Director & Artist
Contact: crispinlord [at] gmail [dot] com
Crispin Lord (b.1995) is a director and performer of Opera and Music-Theater from London, currently based in Berlin. Through his performance work he considers music as a body-based practice, with a particular focus on collective tasking, methods of translation and interpretation, and aesthetics of access. Since December 2024 he is Vice-Chairperson of the Berliner Gesellschaft für Neue Musik.
He has presented work at theatres, galleries and universities in England and Germany, including: PREPARE IT (MY BODY) at Barbican Pit Theatre; Resurrection (A Bad Copy) and Stop Me When You’ve Had Enough at Ufer Studios Berlin; Self-Portrait Experiments in 360 with Live Art Development Agency; A Father is Looking For His Daughter at Cockpit Theatre; and Digital Bodies at Candid Arts Trust. In 2020 he was invited to lead a summer course on Theatre and Opera Design and Dramaturgy at the China Academy of Arts. In 2024 he also began a collaborative work with performance artist Jeremy Wade, working as Dramaturg for his performances as Puddles the Pelican, most recently at Volksbühne Roter Salon.
In 2023 he set up Music-Theatre collective Slung Jugs alongside composer Tom Foskett-Barnes, premiering their first piece Resurrection (A Bad Copy) at Ufer Studios Berlin. They are preparing to present their next project, BUSSHU-SURU: Or, To Do A Bush, in 2025.
Crispin also works freelance as an assistant director and has been a Staff Director with English National Opera since 2018. His credits include: The Marriage of Figaro and Duke Bluebeard’s Castle (Joe Hill-Gibbins, ENO); The Dead City (Annilese Miskimmon, ENO), Peter Grimes (David Alden, ENO); La Cenerentola, Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Stephen Barlow, Grange Festival); and The Lighthouse and Written On Skin (Jack Furness, Shadwell Opera). In 2024 he was Choreographer and Assistant Director on Alicia Geugelin’s premiere production of Dollhouse by Clemens K. Thomas at the Staatsoper Hamburg.
For his further education, Crispin read undergraduate Music at Durham University (2013-16), focusing on Ethnomusicology and Composition with Simon Mills and Trevor Wishart. In 2024, he graduated from the MA Solo/Dance/Authorship at the Hochschulübergreifendes Zentrum Tanz (HZT) Berlin, receiving a Distinction for his final performance. His written academic research investigates the idea of the copy in performance and its relation to invisible labour and has recently been published in Journal of European Popular Culture (Intellect Books) and Still Busy (Universität der Künste Berlin).
Crispin is an accomplished musician, having studied Voice, Violin, Flute and Piano since the age of 6. Aged 18 he received a Distinction for his Diploma in Voice (as a Baritone), and currently studies experimental voice practice with Jessica Aszodi.
Crispin speaks English and German.
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