Musings of a Jobbing Designer: Adventures as a freelancer 1985 -2009
August 31, 2009 – 11:11 am
After the collapse of Theatr Cymru at the beginning of 1984, I had to decide whether to upsticks and seek pastures new or stay and be part of the new developments that were taking place in Wales: I chose the latter. It became clear very quickly that another mainstream company was not going to rise from the ashes of Theatr Cymru. The Arts Council embarked on a policy of project funding. Hwyl a Fflag was set up dedicated to producing work by new writers. I designed a number of productions for them. I was involved in ‘Ffatri Serch’, and ‘Bedlam’. Both were directed by Gruff Jones who had done much of the best work with Theatr Cymru. Wales being a tight community, many of the people involved in Hwyl a Fflag were ex – Theatr Cymru and it operated from the same production base. But the way it was structured – everyone on equal wages and everyone having a say in company policy was quite different. The other big change was being hired per production: up to that moment I had always been a staff designer. It was a different world and to begin with unnerving. It quickly came clear that I could not earn a living wage simply by being a theatre designer and that I would have to branch out. As it happened S4C had just come into being in 1982 and was mopping up a lot of the talent that had previously worked in theatre. And when I was asked to design a small production I felt I could not refuse, even though I had little idea then what it might entail.
So in 1985, more by luck than planning, I turned my attention to television design. My first efforts were a series of Almanac programmes for Filmiau’r Nant. They were an excellent grounding in (to me) a new craft: half hour period drama documentaries, filmed in five days and prepared for about the same time. These led to more drama work, first ‘Deryn’, a gritty drama about small town dodgy characters again for Filmiau’r Nant and then ‘Minafon’ for Ffilmiau’r Eryri. They were long running contemporary series shot mainly on location, or in custom adapted empty buildings.
So how did I find TV design? Well obviously you start from the same base: a script and a director and ones responsibilities are the same: the visual content of the production. But there the similarities end. Theatre is seen as wide angle shot continuously, however much the lighting might focus on one area or another, but is viewed from multiple angles. One of the main design problems and in many ways the most exciting part is how to get from location A to location B without breaking the action. Also the designer in theatre is usually responsible for sets and costumes which is never the case in TV. The continuity problems are just too great to make that practical The most important difference is that in theatre, what you see is what you get, and there is the instant reaction of the audience, whereas in film and TV after shooting the real work of editing the work begins and the designer is not normally part of that crucial process. In TV the eye is the camera, and do not believe any stories that it cannot lie. Also the nightmares tend to be different: I used to lie awake picturing ill fitting sets crashing together whereas in TV it was: do I know what the continuity dressing was for a set filmed x weeks ago but which needs to be picked today. I had to learn a different mind set: to realise that the only thing that mattered was what the camera saw, and what was off camera does not exist. The wisest words I have heard was from a very experienced film designer, who said ‘in film you do not design sets you design shots.’ It took a lot of getting used to but when it worked and there was a good crew it can be very satisfying.
Television work increased in variety and by the early to mid 90s encompassed ‘Jeux Sans Frontieres’ for the EBU / Ffilmiau’r Nant and the award winning film ‘Hedd Wyn’ for Pendefig, for which Jane Roberts and I received a BAFTA Cymru for Best Design.
Studio work followed with ‘Magdalen’,
'Magdalen' set in Barcud Studios, Caernarfon. Ffilmiau'r Bont / S4C
a youth musical produced by Filmiau’r Bont and a variety of other programmes.
My TV has always been for S4C productions and usually drama series. Apart from ‘Hedd Wyn’ there were other films, namely, ‘Gwynfyd’ and ‘Oed yr Addewid’, directed by Emlyn Williams and produced by Ffilmiau’r Nant, and ‘Mynydd Grug’ for Llun y Felin.
For Ffilmiau Eryri: the dramas ‘A55’,
Mural painted by Chris Green for the series 'A55'. Ffilmiau Eryri/S4C
‘Cerddwn Ymlaen’ and most recently ‘Tipyn o Stad’, and the studio sitcom ‘Naw Tan Naw’. I’ll go into a bit more detail about two contrasting TV productions.
‘Hedd Wyn’ (1992) was a privilege to work on. It told the story of poet and reluctant soldier Hedd Wyn from his life in the peace of a North Wales farm to his death during the slaughter that was WW1.
Shan Davies was the producer and Paul Turner the director, Ray Orton the director of photography and Jane Roberts and myself were the designers.
'Hedd Gwyn'. Yser Canal set at Templeton Airfield. Pendefig/S4C
We had worked together before and so knew each others work. Jane was engaged for the project first and looked after all the location work in North Wales. I was engaged to create the battlefield from four acres of the disused Templeton air field in South Wales and to look after various other locations connected with his training and journey through France to the front. I was working in South Wales while the scenes were being shot in the North. There was a great crew working with me to create the Somme. It is amazing what 3 JCBs and a plough can achieve in a couple of weeks. In addition to the general desolation, the frontline trenches were dug and dressed with scrap corrugated sheeting: a communications trench and the Yser Canal carved out. The hut used for the medical examinations and dormitory was erected on site and lastly the dugout, field ‘hospital’ where Hedd Wyn finally died. It is on projects like this that one truly understands what a collaborative effort is.
At the other end of the spectrum but also on a large scale was ‘Jeux Sans Frontieres’.
Jeux Sans Frontieres: Cheshire Cat set. EBU/Nant/S4C
This was a big project. A huge challenge but with hind sight, great fun. In the current climate it would be impossible to mount, but it was a different era then. Tastes have changed radically and what seemed fun then would look very dated now. It was a child of it’s time.
Ffilmiau’r Nant, for S4C produced four series of the programme jointly with the EBU (European Broadcasting Union). Robin Evans and Susan Waters were the producers and had built up a wealth of experience from the previous two series before I joined the team for the last two. Robin was also the director. It was a real joint effort.
Original drawing for Cheshire Cat game JSF. EBU/Nant/S4C
It was of course a multi-national enterprise with eight countries including Wales involved This to me very much added to the attraction of the programme.
The brief was to design mad cap games; not my natural sphere, but with a lot of help and encouragement all round we got there. All the
time you had to be aware that every game had to be really physical, that every prop had to be multiplied x 8 and there was no time to try the games in advance bar about a day before recording when all the teams converged on the location and mayhem broke out.
Once the ideas were in place the real work began. The secret was to choose the contractors carefully, give clear plans, encourage them on their way and make sure that everything arrived on time and fitted together. Easier said than done, and there were moments of panic. I was very lucky in that most of the key people had been involved in the first two series and new what to expect.
Meanwhile, Theatr Gwynedd, which previously had been run by Theatr Cymru had to find a new role. It had always been a receiving theatre and picture house, and as it was owned by Bangor University was a facility for the Drama Department It had become an important community asset. Between 1986 and its closure in 2008 it had three artistic Directors: Graham Laker, Sian Summers and Ian Rowlands.
In many ways the productions that I designed for Theatr Gwynedd are the most satisfying that I have done. Over the years I built up a strong relationship with Graham Laker and we understood how we worked and our theatrical tastes largely coincided. I will just list some: ‘O Law I Law’ (From Hand to Hand), ‘Y Gelli Geirios’ (The Cherry Orchard), ‘Pwy Sy’n Sal’ (Moliere double bill), and finally ‘Amadeus’,
'Amadeus' model. Theatr Gwynedd 1999
which was his last production before he died, tragically young. For Sian Summers I designed ‘Dyn Hysbys’ (Faith Healer) and for Ian Rowlands ‘Dynes Ddela Leenane’ (The Beauty Queen of Leenane)
For the last few years it became solely a receiving house and cinema. During the summer season it produced English language shows for a tourist audience: particularly musicals but also popular drama. This tradition was started when Theatr Cymru ran the theatre on behalf of the university with ‘Under Milk Wood’ and ‘Irma la Douce’. Graham Laker directed a string of very successful shows drawing on the talents of the university and professionals in key roles. These included ‘ Joseph and his Technicolor Dream Coat, ‘Fiddler on the Roof’, ‘Cabaret ‘ and ‘Oliver’. In the days when the University had a drama department one of my jobs as resident designer with Theatr Cymru was to design the occasional production for the department. These included ‘The Crucible’, ‘The Good Woman of Setzuan’, ‘Spring Awakening’ and ‘Saved’
In 2003 Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru (The Welsh Language National Theatre) came into being and I have designed two productions for them: ‘Hen Rebel’
Hen Rebel model. Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru 2005
and ‘Cysgod y Cryman’.
The first was a large scale musical set in 1904 and dealt with the Welsh religious revival and the other was an adaptation of a very popular Welsh novel by Emyr
'Cysgod y Cryman' set Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru 2007
Humphries telling in epic form of the political struggles of the early 1950s. It was a very challenging play to design, containing as it did so many scenes ranging from two farms in Mid Wales to Bangor University. Flying scenery was not an option as at least one venue was with out a fly tower. A 20’ revolve was settled on which worked a dream, being suprisingly quick to install and was completely silent. On it was built a stepped spiral ramp. Upstage was suspended a large front projection screen -no depth for BP – onto which were shown doctored location scenes.
For 35 short years Theatr Gwynedd was home to live theatre in North Wales. Now it is no more. I feel very proud to have been able to be part of it, and to have designed both the first and the last shows mounted there. The last was the co-production with Theatr Bara Caws and Galeri of ‘Llyfrr Mawr y Plant’. It had its ups and downs, but now it is gone I can only hope that a positive solution is found
'Llyfr Mawr y Plant'. Theatr Gwynedd/Theatr Bara Caws/Galeri 2008
Musings of a Jobbing Designer: Theatr Cymru 1972 – 1984
August 9, 2009 – 9:05 pm
During the summer of 1972, while I was still Head of Design at the Liverpool Playhouse, the theatre received a phone call from Cwmni Theatr Cymru ( The Welsh Language Theatre Company) enquiring whether a designer was available to design ‘Pethe Brau’ (The Glass Menagerie’) for the National Eisteddfod being held at Haverfordwest. As it co-incided with my Summer break I said yes. It seemed like a good idea and a chance to make new contacts: I had no idea it would change my life.
As usual there wasn’t much notice ~ June as I remember for an August (1st week) opening. Par for the course. At this point I was pretty unaware of the company except for the fact that on a Monday they had toured at the Liverpool Playhouse and performed a Welsh translation of Moliere’s ‘La Malade Imaginaire’ to a packed house. I didn’t see the show, just heard the reports. In spite of Liverpool being close to the Welsh border I was not at all aware of Welsh culture beyond occasional visits to Snowdonia as a tourist. The usual state of affairs. But as ‘Pethe Brau’ could be read in English I saw no problem, and as a play it was a joy to design.
Pethe Brau (The Glass Menagerie) by Tennessee Williams
I went to Bangor where the company was establishing its base and met Wilbert Lloyd Roberts, the driving force behind the company. He was not the director of ‘Pethe Brau’ however. He filled me in about the company. At the time it was the only fully professional Welsh Language Theatre company and it’s brief was to tour plays from a very broad repertoire to all areas of Wales where the Welsh language flourished. At the time it was an arm of the Cardiff based Welsh Theatre Company and shared workshops and technical facilities with them This was to change in 1973 when it acquired a disused chapel in Bangor to use as it’s own technical base and it became fully independent. As there were no purpose built theatres then in centres of Welsh communities all designs had to be accommodated in various school and village halls.
The performances at Haverfordwest were to be in the comprehensive school:- stage size 24’ w x 16’ d x 12’h.: The Liverpool Playhouse it was not! The play was to be directed by David Lyn and the set was to be built in Cardiff. With this in mind I contacted David Lyn, and in Liverpool designed the play and made the model. It was a brand new experience and the intimate scale was not all inappropriate to the play. David Lyn was full of ideas and we settled on a fragmented, organically shaped, dreamlike rendition of the apartment room. I quickly realised that many of the principles of design I had learnt and used when working in fixed spaces had to be jettisoned when designing for touring.
With the design approved and the drawings done I went to the Charles Street workshops in Cardiff to meet Buckley Wyn Jones and his assistant who were to build the set and also the stage management and cast.. The project set in motion. I returned to Liverpool and left them to it for a couple of weeks. When I returned the set was beautifully built and set up and just waiting for me to render it. I really enjoyed myself. The small scale meant that it could easily relate to the cast without the massive distortions of scale that can easily occur on a main stage. The technical weekend was good and the performances excellent and I went away feeling that I had done good work with good people in surroundings people take holidays to find: but thought no more about it and went back to 3 weekly rep, which I enjoyed when it worked but could find very draining when it didn’t. The model of ‘Pethe Brau’ still exists and even after more than 30 years I do not feel ashamed of it. I can’t always say that.
This brief encounter was followed in the Spring with another offer to design for them: this time John Gwilym Jones’ play ‘Y Tad a’r Mab’. Now this was a different challenge – to design a play in a language I could not understand. I was probably given an English synopsis, but mainly I relied on talking to the director: Nesta Harris. This of course involved a great amount of trust but I do not remember that being difficult to establish and it is something I came to rely on a great deal when I went full-time with Cwmni Theatr Cymru later in the year. In many ways it can be liberating, particularly regarding stage directions. One concentrates more on the ‘world’ of the play and less on the number of doors. Again it was a schools tour but this time with two locations: a domestic interior and a municipal park. I had to find a way to combine these on the stage without them seeming either crowded or out of scale. In fact they merged with much overlapping of colour and texture. I remember meeting the author – something I had never done at Liverpool and he helped me a great deal with understanding the play. ‘Y Tad a’r Mab’ was built and rehearsed in the newly acquired tabernacle workshops in Bangor. Little did I know it was to be my base for the next 12 years. Crucially it was built by Glyn Richards, one of the finest carpenters I have ever met and a great friend. To him nothing was too complicated. His background was in the pattern shop at the Dinorwic slate quarry and fine joinery was in his bones and he had an endless stream of stories to tell. I learnt more about Welsh life from him than anyone else.
There was sufficient space within the Tabernacle to build, paint and pre-rig and light the show before taking it on tour. And also in the building was a rehearsal room and wardrobe department.
Unfortunately as time went by ‘stuff’ accumulated and the space became overloaded. There was a lack of investment in it and in Winter it was freezing. I mentioned the carpenter earlier because for a designer the relationship with the workshop is crucial.,- they can make or break a design, and it is much more rewarding to design for the strengths and skills of one colleagues than to simply present some working drawings and walk away. The relationship is not unlike that between the director and the cast, but it is often overlooked. It is a creative partnership which can give real added value to the design: a really good carpenter, like a really good painter takes the design that bit further than mere re-production.
In 1974 Theatr Gwynedd opened, the first of the chain of medium sized theatres built in Wales. It was quickly followed by Theatr Clwyd, Theatr y Werin in Aberystwyth, Theatr Sherman in Cardiff and Theatr Ardudwy in Harlech. They went some way to bringing theatre provision in Wales into the 20th century, but as there were still strong Welsh language areas outside their catchment, it was still necessary to include some of the smaller venues in the tours, and this of course had a profound effect on the way that productions could utilise the new buildings. The acting space could be enlarged and but the most obvious technical feature, the fly tower had to be more or less ignored, which was most frustrating. The most common type of design was the ‘island’ set. This would fit in all locations without major modification, but it’s effect would vary enormously between the smaller stages where it might dominate to the larger ones where it could recede. Different again was Theatr Ardudwy which had an amphitheatre auditorium which gave a particular intimacy,
The productions in the years to come, were numerous, about 9 per year, and there were a number that really stood out, and during the seventies there was a real energy in the company. The repertoire was very broad, ranging from new Welsh writing, notably the plays of Gwenlyn Parry, to translations of European classics, and occasionally translations of English plays: ‘Alpha Beta’ and ‘The Rattle of a Simple Man’ spring to mind in the latter category . Every year there was Welsh pantomime, which although following many traditions took there starting point from Welsh mythology rather than the Brothers Grimm, and also there was strong strand of young people’s theatre – Theatr Plant.
Doctor Dewin - Children's Theatre - 1981
The problem of a broad repertoire, which is common to all theatres that follow such a policy, is that inevitably some work is given more emphasis and enthusiasm than another. It must be born in mind that the company had no long tradition of professional theatre to draw on. Most of the previously written plays had emerged from a strong amateur movement or from broadcast medium, consequently there was a feeling of being in the shadow of England. There was much discussion and not a little internal dissent about what direction the company should take and to satisfy the demands for a more progressive policy, Theatr Antur (literally Adventure Theatre) was established to produce productions of a more controversial nature that were at the same time closer to the grassroots. Gruff Jones was the inspirational director behind much of this work, though by definition the productions were very much group efforts. Two that stand out in particular were ‘Cymerwch Bwytewch’ and ‘Hanner Munud’. Eventually this arm broke away to form the highly successful Theatr Bara Caws which is still a driving force in Welsh language community drama. Chris Green came in the early 1970s as assistant designer and designed several very striking productions and he was also an extremely fine scene painter. Especially memorable was ‘Un Nos Ola Leuad’ for which we went to the Penrhyn Quarry in Bethesda to take fibre glass casting of large slabs of slate,
David Lyn did two notable productions in the mainstream apart from ‘Pethe Brau’, ‘Y Twr’ by Gwenlyn Parry
Y Twr (The Tower) by Gwenlyn Parry 1978
and ‘Esther’ by Saunders Lewis. To each he brought a fresh and theatrical vision. Working on ‘Esther’ is one of the enduring highlights of my career. I had started designing the play in traditional fashion. It is a Biblical story and a literal reading of the stage directions would result in a sub Cecil B de Mille style production, which in our hearts neither of us wanted. I had sent David
Esther by Saunders Lewis 1979
some drawings which he used as note-paper to set out his idea of the play as a play within a play set in a nazi prison camp. The way he set out his controversial vision, which at first I felt was just a gimmick, will always live with me as real example of a directors vision shedding light on a text. It took me out of my comfort zone. Another key collaborator was Gareth Jones, the company’s quite extra-ordinary lighting designer. Over a number of shows he was developing beautiful and subtle ways of lighting touring theatre, usually involving exposed lighting rigs and a large number of small open white lanterns, and ‘Esther’ was the culmination of his style.
Working on these productions with regular casts and very talented technical crew built a genuine company spirit which lasted over a considerable length of time.. but inevitably in the end cracks appeared and a certain lethargy set in which led to a quick decline. The birth of S4C, (the Welsh 4th Channel) also had a profound effect as now there was an abundance of well paid work that theatre companies found it very hard to match. For the last two years of the company’s existence, 1982 –83, it was led by Emily Davies, assisted by Ceri Sherlock and promised much and in fact produced some of it’s best work. Ceri Sherlock’s re-thinking of Gwenlyn Parry’s ‘Ty ar y Tywod’
Ty ar y Tywod (House on the Sand) by Gwenlyn Parry 1983
and his ravishing production of Checkov’s ‘Tair Chwaer’ ( ‘Three Sister’) stand out, but the attempt to try to model the company on ensemble lines was dogged by controversy of the worst sort and for some one working on the inside at that time felt like being under siege. One day in early January 1984, the Art’s Council pulled the plug and the ship sank. Since then there hasn’t been a large mainstream company dedicated to touring in the Welsh language. Cwmni Theatr Gwynedd filled the space for many years in some ways but the number of productions was radically reduced. Also posts of resident designers disappeared almost over night during the Thatcher era. I chose to go free lance and supplement what theatre work arose with designing for TV. Very quickly the it came to dominate my time.
Musings of a Jobbing Designer: Liverpool Playhouse 1969-1972
July 29, 2009 – 9:37 am
I found my feet at the Liverpool Playhouse. I went there at the end of 1969 first as assistant designer and then as Head of Design. It was a three weekly rep mounting about 15 productions a year.
The Liverpool Playhouse 1968
The design department consisted of a head of design, an assistant designer, a scenic artist, and two carpenters. The repertoire was very broad, ranging from Shakespeare to Bond and a smattering of West End hits. Antony (Dick) Tuckey was the Artistic Director and Barry Kyle his associate, followed by Andrew Dallmeyer. When I joined John Page was head of design. Between them we did a number of productions which I look back on with great affection. Outstanding in my memory were ‘The Days of the Commune’, ‘The National Health’ ‘O! What a Lovely War’, ‘The Merchant of Venice’ and ‘The Crucible’. There were others that I would draw a veil over.
Like most designers at the time I got this job by responding to an advert in ‘The Stage’. The interview was in London with Antony Tuckey, and John Page. The upshot was that I was offered a one year’s contract renewable in July if I was satisfactory and was asked to design the opening show of the season: Bill Naughtons ‘Spring and Port Wine’. That was risky on their part because all they had seen of my work was what was in my portfolio. Resident design posts were not a rarity then and it was a time of expansion in the arts This did not mean good salaries but there were many opportunities to work for first rate companies over a period of time. There was also a large amount of upgrading of the theatre infrastructure going on as historic ‘reps’ were trying to match the standard that was commonplace in continental Europe. The Liverpool Playhouse was no exception. In 1968 the stage had been modernised with a complete counterweight system new lighting board and an adjacent workshop that replicated the stage in area. Included was a large stage truck on which a complete box set could be pre built. In theory a get in could consist of lifting the dividing doors and winching the set on stage. In practice it was rarely that simple. However, I was able to utilise this splendid facility on my first show and won a number of brownie points for a painless opening to the season. Following ‘Spring and Port Wine’ John Page designed a lavish ‘Pygmalion’ and a delicious ‘Comedy of Errors’. His work was much more lavish than mine.
Spring and Port Wine by Bill Naughton
During my time at the Playhouse I designed three of Bill Naughton’s plays and they were always a pleasure to work on. The other two were ‘June Evening’ and ‘Lighthearted Intercourse’. At the time he was very popular but they maybe have not stood the test of time. They suited the Playhouse very well: Liverpool’s other theatre and perpetual rival, The Everyman would have looked down on them as too cosy by half. The production standards at the Playhouse were very high, but when I visited the Everyman I was very conscious that they had that extra edge. The differences between the two could be summed up in their respective restaurants: The Playhouse’s: glossy and middle of the road, the basement Bistro at the Everyman: rough but full of atmosphere.
The wide range of repertoire demanded sets of varying styles, and although some plays suited me more than others it was exciting to try out new ideas. On reading a script my default mode is to respond to the atmosphere and period rather than the ideas behind. For this reason I prefer to work with directors who themselves have definite ideas and concepts rather than ones who say ‘I just need some ramps and levels’ and leave the rest to you. Dick Tuckey had great talent with large cast plays and the highlight of our collaboration for me was designing Brecht’s ‘The Days of the Commune’. We worked on Brecht’s own principle that the audience must never forget that they are in a theatre, that there must be no illusion.
The Days of the Commune
It’s very difficult to differentiate between which ideas were Dick Tuckey’s and which were mine. We settled independently but at the same time that we would use the revolve. We wanted to get away from the rather monochrome approach that is often applied to Brecht.
The Days of the Commune
Once we had the idea the set was basically incredibly simple. The revolve was a standard part of the Playhouse kit. It was not a permanent fixture, but could be laid down in a couple of hours. It was 30′ in diameter and hand cranked, which we made a feature of in the production. The wings and flies were stripped bare exposing the lighting rig. Other lighting positions were mounted on the two level red painted scaffold structure which wrapped around the revolve. On the revolve were mounted two pivoted sculptural scenic units: a pair of classical columns and a rock. In addition there were flown items to signpost the varying locations. These bold but simple elements provided endless possibilities for the action to unfold without breaking.. Plays based on revolves are a nightmare to rehearse, and I wont forget watching one of the actors trying to perform the seemingly simple task of walking in a straight line along a carpet while the revolve was turning beneath him.
I’ve concentrated at length on this one show to give a flavour of my work at that time.
The Hational Health by Peter Nicols
At the other extreme in Andrew Dallmeyer’s production of Peter Nicol’s splendid ‘The National Health’ I went for ultra realism in the design of the ward to contrast with the fantasy doctor / nurses scenes that cut into the action, which were played in front of a flown projection screen done in the ‘Mills and Boon’ style of illustration.
Collaboration is at the heart theatre work and I was very fortunate in the people who worked there, in all departments. With the fragmentation that happened in the eighties and nineties, many theatres closed their in house workshops and wardrobes and this, to my was of thinking was a huge loss. It might have made sense in economic terms, but it does divorce the ‘makers’; from the heart of the production and the designers work becomes that much more difficult.
For most of the time the designing was shared between members of the design department: I will just list their names as they all made a terrific contribution over the years. They were not all there at the same time, it was not that big a department!. John Page , who was head of design when I joined the department, Anne Sinclair, Billy Meall, Lynne Roberts, John West, and Richard Wright.
Guest designers were employed to bring a different perspective on an occasional basis, which was most refreshing. One of the most satisfying parts of being the head of design was seeing their different ways of working. and their designs realised to their satisfaction. To name a few: Karen Mills was a repeated guest, so to was David Cockayne. Laurie Dennett and Brian Currah did one each.
The Playhouse is a traditional 19th century proscenium theatre and in spite of having first rate technical facilities did have the usual limitations. Stages of that type were designed when most sets consisted of cloths and flatage and the action took place centre stage. Site lines are not a problem if these rules are followed, but play a scene on a high level or way upstage and the audience in the gallery or extreme sides of the auditorium start to complain. It was a perennial problem: how to make the production values relevant and exciting within these constraints. It was trying to solve these problems that bought into existance The Crucible in Sheffield and the marvellous Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.
Musings of a Jobbing Designer: Interlude , Summer 1969
July 18, 2009 – 10:31 pm
March or April 1969 found me in Glasgow as assistant prop maker with Scottish Opera. It was a temporary job for the Summer season, but just what the doctor ordered. The company was at a stage in its development when it was doing very fine work but was still small enough for everyone to know each other and I quickly felt part of a community. From the basement workshop where I worked I could hear the rehearsals going on above me and it was a wonderful . My brief was very simple: there was a months preparation for the season and my task was to make all the vegetables in the village shop for a revival of Britten’s ‘Albert Herring’. Why? Previously real veg had been used, but this year it was touring to Germany and it was felt better not rely on local produce. I also helped where necessary on making sure the props for the other productions were ready and touching up the sets as they came out of storage. I then went on tour with the company and looked after the props in the OP wings during the performances. I found it an excellent way to see first rate artists at work and terrific way to be introduced to opera of which I new very little about and being paid, (£18pw) for the privilege. There is nothing like doing a scene change when the orchestra is playing an entracte on the other side of the curtain and you have to complete before they do.
From a design point of view the productions were elegant and practical, ‘Cosi fan Tutte’, designed by John Stoddart had very traditional scenic devices, painted white and meticulously cross hatched in an illustrative style. ‘Albert Herring’, by contrast was very cosy and the production as a whole a joy. Anthony Besch was the original director of both productions and had been bought back to rehearse the revivals and it really paid off. His attention to detail was extraordinary and nothing passed him by: and I saw him checking measurements from the plan to see that the set was exactly as in the original, and he personally double checked against production photographs that the set dressings were in order. And the performances themselves were equally detailed.
After the restrictions of two weekly rep it was most refreshing to work on a more generous scale. Still, by today’s standards the technology was still firmly in the 19th century. But although I went there primarily with an eye on the design side what real bowled me over was the sound of the orchestra and the fantastic singing.
The one new production was the first complete performance of Berlioz’ epic ‘The Trojans’ with Janet Baker singing Dido. And what an experience. It was a co-production with Augsburg opera who were responsible for the design. The sets were on a grand scale as one would expect and beautifully sculptured. I just wish I had been part of there creation, but they had been pre-prepared. The costume were not so good. It played from 5pm until 11pm with an hours break for the audience to have a meal and for the stage crew to entirely change the set from Troy to Carthage. It was an epic in every way and five performances were given and it never seemed a minute too long.
Everything about it was a new and thrilling and on a scale I have never worked on, either before or since. It was hard work but it all helped me believe that theatre at its best is truly worthwhile.
After Scottish Opera I did a stint in the paintshop at the RSC, again a very valuable step towards going back to designing in my own right. While at Stratford I applied and was offered the job as assistant designer at the Liverpool Playhouse, but that is the next installment.
Musings of a jobbing designer: Harrogate June – Dec 1968
June 6, 2009 – 5:25 pm
Resident Designer, Harrogate Opera House June to December 1968.
It was two weekly rep which with hind sight was a great way to learn how to think on your feet. The pressure was immense and budgets minute. It was a quite different way of working and I am quite surprised that anything worthwhile was produced.
A taste of the repertoire: Relatively Speaking, Wait Until Dark, The Daughter in Law, a premier of Charlie Came to Our Town by Alan Plater, – the last two for The Harrogate Festival,- Irma La Douce, White Lies and Black Comedy, Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and the pantomime, Robinson Crusoe. Staple fare for a theatre of its time.
I suppose I had been spoiled at Edinburgh and had imagined that the way things were done there were universal. They weren’t. Harrogate was a very traditional town with conservative tastes and what was required were traditional sets. I was confronted by a set of stock flats which had been with the theatre literally for about 30 years and was expected to use them. They were uniformly 16’ high in various widths, some plain, some with door or window openings enough apparently to make three box sets. The seasons budget stretched to a bolt of canvas to renew where necessary. I have to say the frames of the flats were beautifully made just as you see in the text books with proper mortice and tennon joints wooden peg fastenings and shoes on the toggle bars: no wonder they lasted. But depressing to having to over paint old canvas continually. Everything was painted on the hand crank paint frame located on the back wall of the stage. For the Harrogate Festival I was able to lash out and design two sets from scratch which was the luxury of the season. Don’t get me wrong, I learnt a lot there and it is good to be out of ones comfort zone occaisionally. I was also very lucky: I was only 2 years out of college and was running a department.
I had an excellent associate in Alan Green and we shared alternate productions more or less. He was an excellent painter and a very good designer. We had met when I was at Edinburgh and he was painter. The high light was working on the Harrogate Festival production of ‘Charlie Came to Our Town’ and D H Lawrence’s ‘The Daughter in Law’ The latter is a gem and I felt more at home with it than most of the rest of the season. There were some great charcters involved in ‘Charlie’ – the late Alan Bradley, director, Alex Glasgow the composer and performer and the playwright Henry Livings was in the cast along with Eileen Derbyshire.
‘Irma la Douce’ had its moments, particularly Act One but it did not hang together as a design in the second part.
One useful design lesson I learnt there is that it is not a good idea to design a set with bold vertically striped wallpaper, as I did for Act one of Relatively Speaking, on a stage that is raked. It had a most disturbing appearance.
Six months, though was quite long enough to be doing a show every two weeks. I now had to decide what direction to take next and decided that I would like a period working with a first rate company backstage but with no design responsibilities. A period of reflection.
The Daughter in Law. Director: Brian Howard. 1968
Charlie Came to Our Town by Alan Plater
Irma la Douce Directed by Brian Howard
Irma la Douce costume sketches
Production photo (photographer and actors unknown)and costume sketches for ‘Irma la Douce’ Harrogate Theatre, summer 1968
Musings of a jobbing Designer: Edinburgh 1966-68
June 6, 2009 – 5:19 pm
Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh 1966-68
Did I feel a trained designer when the time came to leave college? No I did not. But the time had come to take the plunge or change direction. During the last term we all answered adverts in The Stage for assistant design jobs in various reps and also we were all encouraged to enter the Arts Council bursary scheme, which offered year long placements, (about 11 annually) those were the days – and a guarantee of at least one design. It was a lottery where you were sent. To my surprise I was awarded one and ended up art the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh. I could not believe my luck. First jobs are so important as they can colour ones experience for years to come.
The Lyceum Theatre Company had been set up the year before with Tom Fleming as artistic director and Abdel Ekhader Farrah as head of design with the idea of replicating Stratford production values. Apparently it hit the financial rocks quite early and Tom Fleming left and he was replaced by Clive Perry with Richard Eyre as his associate. But the structure of the design department and the philosophy, (think Brechtian) that had been set up remained in place and I was able to benefit enormously from it during the two years that I was there. Apart from Farrah, there was his assistant, Hamish Henderson, and two other assistant designers, Andrew Sanders and Ian Watson: my title was Arts Council Design Assistant, which followed the rule: the more junior the post, the longer the title. It made up for the £14 pw wage packet. When I arrived I had no idea what to really expect but I had started my professional life
It was a steep learning curve. The department was run like a co-operative with a group of designers under a head of design. The design work was rotated and we worked on the painting and prop making of each other’s productions. In addition there were two splendid carpenters and an absolutely amazing prop maker. When I arrived the Head of design was Abdul Ekader Farrah who had developed a of very three dimensional house style and an incredibly high standard of carving and finishing but no illusionist scene painting in the traditional sense. Later Geoffrey Scott became Head of Design and the style changed somewhat.
The routine of three weekly rep was gruelling but even as a junior I quickly felt part of a team and working on some very fine productions. I found I had an aptitude for prop making and polystyrene carving which was just coming into its own for 3D work. This was of course long before the days of vac forming. Pretty well everything was made in house with the exception of everyday furniture which was generally trawled from junk shops and the like. Hector Riddle, the head of props was quite outstanding: I remember the Bofors gun he created for Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun was especially impressive. It was the level of care taken on the details that stood out.
An unusual feature of the way that Abdul worked was making models to 1inch =1foot rather than the conventional 1/2inch = 1 foot. His working drawings were equally bold and clear and unfussy. The feel and level of detail that could be achieved with this scale was very great. I made the model for Juno to that format but subsequently saw the practical advantages of the conventional way when I had to transport the models from A to B.
One important lesson I learnt as an assistant was don’t throw scraps of paper away. A distinguished guest designer came to do a Chechov play and rather than provide a model, he gave beautiful water colour renderings of each act and free hand annotated working drawings which it was my job to draw up for the carpenters. This I did and everything was fine until it came to handling the flats. The designer had specified really bulky mouldings high up on very tall flats. These had been made of profiled ply. When it came to standing them up flats were very likely to break. When the designer saw them he questioned the way I had interpreted the designs, and it was only after rescuing his originals from the wastepaper basket that my face was saved. On stage when everything was in position it became obvious why he had chosen the proportions he had. But it was a scary moment.
It was an extremely practical hands on year and was a big change from college where apart from the 3rd year production the course was large creating ‘imaginary’ productions. I found I really enjoyed the process of making and working on other designers work. It helped a great deal that we shared a common vision. ‘Truth to materials’ was a watch word and we never grained a piece of 1/8th ply if we could stain a piece of 6’’ x 1’’. I don’t know how many planks I stained with vandyke or other dyes and scorched with a flame gun and wire brushed. Or how many acres of muslin I cut into small squares to apply to carved polystyrene with hot size glue. One of the most lingering memories any designer / painter has of working pre 1980s was the smell of the workshop: the hot glue, F.E.V. and if you were using ultramarine blue, the smell of bad eggs. The introduction of pva was caused a real cultural shift. Another memory of is of how crude, not to say dangerous a great deal of the stage mechanics were. Hemps sets are a simple idea but they are a huge trust came for anyone standing underneath them.
When the time came to design my first production, Juno and the Paycock, I had at least gained a great deal of practical experience and seen how others did it, but it did not stop it being unnerving.
I will never forget the terror when reality struck and the designs had to be transformed from drawings and models into the real thing. Much of the research for the set was done among the crumbling tenements that were being demolished in Edinburgh at the time. And which were markedly similar to Dublin slums. A great deal of effort was given to making the crumbling textures as real as possible . The argument that audiences do not notice minute detail in a setting is a myth. Not only are they confronted with the set over a long time span, but also those that are close can be very close indeed.
It was a huge privilege to be able to work with such a distinguished company on my first professional production.
Juno and the Paycock. 1967. Joxer, Captain Boyle, Juno and .........
Captain Boyle and Joxer costume sketches for 'Juno and the Paycock'
My Arts Council bursary expired after designing ‘Juno’, but I was kept on as an Assistant designer for another year which was a great vote of confidence. The way of working remained the same, there may have been a modest pay rise. My next design, ‘The Ha Ha’ by Richard Eyre, came as a complete surprise and was a very different experience to designing ‘Juno and the Paycock’ . It was a brand new play, set in the present and the playwright was the director. On the surface it was quite straight forward, mostly it was set in a side ward of a mental hospital but with one scene set in the board room. There was a wonderful central performance by Angela Pleasance in the role of the disturbed Josephine, but the entire cast which included Rosemary McHale, Miriam Margolyes, Antonia Pemperton and Dorothy Reynols was excellent. If a had my chance again I would have designed it differently, and I feel Richard Eyre wished I had. The text was realistic and I took this literally and produced a set made up of large naturalistic elements when I could have gone done a more suggestive and abstract route, but at the time I could see no other way. It rather went against the delicacy of the production. The production later transferred to the Hampstead Theatre Club, but to my disappointment but not surprise another set designer (Colin Winslow) was employed. If you read this Colin and you have any photos of your designs I would love to see them.
'The Ha Ha' written and directed by Richard Eyre 1967 Miriam Margolyes, Antonia Pemperton and Angela Pleasance
The other memory of it was my first experience of stage mechanics letting the play down when two large scenic trucks collided during a public dress rehearsal. I wanted the world to swallow me up.
The last play that I designed at Edinburgh ‘Death of a Salesman’ is the one that meant most to me as a play. I remember Richard Eyre saying at the read through that this was the most immediately moving drama, and I think that is true. It is wonderful to design and at last I broke out of my naturalistic mode and produced a design that at the time I was very proud of; if I saw it today I would no doubt think otherwise.
All good things come to an end and at the end of that season the company was slimming down and my contract was not renewed. I have to admit it came as a shock, and my next job as resident designer at the Harrogate Theatre was quite different and one where I rarely found the same satisfaction.
Musings of a jobbing designer: DIY CAD
June 4, 2009 – 11:42 am
Someone once told me that had the pencil been invented after the computer then it would be seen as a great advance: light weight, flexible, inexpensive, and through the hand, directly connected to the brain. In many ways this is true. For all it’s sophistication and mystery, the computer can be an unwieldy way of performing simple tasks. Yet it has, particularly for an untidy worker like me, many advantages…….
Very early in my struggle with CAD I went on a 5-day intensive AutoCAD course, geared directly at TV designers. It was most illuminating, but in the end I felt that that particular programme, however wonderful, was geared to corporate rather than individual use.
AutoCAD being far beyond my resources, I purchased AutoSketch, a simple 2D programme from Auto Desk the makers of AutoCAD. It is an entry-level product: very user friendly to people coming to CAD from the drawing board. Unlike AutoCAD scales and paper sizes are set from the word go, though these can easily be changed during the course of a drawing if necessary……
But for the lone designer working from home it is a real alternative to its glamorous big brother. The main drawback of CAD work, and this applies to whatever software is used, is the finished paper output. With AutoSketch and I guess with all other programmes one has to resort to tiling unless one is the owner of a plotter. I found this a less laborious a process than it sounds. The A4 printer churns out A4 sheets which are then carefully trimmed and joined with magic tape to create an A1 / A0 sheet which can then be printed at the local photocopy shop. For years I quite happily did this. However you don’t need to own a plotter to use one. The last job I designed was for Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru (Welsh Language National Theatre). They have an in house plotter and I was able to email my drawings to the production manager, who printed them off and distributed them to the workshop and me. Bliss. The other consideration, now that I was linked with another computer, was compatibility. To begin with I was not concerned with my programme being compatible with anyone else’s so the fact that AutoSketch uses its own file format – SKF – was of no concern to me. Now I had to make sure to save the drawings in DWG format, which can be read by most CAD software.
Working on this production, emailing and CAD work really came into their own for me as it was very geographically spread. I designed it at home – Bethesda, North Wales; the company base was in Llanelli, and it was built in Mold, N E Wales. So there was a lot of driving anyway but the ability to communicate electronically cut down the miles considerably. Also I was able to access most of the theatre plans in CAD format and overlay them on my drawings.
Time has moved on since I first wrote this article (2006) and I have now progressed to using TurboCAD v15pro. This enables me to work quite extensively in 3D as well as 2D. I am self taught and I still approach the work I do with it as though it was an unlimited supply card and build the models in much the same way I would a physical model. In that sense I am not computer literate and I cannot hold a geeky conversation about the virtues of one file format against another.
Most of the CAD work I do. and certainly all I do for the theatre, is merely a substitute for making physical models and avoiding the nightmare of clogging Rotring pens. One project I did in 2007, the files I produced appeared directly on the screen.
Out of the blue I was asked by Griffilms, a Caernarfon based animation company, who were producing a short feature, ‘Gelert’ for S4C, , whether I could design the architectural backgrounds for the ½ hour film.
When I was first approached, neither the company nor myself new how to tackle the work. All I was told was that the backgrounds were to be 3D while the characters were 2D. The story of Gelert is an old Welsh legend set in the 12th century and tells the story of Prince Lllewelyn and his faithful dog Gelert. The story board had been done and this was to be my bible. I was intrigued and suggested I do a sample CAD model to show what I was capable of and what the limitations of my programme and ability were. They liked what I did and I started out on a new adventure.
Up to this point I had been using CAD for working drawings and had also done as an exercise computer models of my last two theatre productions. But nothing on the scale that was asked for here. The brief was the exterior and all interior rooms, halls and corridors. of a Welsh Castle and the interior of a Cathedral and also all the furniture and fittings. I stressed that the TurboCAD programme was not suitable for rendering except crudely, but that was not a problem as another company, ThinkPLay of Aberystwyth was charged with doing this and also creating the 3D landscapes with make up the bulk of the backgrounds in the first half of the film.
It was a daunting but exhilarating challenge. The style was to be realistic but slightly overblown, eg the main hall has flights of stairs and multiple columns that would never be found in a Welsh castle, but my job was to flesh out the story board, not to design from scratch. My whole approach was as if making a card model but with out the UHU. And I also had to specify to the rendering firm what the different textures should be. File by file I modelled doors and windows and thrones and tables etc and then it was a comparatively quick process to mark out the walls and insert the openings. Never has the multiple copy tool been so useful as when adding the battlements.
The big break I had was when I upgraded my turboCAD v9 standanrd edition to v12 professional. The difference in speed was amazing and it was not prohibitively expensive,- about £220 if I remember.
I was able to work almost entirely from home. I would produce the designs set by set: send jpeg views to the director for his approval and when they were OK’d would save the turboCAD files as 3DS files and upload them onto the company FTP site, (that was new to me) and didn’t see them again except to approve the rendering of the first set, until I went to a private view. As the files are genuinely 3D the company was able to film them exactly as if it had been a physical set. It was strange in a way be so detached from the whole process and yet it was extremely satisfying to see the actual files I had produced on screen.
On reading David Neat’s article about model making
June 1, 2009 – 9:52 pm
David Neat’s article expressed far better than I can many of the thoughts I have about the place of model making in the design process. It is a process I love though I don’t pretend to me particularly slick at it and there are techniques I have never used. I always say to myself I will make the metal work out of metal, but in the end I generally end up using the tried and trusted balsa and card. I do it so I can sort out in my own mind all the various problems of scale and space before a multitude of others have their say. Some can explain ideas verbally very well, I need to sort things out in advance. Naturally the process follows discussions with the director. I do expect the finished result to develop from it nevertheless the feel and particularly the scale should be accurate.
Recently I have used CAD as an aid to physical model making particularly for those fiddly details like window panes. By printing out the detail on clear acetate you get the glass and panes in one go. For making accurate white card model which are the standard format in TV design, printing out the 1:50 elevations onto thin card and assembling as a model saves a huge amount of time.
At one of the SBTD exhibitions I wrote the following about the way I see model making.
The model is in the front line of communication between designer, director, cast and workshop staff. It is not designed as an art exhibit in its own right but as a stepping stone to the finished theatrical experience Although exact in its own way it often contains short cuts and visual shorthand especially if the team often work together. The over finished model can be a trap albeit a beguiling one and a handicap if it appears to stifle development during the rehearsal period
Musings of a jobbing designer: beginnings
May 14, 2009 – 9:54 pm
The big 65 has come and gone and I’m still here. Time to take stock, to look back as well as forward. I have definitely designed more designs in the past than I ever will in the future. A rough estimate would be about 150 productions in the past and one definite one in the future. I’ve been very fortunate.
I left college in 1966 and apart from the occaisional ‘resting’ periods between jobs, I have designed all my working life, and I still get a buzz from it. So thats OK.
In this blog (nasty word) I will, when I feel like it, ruminate about the different theatres I have worked for and Television work as well. and try and give a picture of how it has evolved from a personal perspective.
I have not had any professional contact with educational establishments since leaving Wimbledon School of Art but I do know the methods have changed enormously. For a flavour of the times I have written an extented piece that appears on my website at http://www.martinmorley.cymru1.net/page4.html about my time there.
