Franky Collier

Franky graduated with a BA Hons in Theatre Design from Birmingham City University (BCU) in 2008.  In 2007  she designed and made two 6-meter tall sculptures of St. Peter and Cerberus as bouncers for the Download Festival at which she also appeared as live artist. For the BCU production of Noah's Ark she designed, made and puppeteered the character The Crow. For the Mac's Christmas production of Pinocchio (Dir. Malachi Bogdanov) she assisted the show's designer Kate Bunce.

In collaboration with BCU Visual Communication students Franky scripted, acted in and directed the short film project Maya Dreen for which she also designed and made the costumes, set and props. For a modern dance version of Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle at Scenodance 2007 Franky designed and made the costumes, set, lightning and projections.

Franky is the Artistic Director and designer of the A Midsummer's Night Dream-performances at Crathes Castle in Aberdeenshire which are produced by Live Wire Productions in association with Banchory Academy and  The National Trust. For Live Wire Productions Franky also designed and made the sets and props for the plays The Lottery of Life (A short play about genetics) and Cracking Math (An educational play aimed at primary school students). Franky is particularly interested and skilled in the designing and making of costumes,props, set, projection and lightning design.

During a gap year Franky worked for the Project Trust project Aloea Infantil San Antonio in Cajamarca, Peru as a teacher in English, Art and Drama, as care assistant and social worker. At the Libertaria Alternative Education Centre Franky worked as assistant, social worker and head of women's education. 

Sam Kipling

Sam is from Charley in Lancashire and has graduated in 2008 in Theatre Design from Birmingham City University (BCU). She has collected work experience during a work placement in prop-making for the Rep's 2006 Christmas Production of Raymond Brigg's The Snowman. She designed and constructed the set and make up for Scenodance 2007 -a collaboration with Wolverhampton University and was in charge of set construction and dressing for a film project on the director Sam Peckinpah for which she collaborated with BCU Film students. She was chosen to work as a costume designer on the Birmingham Royal Ballet's Dynamic Dance Project 2007. She designed and made installations for the 2007 Download Festival at which she also appeared as live artist. Sam is especially interested and skilled in prop making, prosthetic make-up, puppet development, set construction and dressing. In the future she hopes to utilise her skills working in television and film production. Sam is particularly inspired by animatronic puppetry replacing the industry's over dependence on CGI. 

Laura Philips

Laura graduated this July from Nottingham Trent University (NTU) with a First Class Honours Degree in Theatre Design. 

Recently one of Laura's designs won a performance on the Cottesloe stage at the National Theatre, London.  The work was entered as part of the New Connections 2008 Competition and the design was for a new piece of writing by Nicolas Wright. It was performed by by the Nottingham Television Workshop. In addition Laura recently designed set and costume for a new piece of writing entitled My Friend for Rama Young Actors. The piece was staged at Nottingham's Lace Market Theatre. 

Last summer Laura did an internship in Brooklyn, New York, with theatre company Drama of Works. She assisted and directed alongside Grechen Van Lente for a piece entitled Curiouser and Curiouser, as part of the Alice in Wonderland Puppet Festival. Whilst in the USA Laura also assisted director and designer Peter Barbieri Jr.'s for Guys and Dolls and The Elephant Man. 

Whilst at university Laura puppetered in two NTU collaborative productions (The Icarus Project and Dead Moon). Laura also carried out a placement with props master Fiona Viccars.

In 2005 and 2006 Laura spent her summers working as a Camp Counselor in Conneticut, USA. During these periods as welling responsible for the 24-7 wellbeing of 30plus teenage girls, she also taught Israel orphans the sport of Cricket and designed and co-directed the camp's drama productions. Last summer Laura attended the Prague Quadrennial and following spent several weeks travelling through Europe. This summer (on Idomeneo's opening night) she leaves for a trip to Israel where she hopes to discover her roots...  

Alison Garner

Alison is a theatre practitioner and visual artist based in the East Midlands. She graduated in Theatre Design from Nottingham Trent University with a first class degree in 2007. Much of Alison's work to date has centred on human experience of the places they inhabit and how this resonates through space and object. She has worked with companies as Punchdrunk, Leicester Theatre Trust and Metro-Boulot-Dodo.

In 2006 Alison set up Left Luggage Theatre with fellow Trent students and the company is currently graduate residents of the Puppet Centre Trust, Battersea Arts Centre supported by the Centre for Excellence in Training for Theatre at Central School of Speech & Drama. Left Luggage Theatre specialise in site-responsive theatre in which the audience are immersed in an environment incorporating soundscape, scenography, puppetry, performance and projection.

As a visual artist working in performance her work often takes a narrative form through sharing and creating stories that can be discovered and experienced again by the audience. Alison's most recent work has been a site-specific installation commission in Leicester based on the work of Victorian explorer and naturalist Henry Walter Bates. This multi-sensory installation incorporated tactile sculpture, text, Braille, soundscape and artefacts to envelop the viewer in the imagination of the self-taught scientist and the exiting period where we were on the brink of mind blowing discoveries.

Alison was excited to be involved in the large scale site-specific production of Idomeneo and be part of a collaborative design process. "Seeking to increase access and participation in visual and narrative art is fundamental to my own practice and I wish to develop my work in a way that centres on how we process, interact with and leave our mark in the world around us. I feel Birmingham Opera Company's work fulfills these aims and it has been a great opportunity to work with them."

Some links to Alison's and Left Luggage's websites and works:

http://www.alisongarner.co.uk

http://www.myspace.com/alisongarner

http://www.leftluggagetheatre.co.uk

http://www.myspace.com/leftluggaetheatre

Harry Trow

Harry is a 21-year old local to Birmingham. He is the only undergraduate in the Design Brains Trust and has just finished his first year in Theatre Design at Nottingham Trent University.

Harry has long been interested in the arts, theatre and opera. He first got involved with Birmingham Opera Company when he was 15 and took part in the production of Fidelio as a chorus member. Since then he has worked as a steward on several of the company's productions, the last being Mozart's Don Giovanni - He had it coming.

Harry's love for the arts was further sparked when he participated in the Bosnia Tryptich 2005. Coordinated by the Borderland Foundation this project assembled artists and young people from Mostar, Bosnia-Herzogovina, Sejny in Poland and the West Midlands in Mostar to take part in a busy schedule of workshops in tehatre, song, dance, ceramics, writing, photography, film and sound focusing on local traditions and histories around Mostar's famous old bridge, Stari Most.

As part of his first year at University, Harry has done two speculative designs: Shakespeare's Pericles for Nottingham Playhouse and Tiny Dynamite by Abi Morgan for Lakeside Theatre.

Funerals, Canals and a Motto

Well a whole lot has changed since last week. For a start I have learnt how to do a blog! For the last week we have been preparing for the Pre show. To represent the mourning of the death of Idomeneo we discussed the ideas of launching a funeral pyre onto the canal. This presented several problems 1. tour boats frequently sail past so it cant be too big 2. it cant be on fire for obvious reasons 3.the area by the canal is covered with trees! This has lead to several days of tree surgery but the wharf area is now clear for the pre show.

The most interesting thing we dicovered about funeral rituals is the ritual of a resurrection ceremony for those who have been presumed dead and have had funerals without a body then the person has returned from being lost, not dead. This is exactly what happens in our story so it would be interesting to incorporate into the action somehow.

We have just started marking out a large Auschwitz inspired motto in the holding area which reads 'Worship the Gods, Obey King Idomeneo.' This will eventually stretch 15m across the wall but as we only have one ladder and one person that can reach the top of the wall it's slow going but I'm sure it will be very effective when it's finished.

Lynsey Jackson

Lynsey graduated in 2008 in Theatre Design from Birmingham City University (BCU) and just been awarded the Sir Barry Vincent Jackson Scholarship. Over the course of the last years Linsey collaborated in an impressive number of projects. For the Birmingham School of Acting Lynsey worked as set painter and prop maker for designer David Crisp on Of Mice and Men, Head-Rot Holiday and The Flies. Lynsey was also selected to work with Aonghus Hoole and Jenny Murphy from the Birmingham Royal Ballet to design costumes for All for a Kiss and Much A Dance About Nothing for the Stravinsky inspired show Dynamic Dance.

Lynsey represented her university nationally and internationally as a student collaborator for the Prague Quadriennal Theatre Design Exhibition. She worked as a living exhibit with other students to create an installation in one day based on the theme of 'taking flight'. 

Working with contemporary dancers from Wolverhampton University Lynsey was a set designer/dresser and created teh costume for the character Natella for Brecht's play The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

Lynsey choreographed, cio-wrote, dircetd and performed and tap-danced in a short film about film director Busby Berkley. At BCU she was co-writer, puppet maker and puppeteer for the lead role of Mrs Noah in a new version of Noah's Ark.

At the Download Festival 2007 Lynsey helped construct a live art installation of the festival logo from cans. She also sculpted and decorated the head of a 6-meter tall figure at the festival's entrance.

Most recently Lynsey was design-intern for the Olivier-award winning designer Rob Howell on his new version of of the musical Our House. Impressed by her work Rob agreed to mentor Lynsey for her own design for the show and continues to support her. In fact Lynsey will be attending the rehearsals for Rob's most recent show Her Naked Skin.

This is the first opera Lynsey has worked on and she looks forward to designing and building for such an unusual space.

In her spare time Lynsey performs with her local musical theatre society at the Lowry and Manchester Opera House. She has also appeared in professional panto  at Stockport Plaza with the Jean Geddes School of Dance.