TRUI
MALTEN

Trui Malten is the recipient of the critics’ choice for the prestigious Profile Award 2026 for her exceptional lighting design for Imeneo with the Cambridge Handel Opera Company. In the critics' words:

“Brimming with knowing theatricality, the lighting was an exercise in wit, rhythm and storytelling magnetically timed to the beats of drama and music.”

With a career spanning over more than 180 productions, she has balanced intimate, newly devised plays with grand-scale international operas and dance, building an extensive portfolio of productions staged across London, the wider UK, Europe, and the United States. Originally from the Netherlands, she trained at the prestigious Yale School of Drama under legendary lighting designer Jennifer Tipton.

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Malten's work is regularly featured in prominent London theatre festivals and venues.

Notable projects include: Eugene Onegin; lit for the Hampstead Garden Opera (HGO) at Jackson's Lane Theatre, which won two Off West End ("Offie") Awards. The Cunning Little Vixen; another collaboration with HGO that won an Offie Award. Jane Eyre; the world premiere production by composer John Joubert at London's Arcola Theatre. Bluebeard's Castle; featured at London's Grimeborn Opera Festival. All these operas were directed by Eleanor Burke.

She designed Nora and Vera; two new ballets choreographed by Stina Quagebeur for the English National Ballet at London's Sadler's Wells.

Ms. Malten has maintained a long-standing collaboration with New International Encounter (NIE), designing many of their shows between Cambridge, Bristol, Galway and New York’s New Victory Theatre.

In 2022 she lit A Grand Soft Day, a collaboration between NIE director Alex Byrne and Marc Mac Lochlainn of Branar Téatar in Ireland, which toured successfully throughout Ireland, the UK and the US.

Alongside her lighting practice, Malten frequently designs sets and visual environments for performance. Recent projects include Tatlin’s Tower at the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich, staged beneath the museum’s model of Tatlin’s monument, as well as Angels in America, both directed by Karen Kirkham. She also designed sets and lights for Another Goodbye, written and performed by Adie Mueller, which will tour the UK in the fall of 2026 and co-created My Heart, My Heart – Live Poetry Jukebox, a poetry performance project presented across the UK over five years.

Over the course of her career, Malten has assisted on productions and international transfers to London, Naples, Valencia, Tokyo, and Vienna, collaborating with renowned lighting designers including Jennifer Tipton, Chris Akerlind, David Finn, Steve Strawbridge, and Christophe Forey. Most recently, she assisted Jennifer Tipton on the West End production of To Kill a Mockingbird at the Gielgud Theatre in London, and previously worked with Christophe Forey on the European tour of Norma starring Cecilia Bartoli.

Trui Malten is a professional member of the Association for Lighting Production and Design (ALPD).

During lockdown, she also created Covid Chronicle Cronies, a series of small sculptures and accompanying stories reflecting on connections, memory, and daily life. Please visit www.truimaltencronies.com