After studying Drama at Hull University, Ruth Paton trained on the Motley Theatre Design Course under Percy Harris and Alison Chitty.
Ruth has recently collaborated with Blind Summit on Citizen Puppet for Edinburgh Festival (Fringe First Winner) and as Puppet Designer for The Little Match Girl at Spoleto Festival (director Phelim McDermott and Mark Down), and Le Rossignol for Bregenzer Festspiele (director Mark Down). Other recent work includes the designs for Millions of Years (English National Opera/British Museum) and four community operas for the Royal Opera House. Earlier this year Ruth worked with Tom Guthrie on Orfeo at Princeton University.
Set and costume designs also include: Beached (Opera North/Bridlington); In the Belly of the Horse (English Touring Opera/Tricycle Theatre); Sweeney Todd and Godspell (Mountview Academy); Into the Woods (Oxford School of Drama) and Newsnight The Opera (BAC); Best Mates (Royal National Theatre); Romeo and Juliet, The Glass Menagerie, Northern Trawl, Educating Rita and On A Night Like This (Hull Truck Theatre); Knives in Hens, Be my Baby and Alcmaeon in Corinth (Live Theatre Newcastle); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Royal Shakespeare Company/City of London Sinfonia); Mendelssohn in Scotland (City of London Sinfonia); The Good Neighbour (BAC); and Volpone, Macbeth and The Tempest (Oxford School Drama).
Her practice incorporates participatory work and she has facilitated creative projects with people of all ages and abilities for Glyndebourne, Garsington, BAC, ENO, Opera North, Punch Drunk and the ROH where Ruth is also a judge of the annual Design Challenge.