Engagement, learning, and participation
Young People
Rosie was the Director of Leeds Youth Opera from 2020-2022.
She ran Saturday rehearsals with young people aged 8-25, using scaffolded learning to build and improve performance skills week-to-week, culminating in two fully-staged productions per year.
Productions with Leeds Youth Opera include:
The Enchanted Pig by Jonathan Dove
The world premiere of ARC23 by Attridge and Murphy
Co-created climate crisis opera Project Ultimatum
In 2021 Rosie also ran drama workshops in Armley and Gipton for young people with restricted access to music education. As a result of these workshops, Rosie designed and delivered new weekly sessions for 8-12 year olds which were free to participate and culminated in the children performing in the world premiere of ARC23 at the Carriageworks Theatre in Leeds.
Adults
At the Tete a Tete festival 2022 Rosie directed The Journey, a new opera by Jeremy Gill based on The Refugee Tales.
The chorus for the production was the Citizens of the World Refugee Choir, who sing together on a regular basis, but were unusued to acting and movement. Throughout the process the performers became more confident with expressing emotion through abstract movement.
Rosie hopes to do more work like this in the future and has been learning more about co-creation with adult performers through workshops with Streetwise Opera and her own research.
Community Opera Projects
In Spring 2024 Rosie directed Northern Opera Group's annual community opera project - The Pied Piper of Hamelin - comprising a chorus of adults and children along with professional soloists.
In Autumn 2024 Rosie is collaborating with Music in the Round and Sheffield Music Hub to direct Jonathan Dove's The Monster in the Maze, comprising three seperate community choruses - adults, teenagers, and children, as well as professional opera singers and an orchestra of combined young people and professional chamber musicians.
Higher Education
Rosie has significant experience teaching and assessing stagecraft skills at conservatoire level. She directed scenes projects at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2021 and 2022. She was required to grade the MA Opera Studies students on their process and performance, and wrote a new mark scheme for the collge's continuous assessment of students in opera rehearsals.
Rosie is also directing a staged lieder project with the undergraduate vocal students at Leeds Conservatoire in 2024.
These are a series of resources that Rosie has drawn on for her Higher Education work:
