Incorporating a giant bed, gigantic pillows and green bedclothes in the setting, Benjamin Britten's opera A Midsummer Night's Dream is considered one of the sexiest adaptations of William Shakespeare's play.[Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]

Born in Toronto and obsessed with theater from a young age, Carsen went to England to study acting at the age of 19.

"It was like being in a movie. I was writing in an exam at university in Toronto. I looked at everybody else and I thought: 'What I am doing?'. This is not what I want.

"Then I just drove home and my mother was very surprised. I told her I am leaving for London tomorrow. I got a plane ticket, I packed a bag and I left," he recalls.

"It's the only real brave thing I have ever done in my life. I didn't know anybody in England. But I knew I had to do this.

"I always follow my instinct and intuition."

While studying acting at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in England, Carsen decided to become a director. He is always interested in all parts of staging, such as the lighting, which he has been doing himself for the last 15 years.

"The lighting is what makes the magic. It makes the audiences feel the atmosphere changing and sculpts the people. It's also important in our own lives, not just on the stage. Light is emotion," he says.

Working in theater teaches him how close he is to the past. He also believes that a director's job is a kind of bridge between the stage and the audiences.

"You have to approach a work from the past as if they are written today. I always approach a work like it's new because time passes but the essence of the work still excites. Most pieces have something new and I try to capture that," he says.

Carsen also stages musicals and exhibitions, but he likes opera most because "opera mixes together all the different art forms, such as the spoken texts, choreography, design and architecture".

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn

If you go

7:30 pm, Oct 15 and 16. Poly Theater, 14 Dongzhimen Nandajie, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 400-610-3721.