Jack and the Beanstalk at the Georgian Theatre Royal 2015

Here are some pics from the show!

The Beanstalk

Trapeze puppets

Panto set and painting

I've been working on the Jack and the Beanstalk set for the last few weeks. Here are some photos of the set and cloths.

Front cloth:

Ida Bean's circus wagon:

The Panto is set in a traditional circus, everything has an aged feel to it, achieved with tinted sepia glazes and paint flicking texture added to the signage.

 Other bits of set and signage:

I've had four work placement students helping with the project and a few other people building and painting with me. 

Thanks to:

 Sam Gillespie, Tashi Gregorska, Beatrice, Charlotte, Alice and Lila.

Panto initial design ideas/sketches

Here are some initial ideas for each scene for Panto.

SBTD exhibition - Make/Believe Nottingham

 My display at the SBTD exhibition in Nottingham, on until the 31st January.

More info here:
Link to SBTD website

I am exhibiting:

The Boy Who Cried Wolf - Tutti Frutti

The Raree Man Peepshow - Prom Prom Productions

Cinderella - Georgian Theatre Royal

Catalogue page:

The Boy Who Cried Wolf modelbox

I made the scale figures using a wire armature, Supersculpy for the figure, Das for the clothes and paint to finish.

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.

The Windmill

There is a lot of dressing inside Ada's windmill, including shelving and cake wallpaper. 

The bottom left picture is of the scale model.

Front cloth is finished and borders just need glitter!

Panto cloth designs

To create the designs I used a combination of hand drawing on a light box, and photoshop to create flat bold shapes. The scale images have black outlines but the painted cloths won't.

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'

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

Raree man Peepshow project with Promenade Productions

I am currently working with Tony Lidington on a Raree man Peepshow project. 

I will be designing the peepshow box, cart & internal designs

A bit about the show from Tony:

The Raree Man

The peepshow was one of the most popular forms of street entertainment in the 18th and 19th centuries - not only depicting scenes for amusement, but often as a medium to educate, showcase exotic locations and inform a captive audience about key events past and present. We believe this is the perfect medium to engage with the contemporary passing public– a show that is at once interruptive and intimate, familiar and unexpected…an immersive experience in miniature!

The Raree Show will be a live performance of a fully mobile, self-contained peepshow for the Twenty-First Century. The peepshow will display a series of re-imagined automated tales using pre-cinematic techniques on a contemporary theme. In keeping with Promenade Promotions’ mission to develop historical popular entertainment forms and present them in contemporary contexts.

The show will be performed out of doors and the audience invited to interact with the peepshow by the Raree Man (showman Tony Lidington) who will narrate and dramatise the peepshow’s scenes

Tony Lidington

Some research images:

http://www.prom-prom.com/

365 Leeds Stories

I am currently designing an installation for '365 Leeds Stories'.

Some research images:

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.

Here is a link to the project website: 

Click here:  365 leeds stories

I have been collecting lots of research images and pinning them to my Pinterest board: 

Click here: 365 LS 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: