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15.03.17 - Bell Removal Day 3

Richmond Bells Project is in full swing! Four of the old bells have been lowered out of the tower, and by the end of this week they will be on their way to Taylor’s Bell Foundry in Loughborough where the five historic bells will be cleaned up and prepared to go into the permanent exhibition. I’m designing elements of the exhibition, so I’m really looking forward to seeing the bells up close soon!

Photos by Guy Carpenter

Andrew Ogden of Taylor’s Bell Foundry.

#richmondbells

Richmond Bells Project

This Thursday 17th November is the Richmond community’s first of two trips to Taylor's Bell Foundry in Loughborough to watch some of the bells for Richmond Bell Project being cast. We will have camera operator and filmmaker Callum Macdonald capturing the visit. I’m really looking forward to meeting some of the people who donated a bell to the project, as well as experiencing the foundry for the first time myself.

Check out the Foundry on a virtual tour here http://www.taylorbells.co.uk/web/?q=node/53

#richmondbells

The Tempest - Southwark Playhouse Jan 2017

I'm gearing up for designing The Tempest at Southwark Playhouse, opening on 5th January 2017. Very happy to be working with the lovely Amy Draper again, and also excited to work with Sarah Readman on lighting and Jon McLeod on sound, and to be back at Southwark Playhouse again!

Heritage Lottery Funded project summer 2017

Some fantastic news - the HLF bid I have been a (small) part of with the Richmond Bell Committee in Richmond, North Yorkshire, has been successful in receiving Heritage Lottery Funding for a large scale project to protect the heritage of the church bells at St Mary’s, Richmond.

The project is big and an amazing job has been done by the committee with their application and their huge amount of fundraising. The bells will be removed from the church tower, lots of work done to secure the safety and use of the tower for generations to come, and brand new bells cast by Taylor’s Bell Foundry in Loughborough, to be installed in spring 2017. Then five of the original, historic bells from the tower will be displayed in a permanent exhibition.

I am working with the committee to develop workshops for local schools to explore the heritage of bells and bell ringing in Richmond and the Dales, through the lens of creative, theatre, performance and art. So far we have a couple of really excited schools on board, and a potential of working with around 300 primary and secondary students, plus hopefully university students.

Now it’s time for me to begin gathering my team of four professional practitioners, and four local bell ringing experts, to co-create and deliver the workshops with me.

The project will culminate in an exhibition at the Richmondshire Museum, which will showcase the work created by the students in the workshops, as well as a large online resource of film footage, audio recordings, interviews, photos and historical documents which arise from the research during the project.

It’s a large project, with so many exciting elements - I can’t wait to get my team together and get planning!

PUSH - opera by Howard Moody

I’m busy working on this new opera written for the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, which has a striking resonance today, in view of the many refugees seeking support and safety all over the world.

The opera also tells the story of Simon Gronowski, who as a boy of 11 managed to escape the train to Auschwitz in 1943. Here is an article about Simon’s story. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22188075

I have been working with A Level students at Rye Studio School, who have been helping with the research for this project. Our research of 10 different periods and cultures between 1066-2016, all of whom have been the victims of war and persecution, forms the foundation of the research for the costume designs.

Here are parts of the mood boards made by the students at Rye Studio School.

New Project! - Battle Festival, Glyndbourne Education Department & De La Warr Pavilion.

I had a lovely day yesterday getting started on one of my next projects - the design for the community opera ‘Push’ by Howard Moody, and directed by Simon Iorio. The project has been commissioned to mark the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings.

Commissioned by Battle Festival, and produced in partnership with Glyndebourne and the De La Warr Pavilion, the opera will have it’s world premiere as one of the lead events of the ROOT 1066 international festival which is being led by Hastings Borough Council.

I drove down through gorgeous countryside with blue skies and sunshine to The De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, and then on to St Mary’s Church in Battle - the two venues for the opera, which will be performed in October 2016.

Finished the day with an exciting meeting at Rye Studio School, where I will be delivering sessions with the students as part of the design process of the costumes for the opera. I’m really looking forward to bringing together my design and facilitation work, and it will be great to work with young talented students in an inspiring, creative school.

I’m also looking forward to seeing several hundreds of children, adults and professional soloists onstage together - what a feat of logistical and creative madness! Can’t wait! :)

Want more info? - check out http://www.battlefestival.co.uk

#BattleFestival #ROOT1066 #glyndebourne

Upcoming Work

I’m very excited to be starting work soon on Theatre Centre’s upcoming schools tour of ‘Layla’s Room’, opening in September 2016, directed by Natalie Wilson.

It’s a brand new script currently being written by Sabrina Mahfouz, and we have already seen it beginning to take form in development workshops.

I’m really looking forward to the next set of development workshops, where I’ll be taking along some very early stage visual concept influences / provocations, and starting to see where the design might go.

Ensemble Theatre

I’m now 4 months in to an MA in Ensemble Theatre at Rose Bruford College. It’s been really great to take some time out and be able to research and discover as a student again. I didn’t realise just how hectic my life had become, and I had forgotten the importance of making sure i’m following my interests and ensuring I am being explorative in my work.

So it’s time to make sure I do that! Here’s what I have been up to and what’s in store next...

I have become really interested in, as a scenographer, being within an ensemble, seeing how that changes my working processes, and how the process might be affected by me being there as a devising ensemble member!

January to April was dedicated to taught sessions with Rose Bruford, developing a work in progress, exploring myself within an ensemble devising process.

Yesterday I had a great chat with Sean Holmes at the Lyric Hammersmith - he kindly dedicated his time to talking to me about his experiences with the Secret Theatre Ensemble.

In June I will go to Prague Quadrennial and then on to Moscow in July to spend some time observing Dmitry Krymov’s lab in rehearsals.

July - October is then time to develop a final project and dissertation for the MA. Also I shall be working again with Director Laura Bridges in Newcastle at Northern Stage, and in conjunction with Theatre Hullabaloo on development of a project for very young children. It’s great working with Laura, as she’s very into the deeply collaborative way of working, that ensemble approach to the theatre making process.

And finally, its great to have another project bubbling with Director Amy Draper too - again, Amy and I have been developing our Director/Designer relationship, interested in devised-design, ensemble processes and co-leadership of projects. We had a short development process and run of Life on The Refrigerator Door at The Yard Theatre’s Now14 last year, and we are now looking to develop the production and our ensemble process further into a full scale run in London.

Receiving the Off West End Award for Best Costume Designer for Usagi Yojimbo at Southwark Playhouse. :)

back to University

I’m now back at university doing an MA in Ensemble Theatre at Rose Bruford College.

It’s been great so far, and i’m in the midst of writing an essay, so of course i’m procrastinating by writing on my blog... which I hardly ever write on...

The next term is placements, and i’ll be going to the Prague Quadrennial conference, then on to Moscow to observe Dmitry Krymov’s laboratory in rehearsal for their next production. I’ve never seen Krymov’s work, but his processes and approach to how designers work sounds like a fantastic way for me to further explore my own ensemble scenographic practice.

The Art of Space in Action

Ilmars Blumbergs in Pamela Howard’s ‘What Is Scenography’ Routledge 2002.

I love this quote - it sums up, very simply, what Scenography is for me. It tells us that everything onstage is inherently scenographic - the whole stage picture, movement and space is playable and contributes to the visual world of the production. Therefore, scenography is not a side discipline to theatre making, it is central and inherent - even when you have no ‘set’ you have space in action, you have scenography.

I'm thrilled to announce that I am the winner of the Off West End Awards' Best Costume Designer, for 'Usagi Yojimbo' at Southwark Playhouse!

And to top it off, my first opera design, 'The Blank Canvas' with Opera Up Close is the winner of Best Opera Production! Well done team!

For the full list of winners and finalists go to:

http://www.offwestend.com/index.php/news/view/213

Exciting times - Usagi Yojimbo has been nominated for three Offies -

Best Set (myself and Nina Dunn, our projection artist)

Best Costume

Best Choreography (Congrats Ronin Traynor!)

What a happy Bunny i am!! :) (pun intended)

Usagi Press night!!

Well it's Usagi press night tonight - very exciting!

and we have some lovely comments from a Usagi Yojimbo fan

“It’s a wonderful, joyful production, beautifully crafted… a strong visual impression… a magical experience”

check out the rest of the review at

http://minicomiccourier.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/usagi-yojimbo-at-southwark-theatre.html?m=1

#usagi

Usagi Yojimbo in rehearsal!

Rehearsals started today for Usagi Yojimbo at Southwark Playhouse!

A great first read through - so nice to hear the script after months of imagining the words being said!

Followed by a meeting with my costume maker Kitty Power.

And a delivery of A LOT of bamboo!!

#Usagi2014

http://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/the-large/usagi-yojimbo/

Usagi Yojimbo - Japan's toughest rabbit samurai, live on stage this Christmas, in an epic adventure for the whole family!

Yes - a Samurai Rabbit...! Amazing!

So this is my next design job - myself, Amy Draper (director) and Stewart Melton (script writer / adapter) have been developing ideas for a while now and things are pulling together, with solid ideas forming themselves into a *hopefully* fresh, gently abstract set design, with very exciting mask/headdress/wigs and C17th style Japanese costume.

Just come back home from a good meeting and a wander through the collection at the V&A. It's so fantastic to have such great museums on our doorsteps here in London!

4 stars from The Guardian!

Nominated for Best Opera at The Offies!! A great opening night yesterday for The Blank Canvas

@operaupclose @lucyloveslondon @TomKitney @MusicSyrmos

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