Storytelling through design at The Royal Ballet and Opera

Published 2nd February 2026

It’s National Storytelling Week, a perfect opportunity to look at how stories are told in many different ways, not just through words, and how design and technology helps bring those stories to life.

At the Royal Ballet and Opera, storytelling sits at the heart of every production. From costumes and wigs to sets, scenery and marketing, designers and technicians collaborate to translate narrative, emotion and character into tangible outcomes that audiences experience on stage. It is a powerful example of how design and technology connects creativity with real world impact.

Recent articles in Designing magazine offer a valuable window into this process. Stitched for the stage takes you behind the scenes of the costume workrooms, showing how designers respond to briefs, develop and prototype ideas, select materials and balance creativity with sustainability. It highlights how technical decision making, material knowledge and iteration are central to successful costume design. Teachers can download the PDF version of these articles, featured in Designing 131 & 132 below, and get their digital copy of the magazine here.

In Making up worlds, the focus shifts to scenic design and set production. The article explores how large scale storytelling environments are imagined, modelled, tested and refined. It shows how design teams use drawing, CAD, materials testing and systems thinking to create immersive worlds, while also responding to environmental considerations and reuse.

These real world examples provide rich contexts for your teaching, supporting explorations of narrative, user experience, sustainability and problem solving through design and technology.

If you would like to take this further, you may be interested in the upcoming Royal Ballet and Opera webinar for schools. It explores practical ways to bring design, storytelling and performance into the classroom and is designed with teachers in mind. Register your place here.

With storytelling at its core, D&T gives pupils the chance to design with purpose, empathy and imagination. This makes it an inspiring focus for lessons during National Storytelling Week and well beyond.