John mcfarlane designer biography examples

John Macfarlane , Trees , Walnut Creek , John Macfarlane , Dirty Dishes , John Macfarlane , The Forge , Siegfried , John Macfarlane , Swan Lake , Act 2. John Macfarlane , The Creation , Frankenstein. John Macfarlane , The Forge 2 , Siegfried. While John was now more cautious of taking on major projects in the longer term, he remained excited by new challenges, including the possibility of one at La Scala, Milan.

We gather anonymised analytics data on website usage unless you opt out. Review Round-Ups. Big Interviews. Long Reads. Promoted Content. The Stage Archive. Remember Login. Register Reset Password. Search Search.

John mcfarlane designer biography examples

West End. Musical Theatre. Edinburgh Fringe. NPO Hot Topics. John Macfarlane. Photo: Frederic Aranda. John Macfarlane has designed work for theatre, ballet and opera, and worked with talent such as Peter Brook, Peter Wright and Liam Scarlett. He talks about what leads his designs, and the process of reworking The Nutcracker after 30 years. Support The Stage by registering or subscribing To continue reading this article you must be logged in.

Act II should be creepy; I never felt it was creepy enough or dark enough. Graham then moved on to talk about the Birmingham Royal Ballet Nutcracker with Peter Wright, which also seemed quite dark. I said I would do it but I want it to be rats and not little mice and I want it to be really frightening: when the room changes it must be a massive change of scale.

In Act II Clara must not be led to a chair to sit down and watch. When that happens on stage, you just lose interest. He said OK. It was huge and they had never done anything so complicated set-wise at that time. I remember saying I wanted the ballroom to seem quite small and confined; then I wanted it all to open up as Cinderella walks down the steps, so that she is walking through a night sky.

How did that evolve and how has it developed? Ideas like using black and white, and moving screens, evolved from their discussions. I love his complete certainty, and watching him in rehearsal. As a production design I absolutely loved it and I think Liam did a fantastic job; I think the criticism was unfair. It will be basically the same designs but you refine things.

It was going to be a rental but they very much wanted their own production, and that is now what will happen. Swan Lake was in the midst of a revival at the start of lockdown last year.