Since 1986, Marko Japelj has been a freelance set designer with over three hundred performances in Slovenia and abroad. He studied architecture in Ljubljana and his first stage design was for Hedda Gabler at the Academy for Theatre and Film in Ljubljana. His scenographic debut in a professional theatre was the production Chekhov’s Three Sisters (National Drama Theatre Maribor, 1987)
For drama, opera, ballet, and modern dance performances he has designed set designs at the national theatres in Slovenia, national theatres in Zagreb and Rijeka in Croatia, national theatres in Belgrade and Podgorica, Opera Bucharest, Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava, National Theatre in Brno, Opera Zurich, and Aalto Theatre in Essen.
He has designed sets for ballets staged in Darmstadt, Wiesbaden, Augsburg, Wuppertal, Dortmund, Stuttgart, Muenster, Halle, Magdeburg, Chemnitz, as well as the Leipzig Opera, Royal Ballet of Flanders in Anvers and Gent, Latvian National Opera in Riga, NDT 1 in The Hague, Metz Opera, West Australian Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadienne in Montreal, NOVAT in Novosibirsk, Vienna State Opera, Bolshoi Theater, Birmingham Royal Ballet and others.
He has worked with choreographer Edward Clug for productions including Tango (1998), Lacrimas, Radio & Juliet, Architecture of Silence, Pret a Porter, Watching Others, Hill Harper’s Dream, Chamber Minds, Sacre du printemps, Les Noces, Peer Gynt, Hora/Kontraste, Proof, Kekec, Petrushka, Patterns in ¾, Carmina Burana, Aperture, Source, Master and Margarita.
For his creations he has received several awards, including the Prešeren Fund Award, several awards at the Borštnik Theatre Festival (best scenography), MESS International Theatre Festival in Sarajevo (best scenography), Rijeka Festival (best scenography), Theatre at the Crossroads Festival in Niš, Serbia (best scenography).
From 1995 to 1997 he was a visiting professor and head of the Department for Theatre and Film Set Design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.
