PRODUCTION NOTES

THE WITCHES

This production was to be a large-scale fantasy drama to entertain families at Christmas. The theatre was very large and purpose built for such performances but the main problem with putting on The Witches is the issue of scale. The multi-locational aspects of the story paled into insignificance when confronted by the fact that much of the action of the play has the lead actors playing mice.

In the story, Boy, an orphan, travels with his ailing Grandmother to the seaside resort of Bournemouth where he unwittingly becomes the victim of a coven of witches who are holding thier annual conference in the same hotel. Boy and another child are turned into mice and have to survive the violent prejudices of the horrified hotel residents to get back to Grandmother and save the day.

Designing the production was a fanstastic exercise in letting the imagination run riot. I devised puppets and props designed to accomodate them, scenery that could give the illusion of people shrinking (special effects by Nigel Worsley) and made the most of pouring colour into everything to make everying a bit larger and brighter than life...as might be seen through the curious eyes of a child.

The set itself was designed to be interactive with trapdoors and parts that opened out and curtains that closed. In order to solve the scale issue, the set was designzed to appear like a corner of a child's playroom with an old-fashioned toy theatre, building blocks and large tome books piled up to give access to the upper level. With the use of lighting (designed by Richard Bunn and Damien Lazell) to isolate various areas of the stage, we were able to create the illusion that the two children, dressed as mice, could be seen to scurry across a vast expanse of tiled floor or climb a mountainous staircase to move around the set.

I was assisted with costume by Corrine Darroux whose feel for colour and texture made the characters jump out of the play and Nikki Sowah who interpreted all the special effects gadgets and props in a style that added a whole new dimension to the piece. The puppet mice - of which there were about 20 - were designed and made by Jenny Templeton. The set was constructed by Mike Hagan and Karen Cherrington with scenic art by Dennis Dracup. The director was Philip Sheahan.

THE TEMPEST

This project realised at the Wimbledon School of Art Theatre was a collaboration between myself and five other designers; Maureen Freedman, Deborah Holloway, Gareth Pahl, Emma Howard & Amber Diett.

The idea was to appropriately transform the environment of a simple white space with a 360 degree mezzanine level viewing platform and six entrances at floor level (designed by Michael Pavelka).

Director Titania Krimpas worked with 3 actors to devise the scene in The Tempest where Caliban encounters Stephano - the drunken ship's cook - and Trinculo - the fool. The comedy of the scene is derived from the disorientation of the ship-wrecked and intoxicated Stephano and Trinculo and the naivety of the primitive Caliban whose only experience of human beings has been his master Prospero and Prospero's daughter Miranda.

What begins as a comedy of errors as the characters roam in and out of the doors - observed by the audience as scientists might view mice in a maze - soon becomes a more sinister situation. The games the three drunken revellers play become more and more humiliating and brutal. With no authority to temper or correct their behaviour, Stephano soon assumes the role of King of the Island alienating Trinculo and making the awestruck and thirsty Caliban his own slave.

Their petty squabbling is dispelled however by the intervention of the Island's own magic powers. Stephano and Trinculo are struck dumb with amazement as the ragged landscape is filled with light and falling feathers.

Many thanks to Maureen Freedman for the use of her wonderful production photographs.

THE BEACH

This is a moving play about two married couples who visit the same deserted Danish holiday resort four years in a row and the complicated inter-relationships they develop with eachother during that time.

The studio Theatre 503 at The Latchmere in Battersea provided a very intimate setting for the performance which was appropriate given the very personal fly-on-the-wall nature of the play's content but also threw up all matter of challenges in terms of space - or lack thereof. Using the paintings of Swedish polymath August Strindberg to suggest the desolate expanse of beach, the design incorporated a split level landscape bisected by a horizon of scaled-up photographic contact paper to suggest a lonely psychological plain full of memories and the jaded interior of a forgotten hotel. The lighting designed by Celia Perry, scenic art of Amy Green and original score composed by Thomas Spencer was key to completing the concept.

Directed by Elly Green and performed by Piers Harrisson (pictured), Beth Aynsley (pictured), Katie Donmall and Sam O'Mahony-Adams, we were fortunate to have as our production manager the play's translator David Duchin and the company of Peter Asmussen himself who travelled from Denmark specially to mark the play's english-language premiere.

Many thanks to Sarah Bell who photographed the production so beautifully and artist Amy Green and team for the stupendous Strindbergian scenic painting on the walls.

THE ELEPHANT CODE

This project for a drama-based conference event concerned a collaboration between myself and two other designers; Maureen Freedman and Louise Green. The brief was to design, dress and costume a set of spaces and characters for a murder-mystery game that was to be the final 'team-building' event for the delegates of a British Petroleum Conference in Nice, France.

Experience Development Ltd's creative team, Gerry Nowicki and David Rowan conceived a series of challenges for the delegates to complete in order to obtain clues as to who might wish to harm a famous sculptor whose latest creation - a large orange elephant - has apparently provoked his own savage murder.

I designed the character of the opera diva played by Dystin Johnson (pictured, left) who I saw as a fierce wagnerian valkyrie. I used underwear padded with wadding and shaped to create the impression of grotesquely feminine armour. Then I covered the base with strips of faux leather and used metallic spraypaint to create a burnished finish. The skirts consist of lengths of sprayed lining fabric covered with layers of net to create weight and bulk.

As a group, Maureen, Louise and I had to design and build a 3 metre-high sculpture of the eponymous elephant (pictured, right) which, for practical reasons, had to be flat-packed and lightweight for transport to the continent. We designed a metal frame (constructed by Barry Saltman) from which we hung a number of segments made from a lightweight foam that could be completely disassembled like a jigsaw puzzle and packed into a very small space.

The stunning and eccentric design of the Hotel Negresco provided the perfect setting for the challenge and reduced any need for elaborate set dressing to a minimum.

THE LADIES' BRIDGE

In 1942, London's Waterloo Bridge was rebuilt by a workforce of labourers primarily comprised of women. Karen Livesey directed this independent documentary film (based on the research of historian Christine Hall) chronicling the building of the bridge using archive footage and the interview testimony of surviving workers. The footage is intercut with a number of studio-filmed black and white reconstruction scenes of the women arriving at and working on the building site.

It was interesting to discover, during the period we had to find the props and tools necessary to dress the set, that the design of, and materials used to produce, the equipment of the day have not altered much beyond the introduction of certain plastics and brand names. It was a very quick shoot - just one day which required a large amount of healthy and refreshing sponteneity.

The costumes were designed by Anne-Marie Bigby and sourced by Anne-Marie and Leila Ransley who also dressed. Karen Livesey was assisted by Kirsten McLeod and the Director of Photography was Peter Emery. The workers were portrayed by Bel Barlowe, Collette Barlowe, Kitty Wilmore (pictured, right), Tanja McVitz (pictured, left) and Phyl Taylor. The producers were Jo Wiser and Rosa Rogers.

AN ASYLUM ON EVERY CORNER

NOT IN MY BACK YARD is the cry of the neighbouring residents of the "institution" of leafy Ashford Dell, a home for the mentally 'not-quite-right'. Marjory (Sonya Raymond) is an obsessive-compulsive housewife cast off by her philandering husband, Samuel's (Jody Tranter) sister has found handling his schizophrenia more than she can manage and William's (Kristopher Milnes) bi-polar disorder has left him swinging desperately between mania and depression.

Marjory, Samuel and William find themselves in the care of Doctor Leonard Zander (Jack Reid), the megalomaniac son of the founder of Ashford Dell, Nurse Fletcher (Felicity Russell), an insecure woman whose obession with the Doctor is tempered only by her obsession with her weight and Doctor Gerrison (Simone Craddock), a newcomer, whose therapeutic goal is the liberation of the residents of the home back into the bosom of the community.

STAND BY YOUR BEDS

"Stand By Your Beds" is a brand new musical with music and lyrics by Paul Tickner. It tells the story of a group of doctors and nurses facing massive bureaucratic upheaval in the health service in the 1950s.

Rasing money for the Phylis Tuckwell Hospice in Aldershot, the World Premier e of "Stand By Your Beds" played to packed out houses every night for a week at the 500-seat Princess Hall, Aldershot from 12th - 17th January 2009. A company of over 100 actors andproduction crew volunteered their time and talents to raise money for the hospice.

Many thanks to Ian Bottle who kindly allowed me the use of his excellent production photographs.

THE LONDON REVUE

Running for 3 weeks at the hen & Chickens Theatre, Islington, 4 actors sang a variety of new songs abouth the Capital penned bby James Michalos. Production difficulties included quick changes, full get out every night and working in a very small space. I dressed the actors in black as a basic costume which matched the look of the space and supended hooks from the rig from which hung key costume pieces and props which made them convenient and added colour and flair. I also hung a sign with the title of the show from the back wall to contextualise the action and painted all furniture the familiar pillar box red colour that defines so much of the city's history.

The rest was upto the excellent cast of Carrie Rawlings. Gemma Morsley, Ian Lilley & Jamie Anderson. Technical wizardry from Marie O'Carnaigh. The director was Damian Sandys.