Jean-Guy Lecat (France)

Set Designer

Houston Grand Opera debut

About the Artist: In a period of 25 years, Lecat has designed approximately 200 performance spaces worldwide in cooperation with international theater makers and architects. In 1965, after having been a fitter, model maker, then draughtsman in Thomson-Houston’s factories, Lecat drew several theatres and festival spaces as assistant to set designer and theatre architect Claude Perset. He then practiced every technical and artistic job in theatre, took part in more than 100 productions with directors such as Jean-L. Barrault, and worked with companies including Living Theatre and La MaMa, among others. As technical director and space designer for Peter Brook Company from 1976 to 2000, Lecat was charged with the research and transformation or creation of spaces throughout the world, including the still-kept Harvey-Majestic Theatre and La MaMa Annex (New York), The Tramway (Glasgow), The Gaswaerk (Copenhagen), The Mercat de les Flore (Barcelona), Carrière Boulbon (Avignon), and Bockenhaimer Depot (Frankfurt), among others. After leaving Peter Brook Company, he became a theatre consultant, building Theatre for a New Audience (New York), Teatro Azul de Almada (Lisbon), Théâtre Ouvert, Les Etés de la Danse and Les 3 Baudets (Paris), Naves del Antiguo Matadero (Madrid), Young Vic Theatre and The Roundhouse (London), The Abbey Theatre (Dublin), and Cardboard Box Theatre (Prague), among others. Projects as a set, costume or lighting designer include L'Iliade, Der Theatermacher, Othello, Titus Andronicus, Macbeth, The Tempest, Carmen, Woyzeck, Manon, Il barbiere di Siviglia, L'equivoco stravagante, and Antigone, among others. He has also directed a production of Oedipus.