Professional Studies - Production Designer Research:

PRODUCTION DESIGNER RESEARCH

Sir Cameron Mackintosh:

Cameron Mackintosh , a British theatrical producer, has worked alongside Andrew Lloyd Webber, Trevor Nunn, John Napier and Gillian Lynn. The show that these five amazing people worked on is CATS, one of the longest running musicals of all time.
He's worked in producing musicals for nearly 50 years. Other musicals that have been running as long as CATS are Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera. All three of these shows are still running successfully across the world and are loved by everyone. 
Both Les Miserables (2012) and Phantom of the Opera (2011) have both reached their 25th Anniversary stages and have both have gone live and have been put onto DVD.

During the 1990s, he was described as the "most succesful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in the world" by the New York Times. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1996 for his services to musical theatre. From having an estimated fortune of £675 million, this makes him the third most richest person in the British music industry.

He began his producing career in his late teens, first working as a stage hand at the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane, and then working as an assistant stage manager on various production tours. He became a London based producer in the 1970s, The first few small touring shows he did included Anything Goes (1969), The Card (1973), Side by Side by Sondheim (1976), My Fair Lady (1978) and Tom Foolery (1980).

Then, 1981, he worked alongside Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats. It became the hit of the season. With Cats being such a huge success, the original cast including award winning stage sensation Elaine Paige, Mackintosh went to the French writing team of Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil about bringing their musical Les Miserables to the London stage.

He owns several theatres in London's West End, they include the Prince of Wales, Gielgud, Queen's, Wyndham's, Noel Coward, Novello and Prince Edward.
Not only has Mackintosh worked in theatre but he has also worked in film, alongside director Tom Hooper releasing a film version of Les Miserables.

*STAGE HAND*
- a person who works backstage or behind the scenes in theatres, film, television, or location performance. Their work include setting up the scenery, lights, sound, props, rigging, and special effects for a production.

*WRITING TEAM*

- the writers of a play, film or musical who own that play, film or musical.

Phantom of the Opera

The original Phantom of the Opera, starring Michael Crawford as the Phantom and Sarah Brightman as Christine Daei, opened in London's West End in 1986. It is the longest running show in Broadway history and celebrated its 10,000th Broadway performance on 11th February 2012.

In 1984, Andrew Lloyd Webber contacted Mackintosh and asked him to propose a new musical. He aimed for a romantic piece based on the book by Gaston Leroux.

Miss Saigon

This musical is about an Asian Woman and the American soldier she meets and falls in love with. It merges with Madame Butterfly's tale of marriage between the American lieutenant and the Japanese girl is replaced by a relationship that forms between an American GI and a Vietnamese bar girl.

Starring Lea Salonga as Kim, Simon Bowman as Chris and Jonathan Pryce as The Engineer, it made its first appearance at the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane in London in 1989. It closed in 1999 after four thousand performances.

In May 2014, it had a revival performance at the Prince Edward Theatre. Produced by Cameron Mackintosh and directed by Laurence Connor.

BARNUM

Trevor Nunn:

Kiss Me Kate

A Little Night Music

John Napier:

CATS

Les Miserables

Starlight Express

Matthew Bourne:

Swan Lake

Lord Of The Flies

Edward Scissor-hands

Visual Communication - Bowes Museum Trip:

Bowes Museum:

On Wednesday 17th September, I went on a trip with Uni to the Bowes Museum to look at why it was built and to find something that caught our eye and gave us inspiration.

If you've never been to it before, when you first get there you may think at first that it was once a large country estate house (well that's what I thought it was anyway). It was built as a museum by John Bowes for his wife Josephine Benoite, sadly they both died before it was finished.

The dress that Josephine is wearing in this painting was re-created piece by piece and is an exact replica. It was made recreated by historical costumier Luca Costigliolo.

The Silver Swan:

The one thing that really caught my eye, which was one of the main features in the museum, was The Silver Swan.

I found out that its difficult to say who made and why it was made. Its an automation - a machine that imitates the movement of a living creature. No-one knows for sure why it was made and most of the objects were originally made to be sold in the far east. It has undergone several changes to its presentation. It now stands in a glass cabinet yet the canopy that it was originally placed on no longer exists, leaves were added to the feature instead. The swan got switched on to show the movement of it and one thing I and other people noticed is that it ate a fish and swans don't eat fish. My reference for the notes and information I wrote down were from an interactive video with a touch-screen that you could flick through to find out more information on the Silver Swan. It came to the museum in 1878 when John Bowes heard about the Swan in Paris. The Swan moved from location to location within the museum.

Whilst there I took some pictures of the architectural pieces within the museum. This picture of the main staircase leading up to the second and third floor, taken from looking down from the third floor, is a perfect example of perspective drawing.

The detailing on the stairs are really pretty aswell because they are so decorative.

Another piece of work that really interested me was the giant dolls house that was in the room to the right of the main staircase next to the David Hockey exhibition. This shows an absolutely perfect example of small scale structure buildings. I love dolls houses and think they're really interesting, hence why I took some pics up-close. For example, the third image of two floors with doors gives a really close-up image of the detail in the floor and wall of the bottom floor.

Material Culture - The Renaissance Era, The Borgias

The Borgias:

(Horrible Histories - The Borgia Family)

(images from top to bottom; Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia),  Lucrezia Borgia, Cesare Borgia and Four books by various authors about The Borgias)

The Borgias were known for commiting crimes. Cesare, the eldest son of Rodrigo Borgia, was an advenruter and a murderer and his sister, Lucrezia, was a poisoner.

Rodrigo Borgia was known for having several mistresses, but there was one in particular that he cared for. Vannozza dei Cattanei, was one of his mistresses, and the mother of his four children, the youngest being a young boy named Gioffre.