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.