Olivier awards | The Guardian: What does it take to create a giant chandelier on stage, decked out with more than 100 perfectly balanced, flickering candles? What about a disco floor that dazzles the audience in a play’s final moments but is hidden from view until then? On the eve of the 50th Olivier awards, we meet the artists, apprentices, engineers and designers behind some of London’s most memorable theatrical moments this year.
2 comments:
This article pointed out the thing that I love about theater. “Everything we create is a prototype that has never been done before.” These were all really awesome stories of the new and innovative things that had to be developed as part of the theatrical design process. Sometimes we just think of our job as building stock scenery and box sets with 3 walls and a ceiling, but this craft opens up so many more possibilities to work on interesting projects. If I was working in a typical office doing R&D I might spend my entire career doing research on a single topic, and never do anything except for that one thing. But in theater, we are also exposed to new and fascinating thoughts. We get to work with very creative people who come up with crazy and new ideas that need to be fulfilled. As Kevin says, we are the “2nd order creatives” that can come in and bring those ideas to life.
Wow these productions look sick. I was immediately drawn to the press photo of Les Liaisons Dangereuses for the fantastic visual image created by the lighting, chandelier, and VMD of this production, as well as the historical paintings being used as media and the mirrored set. This looks like an absolutely fantastic technical production and it is really cool to get to see behind the scenes. I especially like the top-down view of the scenic artists who built it standing in the individual pieces of the chandelier. The idea of it working as a chocolate orange is super interesting and I’m curious as to how the different pieces lock together. I was also drawn to the Royal Court’s production of John Proctor with its hidden dancefloor. That is truly such a great scenic/lighting concept for the show, bringing together the environment of the classroom and the show’s final culmination with Red Light.
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