Visiting Production Specialists

Costume Specialists

Emma Cains

Emma is an experienced freelance Costume Supervisor working on many Productions all over the UK. Teaches: Costume Supervision.

Jill Conway

BAFTA Award-winning make-up and hair & prosthetic designer who has worked in TV and Film for over 20 years. Credits include: Casualty, On Chesil Beach, The Casual Vacancy, New Worlds. Teaches: Make-up and Wigs.

Sue Crowle

A theatrical milliner for nearly 30 years, Sue is the resident Milliner for Welsh National Opera. Sue also freelances for Film and TV. Previous credits include: Sherlock, Dr Who, Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Teaches: Millinery and wire work.

Lois Edmunds

Teaches: Tailoring

Mark Foster

Mark has more than 25 years experience in the TV and Film Industry as a Costume Designer, Dyer and Costume Enhancement and Breakdown Artist. TV and Film credits include: World War Z, Mad Max: Fury Road, Mortdecai, Atlantis, Da Vinci’s Demons, The Bastard Executioner, Beowulf, Poldark and most recently Vanity Fair for ITV. Teaches: Dyeing and Costume Enhancement.

Julie Herbert

Julie has over 30 years experience in Costume Supervising and making. She was Costume Supervisor at the Bristol Old Vic for eight years before going freelance. As a freelance Supervisor she worked on many productions all over the UK. Julie is currently working at Bristol Costume Services and works with the Costume Students on the International Course’s final year Show. Teaches: Costume Supervision.

Charlie Elmont

Teaches: Supervision

Anita Lad

Teaches: Film & TV

Jenny Reeves

Jenny has been working in the Theatre, TV and Film Industry for many years as a Maker, Supervisor and Costume Breakdown Artist. She also specialises in screen Printing and fabric painting. Teaches: screen printing and fabric painting.

Ani Stafford Townsend

Teaches: Millinery

Serena Fusai

Teaches: Tutu making

Kate Whitehead

Textile Artist and Designer, Kate has exhibited at fairs all over the Country and has been awarded and commended in the Clothworker’s Foundation Awards on several occasions. Teaches: Machine Embroidery.

Theatre Design Specialists

Dawn Allsopp

Set and Costume Designer with over 25 years of experience, working all across the UK including Hull Truck, Northern Broadsides, Everyman Theatre Cheltenham, York Theatre Royal and Nottingham Playhouse.

Ti Green

Ti has designed for the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and major producing venues across the UK, including the Barbican, Young Vic, HOME in Manchester, Birmingham Rep, Manchester Royal Exchange, Liverpool Everyman, Sheffield Crucible and Edinburgh Lyceum. Teaches: Theatre Design project.

Katie Sykes

Katie has designed numerous award winning productions throughout the UK and beyond. Olivier Award nominations for: Peter Pan (National Theatre), Hetty Feather (West End) and Cinderella: A Fairytale (Travelling Light/Tobacco Factory).

Sarah Warren

With a background in fine art Sarah became involved in film and theatre when she worked as a set builder, painter and model maker. Since training in Theatre Design, Sarah has worked on site specific productions, film and numerous theatre shows. Sarah recently designed How to Disappear Completely And Never Be Found for BOVTS.

Zoe Squire

Set and Costume Designer who has worked extensively in theatre, TV, Film and events. Zoe is also Co-Artistic Director of Pins and Needles Productions. Zoe’s work has been seen across the UK and internationally.

Sue Pearce

Sue is an experienced Theatre Designer and tutor. Her work has been seen at venues including: Contact Theatre, Library and Forum Theatre, Oxford Playhouse, York Theatre Royal. Sue works part time as the set design tutor in the drama department at Bristol University.

Sarah Mills

Sarah graduated from BOVTS in 2012 and works as Set and Costume Designer. Sarah is designing our 2018 West Country Tour of The Mill on the Floss. Recent designs include: Bugsy Malone, The Blue Road (Royal and Derngate, Northampton), Richard III (Arcola Theatre).

Max Dorey

Max works as a Theatre Designer and assistant and trained at BOVTS. Recent designs include: Teddy (Watermill Theatre and Tour), Talk Radio (Old Red Lion), Insignificance (Arcola Theatre), Tryst (Tabard Theatre). Max was a Linbury Award Finalist 2013 and has received numerous award nominations (UK Theatre and Off West End Awards). Teaches: Model-making/ design supervision.

Robert Innes Hopkins

Robert is an award-winning international stage and costume designer working in Opera and Theatre. Recent designs include: Tosca (San Francisco Opera); Lady In the Van (Theatre Royal Bath); Charodeika, Die Walkure, The Ring Cycle: Das Rheingold (Chicago Lyric Opera); Julius Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra, Titus Andronicus, Coriolanus (RSC). Teaches: Theatre Design project.

Conor Murphy

Set and costume designer for opera, theatre and dance. Conor has designed for companies including: Gothenburg Opera, Royal Opera House, Korean National Opera, Abbey Theatre Dublin, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Rambert, Birmingham Royal Ballet. Teaches: technical drawing.

David Neat

A maker and a teacher of making. David makes sculpture, model-making, painting, graphic work and design. David has lectured in the UK and abroad and is the author of the book Model-making: Materials and Methods. Teaches: Model making master-class.

Simon Oliver

Provides a drawing service to the Theatre and Entertainment Industry, he specialises in assisting Set Designers, Production Managers, Theatres and Contractors with Design drawings. Simon has a background in Theatre Design, he worked for five years with the production office at the Royal Opera House, as CAD draughtsman and Assistant to a Production Manager. Teaches: CAD production process.

 

Scenic Art Specialists

Hilary Vernon-Smith

Trained as a theatre designer but eventually metamorphosed into a scenic artist and ran the scenic painting department at the National Theatre for 28 years. During her time there she received the Rayne Award and the Young Vic Award. After teaching for a year at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts she returned to London and now works in a freelance capacity. Teaches: Figurative painting and Woodgraining and Marbling.

Francesca Maxwell

Francesca is an Artist, Painter and Art Director in stop-motion animation. Francesca painted sets and scenery in many theatres around the country, mostly at the National Theatre, and on films and TV. She was Art Director on Fantastic Mr Fox and ParaNorman and Production Designer on Inzomnia, Mexico’s first stop-motion feature. She teaches Design for Animation at NFTS and painting at the RWA. Teaches: Figurative Painting

Deborah Mitchell

Debbie trained at The Central School of Art and Design and served an apprenticeship in the Scenic Art Department at the RSC.  During a long career she has worked as a freelance Designer and Scenic Artist in theatre, film, TV and museums both at home and abroad. She now mainly works in the South West mostly in the TR2 workshops in Plymouth on major touring productions for noted production companies. Teaches: Freelancer Scenic Artist and Tutor.

Visiting Practitioners | Interviewers

(Subject to change each year)

Tom Morris

Artistic Director, Bristol Old Vic (pictured left)

Nik Partridge

Director

Ali Robertson

Executive Producer, Kneehigh

Kerrie Burke-Avery

Senior Producer, Tobacco Factory Theatres

John East

Artistic Director, Theatre Royal Bath Theatre School

Jemma Edwards

Production Manager, Bristol Old Vic

Michael Fentiman

Director

Rosanna Vize

Designer

Mark Price

Agent, AHA

Jemima Robinson

Designer

Sarah Blenkinsop

Film Designer

Jaqueline Abrahams

Film Design

Janet Bird

Designer

David Evans

Production Manager, National Theatre of Wales

Emma Troubridge

Head of Scenic Art, Royal Opera House

Gavin Gibson

Head of Scenic Art, National Theatre

Ian Siddal

Head of Scenic Art, Cardiff Theatrical Services

Richard Nutbourne

CoolFlight Ltd & Richard, Nutbourne Scenic Studio

Zoe Strazak

Head of Art Department Productions, Aardman Animations

Sue Lipscombe

Managing Director, CodSteaks

Becky Whitehead

Head of Scenic Art, Rocket Scenery