A Knavish Lad at the National Building Museum, Washington DC

The Great Hall at the National Building Museum

I am delighted to share here that the artwork from my artists book A Knavish Lad (2016) will be featured at the National Building Museum (NBM) in Washington D.C. as part of a collaboration they’re doing this summer with the Folger Shakespeare Library. 

The artwork from the book will form part of an immersive installation for visitors to walk through within the Great Hall at the NBM (pictured above) and will coincide with the staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Playhouse at the NBM in July and August.  

A Knavish Lad (detail)

A Knavish Lad (detail)

 

A Knavish Lad

 

For those within traveling distance of Washington DC, The Playhouse at the NBM can be visited from July 1 – August 28, Thursday – Monday, 11 am – 4 pm.

Folger Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be in performance Tuesdays through Sundays from Tuesday, July 12 through Sunday, August 28, 2022. Tickets to Midsummer are available now at www.folger.edu/theatre or by calling the Folger Box Office, 202-544-7077.

Full information available at https://www.nbm.org/national-building-museum-and-folder-shakespeare-library-bring-the-wonders-of-shakespeare-to-the-great-hall/

Really looking forward to seeing this project come into being next month and to sharing any photos of it both here and on social media.

Watch this space! 

The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde: Part II

As promised, here are a few production photos from Lung Ha's The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde. The combination of stage smoke and coloured lighting really added to the atmosphere and much use was made of the shadows and lighting, which looked incredible on a large set like this:

(this felt like being shrunk and then walking around in your own work!)

"Lung Ha Theatre Company and Drake Music Scotland have together pulled off an atmospheric reworking of RL Stevenson’s, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde."  **** Edinburgh Guide

"The thematic assists from composer Greg Sinclair and the musicians of Drake Music work extremely well...a fleet and surprising adaptation of a famous story that really belongs to Edinburgh and which Lung Ha Theatre make their own."  **** Edinburgh49

"Together with a team of musicians and an ensemble cast bursting with spirit and passion, Lung Ha present a revitalised and genuinely enthralling tale."

***1/2 The Public Reviews

"Pearson has constructed a fascinating feminist reimagining of Stevenson's story which resets it in Victorian Edinburgh, the original city where politesse becomes a facade for a far darker Old Town underbelly. This leaves plenty of scope for light and shade in Caitlin Skinner's production, which navigates Lung Ha's regular ensemble of some seventeen performers through the big city bustle."  **** Sunday Herald

"This production, directed by Caitlin Skinner, proves that art has no boundaries, not even for the disabled: it is an exemplary piece of theatre" **** TV Bomb

"...featuring an outstanding, lyrical and pensive musical score by Greg Sinclair, played live by a six-piece band. Yet there’s even more than this, in Caitlin Skinner’s fine production." **** The Scotsman

The production goes on to Dundee this Wednesday (25th March) for one night at Dundee Rep.

The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde

I'm delighted to announce that Lung Ha's Theatre Company's new production of 'The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde' will feature a set design inspired by my laser-cut book.

The show opens this Thursday at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh before going on to the Dundee Rep laster this month.

Photos to follow later!

England's green and pleasant land

This is one of a few pieces of artwork I did for Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club's upcoming production of Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth.  The play is on from Tuesday 22nd until Saturday 26th of October 2013 at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge.

  

From ADC Theatre's website:

Sex, drugs and trance music. That’d be village gala day.

Gala queen Phaedra is missing. Troy, Phaedra’s stepfather, suspects that the anarchist, waster and ex-daredevil motorcyclist Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron is involved. At the same time, Rooster is being evicted from his illegally parked mobile home in the woods next to the new estate. But Rooster is in good spirits. Providing safety for outcasts and eccentrics, he enthrals with stories of ancient myth and forest sprites. He may even be one. He is also an absentee father, has violent episodes and likes young girls.

Fast, funny and sexy, and crafted with deep intelligence and insight, Jerusalem is the ‘instant modern classic’ (The Telegraph), a vision of contemporary England that galvanised critics from London to New York.

‘Jez Butterworth’s wildly original hymn to eccentricity’ - The Mail on Sunday

‘The best new play of the decade’ - The Times

It's all over now, baby blue....

The Fringe in Edinburgh has come to a close and the High Street is quiet once again

Last month I went down Edinburgh's High Street on several occasions to make sketches from the street artists and actors.  This was mainly just for life drawing practice, as it's a great opportunity to sketch people moving around in costume.  Many of them provided rich material for the illustration above.  Almost everyone in the main illustration is based on an original sketch of an actor, clown, street artist, juggler or spectator.  Recognise anyone? 

Below are some rough sketches and also some sketchbook work...

Live performance drawings

Fifty Plays for Edinburgh at the Traverse

Sanctuary by Black Dingo Productions

Richard III

Too Long the Heart (left);
A Taste of Honey (right)

Rebecca Ryan as Jo in
A Taste of Honey

Brutal murders, fights, period costumes and more: why the theatre can be great for life drawing

Figurative work is an important part to my illustration practice and it's an area that I find needs continual practice.  Traditional life drawing classes and others (like Dr Sketchys) are always great for life drawing, but lately I've been trying to find alternatives to stationary models.

It was only after a friend organised for me to come in and make sketches of a play she was involved in that I realised that drawing from theatrical performances was the alternative I'd been looking for.

Many of the drawings done in the theatre are ineligible scrawlings and most of them won't ever see the light of day.  But some of them have been really useful for capturing a facial expression or a gesture or pose.

The only drawback to drawing from a live performance (appart from drawing very fast!) is that you're drawing in semi-darkness.  It's only when the lights come on again do you see the state of your sketchbook...

Sketchbook work from Richard III by the Edinburgh Theatre Graduate Group

Illustrations for Black Dingo Productions

Illustrations and sketches for Black Dingo Productions' Shots: Eros & Psyche and Sanctuary.