Designer for '3am' Curve Young Company production, Curve Theatre in Leicester

            In the second term of my third year at Nottingham Trent I had to opportunity to design a production at the Curve Theatre in Leicester. The production was the first from the newly formed 'Young Company', the Curve's own Youth Theatre group directed by Adel Al-Salloum and Peter Rumney, and would be my own first realised project. 

    The piece was to be fully devised by the Young Company themselves, which meant that my design process was different from anything I had previously done because it was to be inextricably linked with development of the Company's own process. 

    I observed the Company in rehearsals and picked out main themes from the work they were producing and tried to gage the tone of their work. This meant that the designs I produced were extremely emotional in response because they came from the raw emotionality and truth of the Company's work. The directors gave the company graphic novels as their catalyst for their development, due to the strong images embodied in the art form and the human, and sometimes supernatural, struggles in their stories. This engender the idea that the piece would take place in an urban landscape.

     I considered a number of different possibilties for the design of the show based on the key themes which arose while the company created the characters they would develop. These themes included; loneliness, confusion, a desire for resolution, chaos, fear and feelings of being trapped. I took these themes and used the meta-narrative overlying all of them, journey, and paired it with the only direction I had been given at this point, which was the hope that the production would be in traverse. I arrived at the design aspect which forms of the foundation of my concept; a road. Because of the previously mentioned them of a desire for resolution I considered that the company could build something as they progressed through the narrative; the idea of going from chaos to resolution. I also considered a tree-like structure, which could represent hope, which leads on to my development model.

The photos that follow are of my development model.
I used the tree to represent hope, while the rubble which formed the trunk showed both ruin and resolution through the act of building. The branches are hanging which I used to illustrate the transience of human life. After a discussion with the directors we decided that the tree being focused at one end of the traverse stunted the space's natural flow, and that the ideas embodied in the structure needed to be distilled and spread throughout the space. The road was the key aspect, and needed to be treated as such.

I saw the theme of ruin as being important to the piece, and this concept bore heavily on the costumes. When designing the costumes post-apocalyptic survival came to mind; the idea of clothes being practical yet ripped and well-worn. This meant the clothes would be in keeping with their environment. The budget was small for the show and working the costumes this way meant that the company could bring in old clothes of their own which could be broken down, keeping clothes to be bought and made to a bare minimum. The following is my group costume drawing depicting my ideas.

    My final stage design retained the road as the central theme and by keeping both ends clear both the flow of the space and the perception of past and future; chaos and resolution were kept intact. I carried the concept of ruin through, designing piles of rubble and broken artifacts at the sides of either end of the road. Using such materials meant they could be found, and not bought, keeping costs down and allowing more money to be spent on the rendering of the road. I designed telephone wires as hanging over-head. This suggested simultaneously; an urban setting, human interaction and the ephemeral spoken word. Writing, as a tool for extending the existence of the spoken word but also the existence of humanity itself, would take place on the floor in chalk. The following photos show my design.

Lastly I include photographs from the production which show set, costumes and how the space was used.

In this scene a piano was flown in. I made sure everything that would appear on stage would be suitably broken down, in keeping with the design rationale.

Curve Young Company production of '3am', photos by Pamela Raith

Winner of The York Prize for design for 'My Family and Other Animals' by Gerald Durrell

    As a third year Theatre Design student at Nottingham Trent we have the opportunity to enter the 'York Prize', in affiliation with the York Theatre Royal and its artistic director Damian Cruden. I subsequently won the prize for my design for the play 'My Family and Other Animals' adapted from the book by Gerald Durrell of the same name.

The design was for the main stage which was to be transformed into an in-the-round configuration. My design focused around how the Durrell family were ensnared by the charm of the inhabitants of the island of Corfu, the island they had moved to, and the magic of the island itself. I wanted the design to be bright and playfully chaotic, a reflection of the tone of the book, while having a sense of spirituality. 

   The following photos show my white card model design for the York Prize. I focused on Greek doors as my central theme because I was interested in how a door is inextricably linked to the person living behind it. By using various different styles clustered together I could represent the unique identities and personalities of the people living behind them, and the way in which the family were caught in this web of spirituality created by the inhabitants of Corfu.

The follwing are costume drawings for 'My Family and Other Animals'. Because I had placed so much importance on the characters when formulating my design I thought I should develop them prior to finalising the set because the space would have to be a fitting environment for them to inhabit. 

The female character directly above is Margo, Gerald Durrell's older sister. I have included this image to illustrate how I intend the character's transformation between England and Corfu to take place, as she leaves gloomy England and adapts to the lively spirit of the Mediterranean island.

The book, being mainly focused around animals, meant that a method of presenting them on stage had to be suggested. We would only have the core family and four other chorus members who would play the natives and animals, this presented a challenge. I considered masks and hand puppets because they would allow for a quick transformation from human to animal, but finally settled on principally marionette puppets. The reason for this decision lay in the fact that the connection between Gerald Durrell, as a ten year old boy fascinated with nature, and the animals gave the book, and play, it's heart and I believed that the only way for the audience to fully feel this connection with the 'animals' was to present them as an entity separate from the actors. 

The photographs below are of the finished design for 'My Family and Other Animals'. When rendering the model I focused on colour, wanting the brightness of the doors to mirror the vitality of the characters and subsequently enable the audience to see through the eyes of the Durrell family as they observe a world they perceive to be magical and beautiful. 

The floor is stylistically similar to the doors in that it is a miss-match of different tiling patterns; extending the idea of playful chaos.

     Following a design presentation to a team from the York Theatre Royal, including Damien Cruden the artistic director and Janys Chambers who adapted the book for stage, I was announced the winner of the York Prize 2011. 

Work Placement with Nettie Scriven

        The following photographs give an overview of my time shadowing Theatre Designer Nettie Scriven. I worked on two plays with her, both in differing stages of development; 'Loving April' by the Oxfordshire Theatre Company, directed by Karen Simpson, and 'Brokenhearted' at Derby Live, directed by Pete Meakin.

My tasks for 'Loving April', which was in it's rehearsal period, included prop sourcing, prop making, costume alterations and scenic painting. 

'Brokenhearted' was in it's white card model stages when I first joined Nettie, which meant my main task was model making as the design developed.

 This photo shows a prop ham I made for 'Loving April'

The set for 'Loving April', which I assisted in the painting of.

The above photos show the finished model for 'Brokenhearted'

Stage shot of 'Brokenhearted'