Set Design
A practical and fun course for everyone who would like to develop their knowledge and skills in creative set design for performance whether that be for theatre, site specific, plays, musicals, operas or immersive performance. As part of the course you will work with performance texts to develop your ability to apply your creative and practical skills in a real-world approach.
During the course you will:
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Explore and develop your creative process
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Learn a range of practical design skills
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Develop your researching focus
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Develop your skills in effectively communicating your creative ideas
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And importantly you will have fun!
No previous experience or creative skills are required; the course is about exploration and having fun with the creative process.
Please note students might need to provide some materials/equipment for the course but we will endeavour to keep costs to a minimum.
Since training in stage design at Wimbledon School of Art Alex has designed over 150 productions for most scales of venue including: west end, regional, touring, site specific and fringe.
For 24 years he has been resident designer at the critically acclaimed Finborough Theatre during which time he has designed around 40 productions. Selected credits include: The Truth About Blayds, The Silver Cord, The Straw Chair, Jane Clegg, Lark Rise to Candleford, Red Night, Untitled, Me and Juliet, Death of Long Pig, The White Carnation (and transfer to Jermyn Street), Dead Dad Dog (and transfer to The Traverse, Edinburgh), Dream of the Dog (and transfer to Trafalgar Studios) and Plague Over England (and transfer to the Duchess Theatre) and most of James Graham’s early plays. At the Finborough he also directed Portraits by William Douglas Home and the first production for over 60 years of J. B. Priestley’s play, Summer Days Dream.
Other recent production designs include: (God Save) My Northern Soul (The Park Theatre), Bull (National Tour), Don’t Destroy Me (Arcola Theatre),Yours Unfaithfully (Jermyn Street), Cash on Delivery, It Runs in the Family, Funny Money, The House on Cold Hill, Dead Simple (The Mill at Sonning), I found My Horn (The White Bear/Riverside Studios), Harpy (Edinburgh and National Tour), Jeeves and Wooster – in Perfect Nonsense (National Tour), The Odd Couple (Vienna’s English Theatre), The Firm, The Meeting (Hampstead Theatre), Can’t Buy You Love, London Calling (Salisbury Playhouse), Staircase, Bodies, The Cutting of the Cloth, The Fifth Column and A Day by the Sea (Southwark Playhouse), Sherlock Holmes and the Crimson Cobbles (The Theatre Chipping Norton and tour), Tape, My Real War 1914- ? (Trafalgar Studios).
Over the past 25 years Alex has also taught drama and theatre craft based subjects for every age from 5 to 80 at varying levels ranging from beginner to degree. In addition to his regular teaching commitments he has run workshops covering a variety of design and theatre practice topics for a wide variety of organisations including: The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Little Theatre Guild of Great Britain, NODA and Boston University.
Occasionally he makes elaborate scale model dioramas for Mischief Theatre’s ‘Goes Wrong’ TV appearances, but they always seem to end up destroying them! He has been nominated eight times for best set design in the Off West End Awards and he is also the artistic director of The Questors Theatre in Ealing.