegin, Idomeneo and The Queen of Spades (Grange Park Opera), La Bohème and Wake (Nationale Reisopera, Netherlands), The Magic Flute (National Opera of Korea), The Makropulos Case, Un Ballo in Maschera and The Flying Dutchman (Opera Zuid, Netherlands). The Queen of Spades, Madama Butterfly, Lady Macbeth of Mtensk, The Silver Tassie (Opera Ireland); The Lighthouse (Opera Theatre Company and Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte, Montepulciano, Italy); Thérèse, La Navarraise, Cristina Regina di Svezia, The Snow Maiden, The Mines of Sulphur, Maria di Rohan, Pénélope, Susannah, Der Silbersee, Rusalka and Transformations (Wexford Festival Opera).

Paul devised and directed Man of Aran, Re-imagined, and co-wrote the libretto for Quicksilver the Opera.

Paul designed The Wishing Well, an outdoor projection piece for Kilkenny Arts Festival 1999, and the lighting for the Irish Pavilion at the Architectural Biennale in Venice 2004 and 2006. Paul was the recipient of the Gerard Arnhold Bursary at Wexford Festival Opera 2006.

Learn more at PaulKeogan.com.