Panto - Jack and the Beanstalk

I've nearly finished the set and props designs for Jack and the Beanstalk! 

A traditional panto set in a circus.

Front cloth:

Modelbox

Trapeze puppets

Fair Game R and D ideas

I was part of the team working on and R and D for a new show by Small Acts of Rebellion called Fair Game. Here are some initial ideas that came out of the R and D.

Panto initial design ideas/sketches

Here are some initial ideas for each scene for Panto.

Mufti Games at the Barbican this Saturday!

I've recently been working with Mufti games, on a new collectors game commissioned by the Barbican as part of their Magnificent Collectors family day.

We have been creating a new game that responds to their current exhibition 

'Magnificent Obsessions'

Classification station badges: 

The badge design is meant to look like crossed magnifying glasses, similar to the crossed keys design in The Grand Budapest Hotel, and also suggests a face with glasses and a moustache.

Info on this Saturdays event:

I'll be there all day Saturday so come and say hi if you pop in!

NYE Tobacco Factory Speakeasy

Working with the Food and Theatre company I recently designed and made the decor for the Tobacco factory's NYE Speakeasy bar. 

It was based around the concept of 'Frank's' bar, with brewed Frank's corn whiskey. Fran was the original architect for the Tobacco factory, and was part of the Wills family who owned it. The Frank's tobacco logo that I used was based on the original trade mark that W.D & H.O Wills used on their Tobacco products.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf opens at the Lawrence Batley

The Boy Who Cried Wolf opens at the Lawrence Batley in Huddersfield, adapted for a larger thrust stage, with a new cast.

Puss in Boots - model box and show

Below shows the model box and the finished design.

Puss in Boots - show photos

Here are photos from each scene.

Front cloth is finished and borders just need glitter!

Panto design

Puss in Boots Set and cloths design

The design is influenced by 1950s fabric prints, illustration and adverts, particularly travel posters. 

I have used block colours with sharp edges and no black outlines.

Link to The Georgian Thetare Royal Website

Panto set and props sketches

Here are some sketches for a few bits from the Panto design for this year's 'Puss in Boots'

The Peepshow opens!

The Peepshow opened in September, these pictures are from Tony performing the Raree Man in Saltaire.

Finished puppets

The Great Fete

I am currently working on the design for an Event in Exeter in August called:

'The Great Fete'

Which is based around a world war one recruitment fair.

Here is the first visual graphics for signage, posters and an identity card.

Peepshow cart is nearly finished!

The Raree Man Peepshow cart is almost finished, I've painted all the text on the cart and finished all the signage, even the Royal peep is ready!

It's now in Dawlish ready for the rehearsals.

Peepshow R and D session

Last weekend the 'Raree Man' Peepshow team met for a two day R and D.

I made a mock up of the Peepshow box for us to work with and we tested out projection, puppetry, foot pump balloon inflating and lots of other mechanics and elements from the show.

The Leeds Labyrinth - Open Now!

 The Leeds Labyrinth is now open!

This is the entrance to the Leeds Labyrinth this is where your journey begins. 

The golden owl watches over are as you enter. Like it does on so many buildings in Leeds. You must knock the lion door knocker before entry, and MUST close the door behind you.

The Leeds library has some amazing tile work through its corridors and on it's the walls, I was trying to mirror this and create the Labyrinth entrance thats looks like an original part of the building.

The tiles fragment and begin to breakdown and turn into the stone walls of the Labyrinth.

The red thread begins here, tied to a pair of golden owls, the red thread helps you to native your way through the Labyrinth. You are invited to help yourself to a piece of paper and a pencil to take with you on your journey.

There are 365 stories tied to the red thread which leads through the Labyrinth to the centre. These are written by Mathew Bellwood, he wrote a story a day for a year.

Leeds owls inhabit the Labyrinth and have service route holes to allow them easy passage through the space. They also guard the stories stored in the centre, the heart of Leeds.

Throughout the Labyrinth you can find listening posts, here you can listen to music written and stories told about Leeds. Spend some time in someone else's shoes.

In the ladies room there are embroidered cushions made by Hayley Mills-Styles. The cushions are cerated from embroidered maps sewn by the local WI ladies. In this area there are two sets of headphones which play the ladies voices re telling stories and sharing memories from their lives in Leeds. This is a space for you to relax and listen to stories, bring some knitting or sewing if you like.

  

The paper boats have been made by school children in Leeds, they travelled on a canal boat down the river and thought about their hopes and wishes for their futures in Leeds.

They wrote these on the boat's flags.You can sail origami boats in the water basin, a pump creates a water flow and the boats sail from one side to the other. They can then be pegged up to dry, before being sailed again. People are also invited to fold their own origami boats to sail, from maps of Leeds.

The centre of the Labyrinth is the last space you travel through. When the door is closed the room consists of 8 identical walls with tiles, shelves and doors. 

You are invited to write your own story and place it into the well. At the end of each year the stories are collected and stored in the dated boxes on the shelf above. 

The last question to ask yourself is: Which door is the way out? 

Construction by Gideon Woods. Tiling by Kelly Jago, assisted by Vicki Smith. 

Scenic painting by Kelly Jago, assisted by Josephine Far.

Finished design for 365 Leeds Stories

Between Autumn 2013 and Summer 2014, Alison Andrews and Matthew Bellwood will be working with people from all over Leeds to create a series of maps of the city. These will be produced in collaboration with a range of other artists. Maps will be sung, embroidered, floated down rivers, fixed on to buses and rendered as shadows. Each map will show the city from a different perspective.

In May 2014, the maps and the stories they tell will be presented in Leeds Central Library where they will take the form of a labyrinth, an interactive maze of maps through which new routes and journeys may be imagined.

 Finished design for the Labyrinth, for 365 Leeds Stories. 

This is the centre of the Labyrinth, with a well in the centre. People who travel through the labyrinth have the chance to leave a story in the well.

Click here for more info

Puss in Boots 2014 at the Georgian Theatre Royal

I have started work on the set and props design for This tyears Panto at the Georgian Theatre Royal 'Puss in Boots'. I'm very happy to be working with the same creative/production team as Cinderella. This years Panto will be set in the 1950's, here are some of my research images:

Here is a link to my Pinterest board for Puss in Boots with lots more research images and ideas:

Puss in Boots Pinterest board

Cinderella opens!

More photos to come...

Written and directed by Tony Lidington

Costumes designed and made by Naomi Parker

Set and Props designed and made by Kelly Jago

A few reviews:

Northern Echo/British Theatre Guide - Helen Brown:

"PANTO is the last refuge of the old variety performances when music hall was king. Where better to put the nation’s favourite, and the oldest traditional Christmas pantomime, than in this beautiful little theatre.

And what a panto, I’ll go as far as saying that it’s the very best panto I’ve ever seen.

Director Tony Lidington knows a thing or three about theatre and it shows. He uses shadow puppetry to cover the early scene-setting story to great effect."

"The use of the historical woodland scene backcloth was a masterstroke from designer Kelly Jago, even though the copy cloth is probably more tatty than the original, she complimented it with some extraordinary painted scenery in the kitchen and I think Jago has probably got glitter in her veins - I bet she glued glitter to macaroni as a child."

The Stage - Kevin Berry:

"This is a visually beautiful pantomime, rather than merely pretty, that will live long in the memory."

Teesdale Mercury:

The sets and costumes are perfect throughout and the children as sprites are an absolute delight even if just a touch scary.

If you don't know of the Georgian Theatre Royal have a look at this tour of the Theatre:

Finished designs for 'Cinderella' Panto 2013 at The Georgian Theatre Royal

I designed four clothes, the boudoir, ballroom, kitchen and a double layered front cloth.