Simon Harding is an award-winning set and video designer for live performance, interested in modalities of performance that create a living space between objects and the body.

He was a co-founder and the resident designer for SaBooge Theatre, designing all of their productions including the critically acclaimed shows Hatched, Fathom, and Every Day Above Ground.

Online Resume

Fathom, SaBooge Theatre

As an atmospheric study, though, Fathom is completely in its depth. Simon Harding’s production design meshes brilliantly with the ensemble, and Jeff Lorenz’s live underscoring will leave us landlubbers breathless. – Helen Shaw, New York Sun

Fathom is a marvellous piece of stagecraft. Simon Harding’s production and lighting design are superb. – The Georgia Straight (Vancouver)

… the production is a marvel of surprising inventiveness … given Simon Harding’s expressionistic production design. … some of the most startling effects are achieved through the most primitive stage techniques. A scrim stretched on old-fashioned pulleys becomes the sail of a ship at sea. Washed in a green backlight, it sets the underwater scene for a drowning. – Marylin Stasio, Variety

Rhinoceros, Mum Puppetheatre

… the set and design to wonder over. Like the play, these are simple, but brilliant. The interplay of people, puppets and silhouettes is done in such a seamless and smooth fashion that it extends the possibilities of theater before one’s very eyes. – Julia Bartz, The Bulletin (Philadelphia)

Every Day Above Ground, SaBooge Theatre

The SaBooge world, however, never looks less than fantastic. The integration of Simon Harding’s timber-and-grit set with Jeff Lorenz’s spectacular sound-design is a winning combination — they can create phantoms out of a handful of dust and a minor chord. – Helen Shaw, New York Sun

[4 Stars] Each of the seven actors turns in an exquisite physical performance, and the design (especially Simon Harding’s bold lighting) is a wonder. – Jeff Lewonczyk, Time Out NY

Simon Harding’s lighting and set design do a remarkable job of crafting a desolate dream terrain: The stage is covered in sand and sawdust, everything appearing ghostly and unreal in the low orange lights until the audience is blinded by a bright white glare — as if we’re suffering the camera’s flashbulb as Billy did in death when photographed by L.A. Huffman (Attila Clemann). – Jerry Portwood, Backstage

Anna Bella Eema, Gas & Electric Arts

… Simon Harding’s set created the perfect atmosphere. … As for theatre, it was more overwhelming and powerful than almost all of the productions I’ve seen this year. – Jim Rutter, EDGE Philadelphia

James Clotfelder’s eerie lighting and Simon Harding’s set, with its hoarder’s stacks of books topped by pages folded into a blossoming origami, summon an encroaching entropy echoed in the script. – Wendy Rosenfield, The Philadelphia Inquirer

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