Anna is an award winning production designer working internationally in theatre, dance and opera. Her works include: Death of a Salesman (Young Vic/West End); Two Ladies, A German Life, A Very, Very, Very Dark Matter (Bridge Theatre); Home I’m Darling (West End/National Theatre/Theatr Clwyd - Olivier Award nominations Best Set Design and Best Costume Design); Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Sheffield Crucible and West End); Hangmen (Royal Court and West End, winner of Olivier, Critics’ Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Best Set Design); The Kid Stays in the Picture (Complicité/Royal Court); John, Can We Talk About This (National Theatre/DV8 international tour); Beware of Pity (Schaubühne Berlin/Complicité), Message in a Bottle (Sadler’s Wells/Universal Music); Two Noble Kinsmen, Cymbeline, Love’s Sacrifice (RSC).

"The early years of having children was a dark place for me. My path was not straight forward - after having made a good place for myself, once I had children my career was literally over. People did not trust a designer who also had childcare to think about.

What threw me when I first had children was the incapacitation that happened. The paradox that the moment you are given the most serious responsibility of your lifetime the industry treats you as if you can’t be given responsibility any more - you are not to be trusted. Colleagues would explain to me why they thought I could not do a job - that it would be too much for me - as if I could not judge my capabilities myself any more. It is paralysing - it made me furious. I had to re-build my sense of self again outside the industry before I could return. My way back into the industry was a long and slow path and I still think that the industry would have lost me as an artist had my anger of the injustice not made me into such a fighter.

I still meet countless young female designers who believe they have to choose between having a career or family. It is only now that I have gained a solid position within the industry that I feel able to voice what I need. I now voice things loud and clear because I know that if I don’t do it nothing will change. I feel responsible for the younger members of my profession and I promised myself in the bad times that should I ever get to a better place I would fight for better conditions.

When I heard about PiPA I knew I had to be part of it."