The Best In UK Performance Design Talent Opening Display At V&A

Staging Places celebrates the diversity of British performance design across spaces and genres. This display presents costumes, set designs, models, photos, drawings and puppets that reveal the creative process behind designing for performance.

The V&A, 24 July 2019 to 5 January 2020

After representing the UK at The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space in June, The Society of British Theatre Designers brings Staging Places, with additional new material, to the V&A.

The display will show both the final designs and the various processes and activities to reach them, including a model box from Angels in America (Designer: Ian MacNeil) at the National Theatre, a case full of orange balloons from Misty at the Bush and Trafalgar Studios (Designer: Rajha Shakiry) and individual elements from the huge AV wall in The Assassination of Katie Hopkins (Designers: Lucy Osborne and Nina Dunn)

Designers on display include Soutra Gilmour with Pinter at the Pinter, Shizuku Hairu for Dystopian Dream at Sadler's Wells and David Farley with Flood as part of Hull City of Culture.

Staging Places aims to form an extensive online database of UK designers, displaying their work and promoting them nationally and internationally. Alongside the display SBTD is engaging with nurturing regional design talent across the UK via a series of events to forge connections with producing theatres. Events with practicing designers will be held regularly throughout the show, please see SBTD's social media channels for more information.

Fiona Watt, Honorary Secretary for SBTD and the project curator said, "Staging Places celebrates the work of performance designers and makers based in the UK. Performance Designers are 21st century polymaths with a global reach, we invent imaginary worlds and extraordinary environments in the staging places we call theatres and in the ones we don't. Our work exists on your blog, in your Twitter feed, your Instagram, your Facebook, your Tumblr, your Flickr, your You Tube channel and your livestream. Staging Places aims to celebrate the diversity of performance design and making practices today and to inspire young people to invent it for the future. In a diverse, multi-cultural visual age, we are the storytellers now"

The Society of British Theatre Designers is an organisation for designers, run by designers. Founded in 1975, they represent UK designers nationally and internationally by mounting displays, promoting awareness of theatre and performance design, contributing to design education opportunities and acting as a hub for the sharing of information and communication between members. They are the ?rst point of communication in the UK for the international scenographic community, and for International companies seeking professional designers. SBTD have 3.1k members to their Facebook group and full society members include the multi Olivier award winning Bunny Christie. This year is set to be an important one for SBTD as they continue their Value of Design campaign. Alongside the Association of Lighting Designers, Equity and BECTU they are working to promote increased understanding of the design process, better working practices and employment structures, and improved credit and visibility for stage design work in the media as part of the renegotiations of the UK Theatre and SOLT collective agreements.

The V&A is the world's leading museum of art and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.3 million objects that span over 5,000 years of human creativity. The museum holds many of the UK's national collections and houses some of the greatest resources for the study of architecture, furniture, fashion, textiles, photography, sculpture, painting, jewellery, glass, ceramics, book arts, Asian art and design. The Theatre & Performance collections at the V&A are an incredible resource that document current practice and the history of all areas of performing arts in the UK, including drama, dance, opera, circus, puppetry, comedy, musical theatre, costume, set design, pantomime and popular music

@weareSBTD | #StagingPlaces | www.theatredesign.org.uk | www.stagingplaces.co.uk

 

Key information

24 July 2019 - 5 January 2020

Theatre and Performance Galleries

The V&A, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL

10.00 - 17.30 daily

Free and unticketed

www.vam.ac.uk | 020 7942 2000

 

In collaboration with the V&A. Supported by The Performance Design Education Collective and The Linbury Trust

Notes to Editors
PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL PHOTOGRAPHS USED SHOULD INCLUDE BOTH THE DESIGNER CREDIT AND THE PHOTOGRAPHER CREDIT IN THE CAPTION.

The Society of British Theatre Designers create a new display of performance design every 4 years to coincide with the Prague Quadrennial.

The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space is the largest scenography event in the world. It explores a huge diversity of scenographic practice, from stage and costume, lighting, sound and digital media design, to landscape, urban and found space performance, as well as the design of performance spaces and theatre architecture. The 14th edition of PQ was presented 6-16 June 2019, with over 40,000 visitors seeing work from 79 countries.

It is estimated that 135 000 visitors will see Staging Places at the V&A which will be supported by an education programme.

Staging Places was an open submission initiative inviting designers across all genres to submit up to three pieces of work made between 2015 and 2019.

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.