This summer has proved an unusual and unexpected one.
Having moved house in January and learnt to drive, for various reasons I decided to take a back seat on the acting front for a few months. This enabled me to pursue more design and art work. The summer kicked off by designing and building posters, set puppets and props for the amazing River People(www.theriverpeople.co.uk) for thier new show and tour of 'Little Matter'. Suffice to say they were amazingly reviewed and were one of the most talked about and praised shows at the Edinburgh festival this year... well done chaps!
Following that I was employed to design and build a variety of puppets and props for the Illyria (www.illyria.uk.com) summer season this included masks, chicken puppets, an enormous digger and entire set for Roald Dahls ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’, and some props and set pieces for ‘The Pirates of Penzance’. Both were terrific shows (images to follow soon).
Next up was running the design side of a two week theatre skills course for young people at the Portsmouth New Theatre Royal. In two weeks a team of teenagers had to write, design, build and direct a show. And they did a terrific job. They used a specially designed mini theatre designed by the Salisbury playhouse.
Then I started work on Wizard Theatres (www.wizardtheatre.co.uk) puppet dragon for their upcoming tour of the reluctant dragon. Which is still in production (pictures to follow soon).
And I’ve topped off the summer with an acting gig, working with the fantastic creative cows, www.creativecow.co.uk playing a variety of roles including the Morrocan king Mullisheg in David Heywoods ‘Fair Maid of the West’. Which has been very well reviewed and continues running until September 10th. Reviews and images on my website... www.cbarlow.co.uk.
I hope all your summers have been as productive as mine :)
Peace and love
Chris
