Directed by Colette Murray

What appears to be just another bistro has a more sinister side. A passion for fabulous food and impeccable service. The ultimate eating experience drives Jean-Michelle and Bruno to the most extraordinary lengths to impress their guests.

Charred Grizzle is a grotesque mixing bowl of Commmedia Del’Arte characters with the comic nasty of the Bouffon Clown. Bold masks & costumes were required and a kitchen & restaurant set suitable for outdoor or indoor touring was essential for this static piece of street theatre.

“Charred Grizzle” was developed in partnership with Grassington Festival ’09 and Arts Council England. Please visit Aqueous Humour website for more details & how to book.

Directed by Sue Caudle & Jenny Harris

Performed at The Lowry Theatre, Salford

Platform 1 is a fusion of music and theatre – where we explore what music means to us, what it says about us and how it makes us feel. Music helps us to escape to another place. We listen to music so that we may remember and also forget. This new show combines drama with video and live music as well as an original score and soundtrack. I worked with the group using art in the devising process. The design for the set grew out of these sessions.

This was the second time I had worked with DIY. Strange Capers was performed at the Lowry in 2005 was a sell-out success and we are very excited to be back.

DIY is a Learning Disability Theatre Company based in Salford. They have created and toured numerous original shows. They also run conferences and events as well as leading workshops and projects in schools. To learn more about them or contact them visit their website: www.diytheatre.org.uk

Written by Cathy Crabb

Directed by Tom Hogan

Performed at Proud & Loud, Lowry Studio Theatre

Video by Mariela Artiles

Attitudes to disability have moved on since WWII. Hitler had his extermination programme, Churchill & the Americans had Eugenics. The play explored the current attitude to being perfect and what lengths people are prepared to go to acheive it. The group devised the piece in response to a research document they had commissioned plus drawing on their own experiences. This was then scripted by Cathy Crabb.

Directed by Sue Caudle & Jenny Harris

Performed at The Lowry Studio

“Strange Capers” was devised by the group using Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” as a starting point. The design was developed from a drawing of Shakespeare by one of the members, Anna Ward. The original image can be seen on the cast t-shirts. As some of the cast are in wheel chairs or have sight problems, a smooth floor cloth with strong design to help judge positions was essential. They also needed a way of framing the projection screen so that it became part of the set. The hearts, coins & flowers reflect the themes of love & money. It all had to be easy to assemble and pack away to transport as the show toured several venues across the region.

DIY is a Learning Disability Theatre Company established in 1994 and based in Salford. They have created and toured numerous original shows. They also run conferences and events as well as leading workshops and projects in schools. To learn more about them or contact them visit their website: www.diytheatre.org.uk.

photos by Danny Williams

Written by Justin Butcher

Performed by David Milne

Directed by Bill Hopkinson

Born at midnight on New Year’s Eve, 1899, Scaramouche takes his old clown body – and the audience – on his hilarious and terrifying journey through the 20th century.

Now, as the champagne corks pop on Millenium Eve, Scaramouche is about to give his last and most important performance. He steps out of the circus ring, peels away his outer disguises and reveals the loves, brutalities, ecstasies and tragedies that created the Seven White Masks of Scaramouche Jones.

David Milne is doing a small scale tour of the uk with this one man show including a 3 week stint in London. I also created all the postcards, posters & programmes for the publicity of the tour.

Directed by  Tom Hogan

Film & Theatre project performed at The Zion Centre, Manchester.

Film shot & edited by Terry Egan (Reel Mcr)

“Proud and Loud” are a group of young disabled performers based in Salford. They devised the show with drama worker/director Tom Hogan.

The video footage was shot during Febuary half term. It focused on the people they dreamed of being and the people who put them down so each person had two characters, one positive & one negative. I designed & made/sourced a costume for every character and sourced props to create small settings for each video. These were used as a starting point to build the complete production linking the films & the characters within them. As the films were quite visually striking, I created a very minimal set for the theatre production with the screen as the central focus.

Written by Deborah Freeman

Directed by  Philip Parr

Performed at Robert Powell Theatre

Fire in the Park is a new play set against the spectacular ‘pyrodramas’ that used to take place at Belle Vue Park in Manchester in the mid-19th century. A cross-section of Victorian society is drawn to the spectacle – looking for work, for pleasure, for love, for easy money, for fulfilment of dreams – but they don’t always find what they expect! With characters both fictional and historical, (including the famous Inspector Jerome Caminada of the Manchester Police), it is a love story and a murder mystery, which illuminates the lives of our immediate ancestors as well as exploring themes of crime, race and inequality which are still very much with us today.

Written by J M Synge

Directed by Julia North

Costume Design by Jacqui Davies

Lighting Design by Tom Dexter Scott

The walls of the set evoke the rugged landscape and steep headlands of the west coast of Ireland, revealing only sea and sky beyond. Within the walls lies a traditional shabeen with rough earthen floor and mismatched wooden furniture.

Written by Caryl Churchill

Directed by Paul Jaynes

Lighting Design by Richard G Jones

‘Mad Forest’ is a portrait of Romanian society circa the Christmas Revolution in 1989. The story focuses on two families of different classes to reveal what life was like under the totalitarian regime and the results of the revolution. The play’s many brief scenes are almost cinematic in their presentation of events as seen by ordinary people trying to live in peace.

I used bold three-dimensional structures in muted greys to create an austere and abstract world. Use of lighting and gauze allowed us to flick quickly between the scenes, catching moments of reality and emotion in a world where everyone is hiding.

Directed by Dinos Aristidou

Lighting design by Chris Hooley

Ziggurat was a devised project on the theme of communication based on the story of the Tower of Babel. Over 100 children from schools around Manchester were involved. Artists from the Lowry’s partner companies: Halle, Opera North, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Rambert Dance, worked with groups to create this piece of dance and music theatre to celebrate the Commonwealth. I worked closely with the project director as the design had to be completed before the devising began but did not want to restrict the devising process too much.