A very productive day!

PALLANT HOUSE GALLERY CHICHESTER

"This is a democratic space... There are no 'best seats', there are no 'worst seats'. All the prices are the same, and everyone must have an EQUAL EXPERIENCE." - Pamela Howard OBE discussing the Chichester Festival Theatre's original manifesto when designing a show.

I feel as if I have had such a productive day today.

Firstly, I went to the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester to see Pamela Howard's exhibition: "The Art of Chichester Festival Theatre- A Celebration". This was  a wonderful exhibition which was only enhanced by a personal tour from the intoxicatingly marvelous Pamela Howard herself! (For those of you who are unfamiliar with Pamela, she's a certified genius and theatrical big-wig.(See Pamela's website)

 I learnt so much today that it would be impossible to document it all here. There were amny things in the exhibtion that really sparked my imagination, especially some of the Set Designs. Below is the set design for 'The Alchemist' by Carl Toms- 'Master of the Diagonal'. Pamela talked about how the old idea behind the Thrust stage at the Festival theatre, was that all the audience had an equal experience.  an ethos that really appealed to me, especially when thinking about my production of 'Much Ado' in the round. This is something I will strive to achieve with my Much Ado set- as for such a small capacity theatre, I feel it's incredibly important that the entirety of the modest-sized audience gets an optimum view of all the action within the play. HOWEVER, this is incredibly hard to do with a stage 'in the round', and is something I will have to continue thinking about.

 The three things that will really stick with my from Pamela's tour of the exhibition are as follows:

1. Ralph Koltai's set for the 1968 production of 'The Tempest'. Pamela showed us this very modern-looking set model made up of simple shapes and forms, and explained that at the beginning of the show, none of the set was visible- it was all covered with an extremely large sheet of black silk- and as the storm raged, fans blew the sheet to making it look like a tempestuous sea. Yet as the storm began to subside, there was a man under a small hole in the centre of the stage who was gradually pulling the fabric through the hole to eventually reveal the set in full. The circular shapes then appeared to make Prospero's Island move. it all just looked so incredible- how could someone think of such a marvelous idea? It's one of those things that you see or hear about and it makes you think "What on earth am I doing trying to break into this profession?- I will never have something as wonderful as this to offer."

2.  I can't believe that Pamela Howard was not allowed to touch her own work simply because someone without her permission had donated it to the V&A. And to include one of the costumes that she made and designed in the exhibition they had to pay a lot of money to have it on loan from the V&A- that just seems insane.

3. A good way of stopping people getting too close to the exhibits without putting-up a big barrier is to go down to a charity shop and buy some shoes- then line them up infront of the exhibits in question. Obviously.

The costume design above really inspired me. Not only is it a very strong design, but it is also rendered beautifully. It was such a privilege to see this design 'in the flesh' because the light reflected so beautifully off the pieces of gold doily- and you could see how well this material represented the material that would be eventually used to realise the design.

I thought maybe the gold doily route might be an interesting way to go for me, in terms of representing some of the opulent trims of the Saris.

GECKO PRESENT "MISSING" AT THE LIGHTHOUSE THEATRE, POOLE

After I got back from a lovely day at Chichester, I got the bus to Poole to see 'Missing'  with my friend/fellow designer/set assistant for Much Ado, Zoe. We got there about an hour early and accidentally joined a networking event for Theatre Designers spear-headed by the friendly and lovely Lorna Rees- Theatre Producer at Activate Performing Arts. It was such a stroke of luck, we walked into the bar and were approached by Lorna askign us if we were 'here for the Theatre Designer networking event', I assured her that although we had no previous knowledge of this event, as Theatre Design students, this would be something that we would be more than happy to attend. This culminated in us spending the hour before the show hobnobbing with the local-theatre-scene elite! We got given free popcorn and some bussiness cards, and met a lot of the artists working on Battle For the Winds! Lorna was a real star, and we had a little chat with her about our current projects, she was reassuringly enthusiastic about the idea of my 'Much Ado About thebritishraj" (but maybe that was because she thought we had Indian actors...)

Anyway she gave me her card and told us to contact her if we ever wanted to- an offer which I could add to my list following Pamela Howard's offer earlier in the day of me visiting her in her studio at some point! Hooray for networking! 

The performance by Gecko was brilliant! they had such an innovative use of technology that made the show what it was. There was a big 'David Lynch' feeling flowing through-out which obviously appealed to me as a big fan of his work. I can safely say that this is the first contemporary dance piece that I really thoroughly enjoyed, and I think it will be a great kick-start to my pop essay. I especially liked how the metaphysical was made physical- how the malcontente's psychological problems were addressed in a highly medical way. I also loved the use of lit screens to focus and guide the audience's gaze. 

It was very very good. I wonder what the budget was?

What a productive and culturally-rich day of networking and fun.