Tracy Grant Lord is a leading New Zealand

scenographer A scenographer or scenic designer, also production designer, is a person who develops the appearance of a stage design, a TV or movie set, a gaming environment, a trade fair exhibition design or a museum experience exhibition design. The term ori ...

and

costume designer A costume designer is a person who designs costumes for a film, stage production or television show. The role of the costume designer is to create the characters' outfits or costumes and balance the scenes with texture and colour, etc. The costum ...

of ballet, theatre and opera. She has worked with numerous Australasian performance companies including the

Royal New Zealand Ballet The Royal New Zealand Ballet is a ballet company based in Wellington, New Zealand. It was originally known as The New Zealand Ballet Company. History New Zealand Ballet was established in 1953 as an independent charitable trust by Royal Danis ...

New Zealand Opera New Zealand Opera is New Zealand's only full-time professional opera company, formed in 2000 from the merger of companies in Auckland and Wellington (and later Christchurch). New Zealand Opera is headquartered in Parnell, New Zealand, Parnell, Au ...

Australian Ballet The Australian Ballet (TAB) is the largest classical ballet company in Australia. It was founded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1962, with the English-born dancer, teacher, repetiteur an ...

Opera Australia Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, New South Wales, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House accompanied by the Opera Australia Orchestra runs for approximately eight months of the year, with t ...

Queensland Ballet Queensland Ballet, founded in 1960 by Charles Lisner, is the premier ballet company of Queensland, Australia, and is based in Brisbane. It is one of only three full-time, professional classical ballet companies in Australia. The company has ha ...

as well as the

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

and Queensland Theatre Companies.

Career

Grant Lord graduated with a degree in Spatial Design from

Auckland University of Technology Auckland University of Technology ( AUT; ) is a university in New Zealand, formed on 1 January 2000 when a former technical college (originally established in 1895) was granted university status. AUT is New Zealand's third largest university i ...

in 1996. She was 23 when she designed my first opera. In 2011 she was nominated for Best Costume Design for the

11th Helpmann Awards The 11th Annual Helpmann Awards for live performance in Australia were held on 1 August 2011 at the Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Winners and nominees In the following tables, winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface. ...

and in 2012 she was nominated in the same category for the

12th Helpmann Awards The 12th Annual Helpmann Awards was held on 24 September 2012 at the Sydney Opera House, in Sydney, New South Wales. Administered by Live Performance Australia (LPA), accolades were presented for achievements in disciplines of Australia's live pe ...

. In 2014 Grant Lord created the costumes for the

Singapore Dance Theatre The Singapore Ballet (formerly known as Singapore Dance Theatre) is Singapore's national dance company, founded in 1988 by Anthony Then and Goh Soo Khim. The Artistic Director of the company is Janek Schergen. History It made its debut in J ...

production of

Sleeping Beauty "Sleeping Beauty" (, or ''The Beauty Sleeping in the Wood''; , or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess curse, cursed by an evil fairy to suspended animation in fi ...

. Grant Lord has created designs for several productions for the Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB) including their positively reviewed 50th Anniversary production ''Romeo and Juliet'' (2003)'','' this production contrasted a set pieces reminiscent of Verona and costumes with a modernist feel. It toured throughout New Zealand being presented at

St James Theatre, Wellington The St. James Theatre (built as His Majesty's Theatre, previously Westpac St. James Theatre 1997–2007, often known as simply "The St. James") is a large proscenium stage theatre in central Wellington, New Zealand, and home to the Royal New Zea ...

(Wellington), Municipal Theatre (Napier),

Aotea Centre The Aotea Centre () is a performing arts and events centre in Auckland, New Zealand. Located at the western edge of Aotea Square, off Queen Street, the centre provides a cultural, entertainment and conventions venue space in the heart of the ...

(Auckland), Founders Theatre (Hamilton), Regent on Broadway (Palmerston North), Regent Theatre (Dunedin), and the Theatre Royal (Christchurch), where it opened the Christchurch Arts Festival. The RNZB production of ''Romeo and Shortly'' toured to the United Kingdom and received a nomination for best new dance production at the

Laurence Olivier Awards The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply The Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognize excellence in professional theatre in London. The awards were originally known as the Society of West End Theatre Aw ...

. Other production for RNZB include ''Ihi FrENZy'' (2001), ''The Wedding'' (2006) a love story written by

Witi Ihimaera Witi Tame Ihimaera-Smiler (; born 7 February 1944) is a New Zealand author. Raised in the small town of Waituhi, he decided to become a writer as a teenager after being convinced that Māori people, Māori people were ignored or mischaracteri ...

with choreography by Mark Baldwin and music by

Gareth Farr Gareth Vincent Farr (born 29 February 1968) is a New Zealand composer and percussionist. He has released a number of classical CDs and composed a number of works performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) and Royal New Zealand Ball ...

, ''Cinderella'' (2007) and ''The Firebird'' (2020) with choreographer Loughlan Prior. Opera Lord Grant has designed includes the production design in 2014 of ''

Lucia di Lammermoor ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' () is a (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel '' The Bride of Lammermoor''. ...

'' directed by

Raymond Hawthorne Raymond Benjamin Thomas Hawthorne (3 May 1936 – 5 April 2025) was a New Zealand theatre director, regarded as one of the country's most senior performing arts practitioners. Based in Auckland, he was founder of theatre company Theatre Corpor ...

produced by

Auckland Chamber Orchestra Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

and Auckland Opera Studio. William Dart's review states:

Working with designer Tracy Grant Lord, Hawthorne's 18th century Scotland was grim and foreboding under the lights of Jennifer Lal. An effectively austere set was built around various cross motifs; costumes were rigorously dark-toned, apart from a white wedding dress for Lucia and a brilliant red gown for her final swansong. (William Dart 2014)

Other work with director Raymond Hawthorne includes set and costumes for the musical ''

Guys and Dolls ''Guys and Dolls'' is a musical theater, musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Run ...

'' for Auckland Theatre Company in 2015 with lighting by Andrew Potvin. Grant Lord collaborated regularly with lighting designer Kendall Smith and choreographer

Liam Scarlett Liam Scarlett (8 April 198616 April 2021) was a British choreographer who was an artist in residence with The Royal Ballet and artistic associate with Queensland Ballet. He also choreographed new works for Ballet Black, Miami City Ballet, No ...

to create works such as ''A Midsummer Night’s Dream'' and ''Dangerous Liaisons'' for

. In 2023 Grant Lord designed costumes for New Zealand Opera’s productions of ''Unruly Tourist'' composed by

Luke Di Somma Luke Di Somma is a New Zealand lyricist, composer, writer and director. He studied at the University of Canterbury, the New Zealand School of Music and the Tisch School of the Arts. His punk-rock musical ''That Bloody Woman'' was a smash hit a ...

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

by Livi Reihana and Amanda Kennedy, and also ''

Cosi Fan Tutte COSI (), officially the Center of Science and Industry, is a science museum and research center in Columbus, Ohio. COSI was opened to the public on 29 March 1964 and remained there for 35 years. In 1999, COSI was moved to a facility, designed ...

,'' the latter having almost 100 costumes. Grant Lord designed a custom-made outfit for the

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) is a symphony orchestra based in Wellington, New Zealand. The national orchestra of New Zealand, the NZSO is an autonomous Crown entity owned by the New Zealand Government, per the New Zealand Symphony ...

's conductor Gemma New. It was designed to allow New plenty of freedom of movement when conducting.

Awards

*1997 – (finalist) Best Craft in Short Film Drama’ -

New Zealand Film and Television Awards New Zealand film and television awards have gone by many different names and have been organised by different industry groups. As of 2017, New Zealand has relaunched a standalone New Zealand Television Awards after a five-year hiatus. The film awa ...

*1999 – UNESCO Prize for Emerging Artists -

Prague Quadrennial Held in Prague once every four years since 1967, the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space or Prague Quadrennial is the world's largest event in the field of scenography, consisting of a competitive presentation of contemporary work in ...

*1999 – Best Production Design - St Kilda Film Festival (for short film ''Possum)'' *2003 – Jury Award - Prague Quadrennial *2011 – Helpmann Award Nomination for ''In the Next Room'' - Sydney Theatre Company *2012 – Helpmann Award Nomination for ''The Importance of Being Earnest -'' Melbourne Theatre Company

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grant Lord, Tracy Year of birth missing (living people) Living people New Zealand scenic designers New Zealand production designers New Zealand theatre designers New Zealand costume designers Women costume designers Women scenic designers Women theatre designers Scenographers