After a brief career as a dancer, Tom Schenk began working as a set designer in 1976. Initially focused on ballet, he collaborated with choreographers such as Jiří Kylián and William Forsythe. He later expanded his work to include prominent Dutch theater companies and eventually international theaters, including Schaubühne Berlin, Münchner Kammerspiele, Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel in Munich, Volkstheater Vienna, Renaissance Theater Berlin, and many other theaters and opera houses across Europe.
He has collaborated with Yoshi Oïda on several opera productions in France, England, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Canada.
Tom Schenk’s opera work includes Death in Venice (Aldeburgh Festival, Bregenz Festival, National Theatre in Prague, Opéra National de Lyon, and Canadian Opera Company in Toronto), Don Giovanni (Paris), Idomeneo (National Theatre in Prague), La Nuit de Gutenberg (Opéra du Rhin, Strasbourg), Terre et Cendres (Opéra de Lyon), The Pearl Fishers (Opéra Comique, Paris), The Pilgrim’s Progress (English National Opera, London), Peter Grimes (Opéra de Lyon), Yumé (Opéra de Reims), Madama Butterfly (Gothenburg and Japan), Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (São Paulo), and Asters (Tokyo).
In 2009, Tom Schenk was awarded the Czech Alfréd Radok Award for Best Set Design.
Photo: Roy Beusker