Scenographic Design Portfolio

I have worked on numerous productions in varying design capacities. Below, please find some of my favourite :

Description : set, props and costume design for a new South African Play THE BROTHERS, NUMBER ONE AND A WEEKEND SPECIAL, written by Richard Calland. The production team were as follows : directed by Greg Homann, produced by Zodwa Shongwe of The Market Theatre Foundation, assistant director Aaliya Zama Matintela, AV designer Xolelwa Nhlabatsi, sound designer Vangile Z Mpumlwana, lighting designer Hlomohang “Spider” Mothetho, set construction Dean Pitman, stage manager Lebeisa Molapo, cast David Dennis, Zane Meas, Melissa Haiden, Astrid Braaf, Michael Richard and Ziaphora Dakile, and set, props and costume design by ME!

Location : The Market Theatre, Johannesburg
Completed: April 2024

Description : set, props and costume design for THE RED BALLOON. This production was originally conceived by Barry Kornhauser. The South African production team were as follows : performed by Craig Morris, directed by Toni Morkel, music by Tony Bentel, lighting by Jane Gosnell, stage managed by Babs Sewbaran and Cassy Bagoes, balloon and props wrangling by Casey Sewbaran, and set, props and costume design and manufacture by ME!

Location : The National Children’s Theatre, Parktown, Johannesburg
Completed: December 2022

The Red Balloon team was nominated for a Naledi Theatre Award 2022, and it won a Standard Bank Ovation Award at The National Arts Festival in 2023.

Description : set, props and costume design for YOU STRIKE A WOMAN YOU STRIKE A ROCK (a South African protest theatre play originally workshopped in 1986 by Phyllis Klotz, Thobeka Maqhutyana, Nomvula Qosha and Poppy Tsira), and performed this time by the drama department of The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, and directed by Ashalin Singh.

Location : The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls
Completed: September 2022

Description : studio set technical assistant to the production designer; props master and muppet wrangler (puppet care and maintenance).

Production Company : Pulp Films in association with Sesame Workshop
Completed: current

In 2019 I was fortunate enough to be able to work with the amazing Takalani Sesame team again, on new educational episodes, which we filmed in studio and on location.

The Takalani Sesame (Season 11) team won a 2021 South African Film and Television Award in the category Best Children’s Programme.

Takalani Sesame (Season 13) was nominated for a SAFTA and an International Emmy Award for Best Children’s Programme in 2023

Description : Set Design for live show BALA BROTHERS IN CONCERT

Location: Lyric Theatre, Johannesburg
Completed: 2015

Set design for South African multi-award winning trio, the Bala Brothers. Recorded at Johannesburg’s Lyric Theatre in October 2014, The Bala Brothers concert DVD made its debut on March 2015 on PBS’s (American) public TV stations as a fundraising pledge show. The live concert featured a 26-piece orchestra and an appearance by the Drakensberg Boys Choir

Description : Set, Props and Costume Design and Construction for theatre production THE FAMISHED ROAD, based on Ben Okri’s novel by the same name.

Location: Johannesburg and Grahamstown
Director: Helen Iskander and the Fresco Theatre Company
Completed: 2009

Reviews: “Thanks to Lisa Younger’s styling and puppetry, this subtropical dreamworld evokes The Dark Crystal meets Alice in Wonderland in Africa.. The Famished Road could have been unstageable, but Fresco Theatre has given birth to a child that effectively conjures a phantasmagorical aesthetic, while passing subtle critiques on African social and political realities. It is exquisitely realised and is likely to touch you to the core.. This work steeped in mythology and miracles can truly – and literally – be dubbed a triumph of the human spirit.”
Christina Kennedy, Cue Newspaper Review, July 2009

Description : Set, Props and Costume Design and Construction for theatre production JUTRO

Location: Johannesburg and Grahamstown
Director: Helen Iskander and the Fresco Theatre Company
Completed: 2008

Reviews: “This is theatre which shows and never tells, which hoards a host of emotions in a single prop and a single movement.” Ina Randall, The Herald

“With a striking set (designed by Lisa Younger), Jutro provides a theatrical style that has the absurdity of Waiting for Godot and the innocence of Life is Beautiful. ‘Jutro’ was nominated for 4 Naledi Awards, including Best Actor, Best Cutting-Edge Production and Best Sound Design, and it won Best Set Design 2008″ Elan Gamaker

Awards: recipient of a Naledi Theatre Award for Best Set Design 2008, for the production of JUTRO.

Description : Set, Props and Costume Design and Construction for theatre production ELECTRIC JUJU

Location: Johannesburg, Grahamstown, Cape Town
Director: Helen Iskander for Rob Van Vuuren’s one man show
Completed: 2006

Reviews: “The giant prop that Van Vuuren employs, the heart of the giant, is one of the most mystical and affecting inanimate things I have ever seen on stage…whatever burden it is that is keeping you occupied in the real world, it is a liberating experience to see that, on any day, it would pale in comparison to that massive giant’s heart on the back of the hunched old man.” Peter Tromp, Cape Times, August 16, 2006.

Description : Costume Design and Construction for theatre production SEZAR

Location: Market Theatre, Johannesburg
Director: Yael Farber
Completed: 2002

“With original costumes, lighting, ritual, music and dance, SeZar is an exhilarating new version of the greatest tale of power, corruption and assassination ever told : Julius Caesar.”

Reviews: “In fact Farber, her actors and designers present various aural, visual and rhythmic texts. This collaboration creates an organically textured theatre piece, which once and for all settles that tiresome ongoing debate about the relevance of something as Eurocentric as Shakespeare in African culture….Lisa Younger’s costumes hint of Africa and Rome – today and yesterday (although the characters would be just at home in Armani.” Adrienne Sichel, Cue Newspaper, National Festival of the Arts, Grahamstown.

Awards: recipient of an FNB Vita Award for Best Costume Design 2002, for the production of SEZAR.

Description : Set Dresser for Takalani Sesame, production company Kwasukasukela

Location: Studios in Johannesburg and Cape Town
Completed: 1999 – 2002

Description : Resident Scenographic Designer for The Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative

Location: Johannesburg
Completed: 1998 to 2002

Reviews: “The symbiotic relationship between all the dancer-choreographers, Nathaniel Stern’s animation, interactive video and performed slam poetry, Lisa Younger’s design and Declan Randall’s light is utterly remarkable.” Adrienne Sichel, The Star, 13th December, 2001

Awards: The Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative was the recipient of an FNB Vita Award for The Most Outstanding Presentation of an Original South African Contemporary Dance Work 2002, for the production of THE DOUBLE ROOM.

Description : Resident Designer at The National School of the Arts

Location: Braamfontein, Johannesburg
Completed: 1997 to 2002