director/designers
SIMON McBURNEY
(Director)
Simon McBurney is one of the most innovative theatre artists in the world. He studied at Cambridge and in Paris before becoming a co-founder and artistic director of the internationally acclaimed theatre company Complicite, with whom he has devised, directed and acted in over 30 productions. Most recently he conceived, wrote and directed A Disappearing Number (2008), which won Olivier, Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Play. Mr. McBurney’s introduction to New York audiences came in 1996 with the Lincoln Center Festival’s presentation of The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol, after which came Ionesco’s The Chairs (six 1998 Tony and Drama Desk nominations, including Best Director of a Play), The Street of Crocodiles (also 1998), Mnemonic (2001), and most recently Mr. McBurney’s adaptation of Murakami’s The Elephant Vanishes (2005). In 2002, he directed Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (produced by National Actors Theater) with a cast that included Al Pacino, Paul Giamatti, Billy Crudup, Steve Buscemi, Charles Durning and John Goodman. Simon McBurney’s work on this production of All My Sons grew out of a meeting with Arthur Miller in 2001, shortly after the playwright saw the New York premiere of Mnemonic.
TOM PYE
(Scenic & Costume Design)
Tom has designed sets and costumes throughout the world in theatre, opera, television and film. Recent projects include Top Girls directed by James Macdonald (Manhattan Theatre Club), Major Barbara directed by Nicholas Hytner (Royal National Theatre), Cyrano de Bergerac directed by David Leveaux (Broadway), Il Tabarro directed by David Pountney (Lyon), Les Noces de Figaro directed by Adrian Noble (Lyon), Happy Days directed by Deborah Warner (RNT, World Tour, BAM), Orfeo directed by Chen Shi-Zheng (ENO), Sinatra directed by David Leveaux (West End), Cosi fan Tutte directed by Adrian Noble (Lyon), Death in Venice directed by Deborah Warner (ENO), Measure for Measure directed by Simon McBurney (RNT, world tour for Complicité), Fiddler on the Roof and The Glass Menagerie both directed by David Leveaux (Broadway), Fewer Emergencies directed by James Macdonald (Royal Court) and costumes for two of the ‘8 Little Greats’ season (Opera North). Other credits include Don Giovanni directed by Peter Brook (Aix Festival, world tour) and costumes for The Magic Flute (Opera North). Work with Deborah Warner includes Julius Caesar (Barbican, Paris, Madrid), The Rape of Lucretia (Munich), The Powerbook (RNT, Paris, Rome), The Diary of One Who Vanished (ENO/RNT), The Turn of the Screw (ROH), Medea (Dublin, West End, Broadway, Paris, US tour), St. John Passion (ENO), La voix humaine (Opera North), The Angel and Tower Projects (installations staged in New York, London and Perth, Australia) and art direction for Richard II (filmed for TV). Television credits include the Emmy Award®-winning “Gloriana,” “Twelfth Night” (Channel 4), “Just William” and “The Late Michael Clark” (BBC). Film credits include A Feast at Midnight and Christie Malry’s Own Double Entry. Future projects include Riders to the Sea directed by Fiona Shaw (ENO).
PAUL ANDERSON
(Lighting Design)
Paul Anderson trained at Mountview Theatre School and York College of Arts and Technology. Lighting design includes: The Revenger’s Tragedy (National Theatre), Swimming with Sharks (West End), Little Shop of Horrors (West End), Underneath the Lintel (West End), Julius Caesar and The Tempest (RSC and West End), Bent (West End), On The Third Day (West End), Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (West End), The Enchanted Pig (Young Vic), On Tour, Random and Incomplete Acts of Kindness (Royal Court), Turn of the Screw (Bristol Old Vic), Simply Heavenly (Young Vic and West End), A Minute Too Late, Stuff Happens, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Measure for Measure, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Birds (National Theatre), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (National Actors Theatre New York with Al Pacino), Lenny Henry: So Much Things to Say (West End and international tour), A Servant to Two Masters (RSC and West End), Twelfth Night (400th anniversary production for Shakespeare's Globe at Middle Temple Hall), Singer, Americans, The Inland Sea (Oxford Stage Company), Two Cities, Playing for Time, Taming of the Shrew (Salisbury Playhouse), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Shoot to Win, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Red Riding Hood, Aladdin and Cinderella (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Shunkin, A Dissapearing Number, Strange Poetry (with the LA Philharmonic), The Elephant Vanishes, Light, The Noise of Time, Mnemonic (Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards), The Chairs (Theatre de Complicite; nominated for Tony®, Drama Desk and Olivier Awards), Knight of the Burning Pestle, Simply Heavenly, Arabian Nights, As I Lay Dying, Twelfth Night, Guys and Dolls and West Side Story (Young Vic Theatre); Some Girls are Bigger than Others, Pinocchio, The Threesome, and Lyric Nights (Lyric Hammersmith); The Christie Brown Exhibition (Fragments of Narrative at the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station) and Rediscovering Pompeii at the Academia Italiana (IBM Exhibition). FaBasso & Brooke, and AI international.
CHRISTOPHER SHUTT
(Sound Design)
Christopher trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. In 2002 he designed the sound for Simon McBurney’s production of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, New York. Formerly Head of Sound at Bristol Old Vic and the Royal Court where work included Serious Money and Road. For 14 years, Sound Supervisor at the National Theatre, where work included Mourning Becomes Electra, The Talking Cure, Play Without Words, The PowerBook, Humble Boy, Life x 3, Hamlet, Albert Speer, Not About Nightingales, Death of a Salesman, Chips with Everything, The Homecoming, Machinal. Awards: Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Sound Design for Mnemonic (2001) and for Not About Nightingales (1999).
CAROLYN DOWNING
(Sound Design)
Carolyn is a sound designer based in the UK and trained at Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Her recent credits include Tre Kroner – Gustav III (Royal Dramatic Theatre, Sweden), Absurdia (Donmar Warehouse), Angels in America: Millennium Approaches & Perestroika (Headlong Theatre), The Winter’s Tale, Preicles, Days of Significance (Royal Shakespeare Company), Oxford Street, Alaska (Royal Court), Dirty Butterfly (Young Vic), Othello (Salisbury Playbouse), Moonlight & Magnolias (Tricycle Theatre), Flight Path (Out Of Joint), A Whistle In The Dark, Moonshed (Royal Exchange Theatre), Blood Wedding (Almeida), Gone to Earth (Shared Experience). Carolyn has also worked as Associate Sound Designer on Some Trace of Her, The Overwhelming (Royal National Theatre), Macbeth (Out Of Joint), By the Bog of Cats (Wyndam’s Theatre). Other credits include Assistant to the Sound Designer on Billy Elliot: The Musical.
FINN ROSS for MESMER
(Projection Design)
Finn trained at Central School of Speech and Drama. Associate Projection A Disappearing Number and Measure for Measure (Complicite); Richard II (Old Vic); Gotterdamerung (Royal Opera House); Il Tiempo del Postino (Manchester International Festival). Recent design work: Silverland (Arcola); An Audience with (Architecture Biennale); Sugar Mummies (Royal Court); Orlando (Sadlers Wells); Face of (Dublin RDS); All Our Hellos (German Gym), A2K (Touring) Shunkin (Complicite & Setagaya Theatre, Tokyo) and Little Otik (Vanishing Point & National Theatre of Scotland).
PAUL HUNTLEY
(Wig Design)
Paul Huntley, London born, is a Special Tony Award winner. Current Broadway shows include Hairspray, Grease, Gypsy and Young Frankenstein. Movie credits include Fast Track, Ralph Fiennes in Bernard and Doris, Jennifer Lopez in El Cantante, Christopher Walken in Balls of Fire and Hairspray, Susan Sarandon in Enchanted, Abigail Breslin in Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, Christopher Plummer in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Ellen Burstyn in W, and Willem Dafoe in Cirque du Freak.