Wimbledon College of Arts theatre alumni Mike Leigh, Bunny Christie and Mark Tildesley have been nominated for Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

Mike Leigh in the Best Director category for Grief (at the National’s Cottesloe).

Bunny Christie and Mark Tildesley in the Best Design category for Men Should Weep (at the National’s Lyttelton) and Frankenstein (at the National’s Olivier) respectively.

This year’s awards are being held on November 20 at the Savoy Hotel, in association with Vogue and sponsored by Hobbs and American Airlines, will be hosted by Australian diva Dame Edna Everage – aka Barry Humphries. Presenters will include Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens and Anna Chancellor, currently on stage in The Last Of The Duchess at the Hampstead Theatre.

Full coverage of the winners will appear in the Standard on November 21.

Image: Frankenstein (at the National’s Olivier) – Benedict Cumberbatch as Victor Frankenstein and Jonny Lee Miller as his creation.

Wimbledon College of Art theatre graduate Hyemi Shin has been awarded the 2011 Linbury Prize for Stage Design.

As well as collecting £3,500, the prize also gives Hyemi a unique opportunity to design a professional production for a major theatre or opera company. Hyemi will be working with The Lyric Hammersmith and Filter to “to remix, rework and revitalise A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

The awards were presented by Anya Sainsbury CBE, founder of the Linbury Prize, Caro Newling, Chair and Sir Nicholas Hytner, Director of the National Theatre. The judges for this year’s award were renowned designers Jon Bausor, Miriam Buether and Ian MacNeil.

An exhibition of work by all 12 finalists runs until 29 November at the National Theatre.

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

Difference: Contrasts, Distinction, Variances, Variations, Divegence, Deviation,

A collection of work produced by the designers, artists and practitioners who deliver the Theatre and Screen programmes at Wimbledon College of Art.

Critical reflection on practice is an essential part of the process of creative work in the Theatre and Screen Industries.

This exhibition of over thirty professional practitioners , full time and part time tutors together with technical staff, shows the broad range of practices and the richness of experience that underpins the teaching in Theatre and Screen at Wimbledon College of Art.

Opening Event: Thursday 29 September 2011, 5-8pm

Exhibition Dates: Friday 30 September – Friday 21 October 2011

Drawing out: 2012 is transdisciplinary conference collaboration between RMIT Melbourne & The University of the Arts London.

Working with the assumption that drawing is not simply a way of thinking and communicating but an integral part of our everyday and professional lives. Addressing how drawing functions as part of literacy through three themes; Drawing and Notation-Drawing as Writing-Drawing: recording and discovery.

A variety of talks and conferences will be held showcasing ideas and the closing conference will be held at Wimbledon College of Art!

For information regarding Drawing Out: 2012 and submissions please click on the link below.

http://thecentrefordrawingual.wordpress.com/

Congratulations to two former Wimbledon design students, Hyemi Shin and Ellan Parry. Who have been chosen as finalists in this year’s Linbury Prize for Stage Design, which gives recent design graduates the chance to showcase their work in an exhibition at the National Theatre and compete to design a forthcoming production for a professional theatre company.

On the judging panel this year are renowned designers Jon Bausor, Miriam Buether and Ian MacNeil, while the production companies the finalists will be designing for are the Lyric Hammersmith and Filter; Watermill Theatre, Newbury; The Opera Group; and ROH2 at The Royal Opera House.

Each of the four commissioning companies has chosen three finalists to work with on designing a forthcoming production. One from each group will then win a commission to realise their designs on stage, with one of the top four competitors awarded the overall winner’s title. The exhibition, featuring work by all 12 finalists, runs from 31 October to 27 November at the National Theatre, with the winners announced at a ceremony on 10 November.

Best of luck to Hyemi and Ellan!

Theatre industry night has become a regular fixture in the Wimbledon College of Art Summer Show calendar. The night is an opportunity for students, staff and theatre industry practitioners to come together and celebrate the achievements of Wimbledon students.  A series of prizes are given out on the night.

Special guest at this year’s event was Mickey Please. Mikey studied BA Theatre: Technical Arts and Special Effects and graduated from Wimbledon College of Art  in 2007. He won a Bafta for the animation ‘The Eagleman Stag’ in  2010.

This year’s prize winners:

Madame Tussauds Award (for figurative sculpture sponsored by Merlin Entertainments group)

• Michelle Lewry – BA: Theatre Technical Arts and Special Effects

Past Pleasures 2011 Award

• 1st prize: Lubica Halmova – BA Theatre: Costume Interpretation
• 2nd prize: Alice Woodhall – BA Theatre: Costume Interpretation
• Joint 3rd prize: Auburn Claire Lucas and Louise Taylor – BA Theatre: Costume Interpretation

Nottcutts Award

• Katie Boyce – BA Theatre: Technical Arts and Special Effects

Find out more about Wimbledon’s BA Theatre courses.

Photos top to bottom: Characters by Katie Boyce, Mickey Please, Costume by Lubica Halmova, Michelle Lewry receiving the Madame Tussauds Award.

Six of Wimbledon’s BA Theatre: Set Design for Stage and Screen students were part of the production team who worked on the short film ‘The End of It’. The film is being screened at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

• Set Design – Sara Wiklund.
• Set Dressers – Silje Larsson, Anna Czerniawsta.
• Props Dept – Olivia Dixon, Holly Himsworth, Cara Holt.

See more stills from the film on Sara’s website – www.cargocollective.com/sarasetdesign 

Visit the website – www.theendofit.com

The London Contemporary Dance School has played host to the Collaborations Project, which runs jointly with Wimbledon College of Art students and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, to produce six exciting new works of dance and design! The final year BA students have choreographed and designed the performance at The Place Theatre - the home of contemporary dance in London. The programme invited third year choreographers to collaborate with third year designers whilst in a simultaneous project, third year choreographers are paired with postgraduate composers for an intensive week of workshops of sharing ideas to form collaborative partnerships. The design work ranges from large scale constructions to transformative uses of the theatre, while live music ranges from traditional scoring to innovative electronics.

These new works are being performed as a single theatre programme on Monday 28th and Tuesday 29th March at 8pm at The Place Theatre, 17 Dukes Road, London WC1H 9PY (Near Euston Station). Tickets are free to all WCA staff and students so you wouldn’t want to miss out on this fantastic display of ingenious inspiration!

To book your place, contact the Box Office on 020 7121 1100

Michael Please, a former Technical Arts & Special Effects student at Wimbledon College of Art, has given an interview to the Univeristy of Arts about his recent success, naming some Wimbledon tutors as the influence behind a majority of his success. Valerie Charlton, Allan Sly, Chris Dyer and David Gale are some of the names that Michael paid particular reference too, thanking them for their continuous encouragment and motivation. He said that the invaluable help from these tutors and the space for personal development andcontinued support provided by the Technical Arts & Special Effects course, all contributed in the success he is experiencing today.

Michale also names Wimbledon graduates Amer Chadha Patel, Dan Ojari (2008 Set Design for Stage & Screen) and Sean Hogan (2007 Set Design for Stage & Screen) as some of the modelmakers who helped on his BAFTA winning short film, The Eagleman Stag.

We hope that this rather profound introduction into the industry of big lights and fame continues for this talented young man!

To read the full interview with Michael, click here.

Wimbledon College of Art certainly provides talent across the arts, encouraging students to evolve their artistic flare - and to prove this point… Jade Williams, a former Theatre Set Design for Stage & Screen student is having much success in the music industry. Jade, who featured in Fridays Evening Standard, does all her artwork between writing songs, and is known for her music under the alias Sunday Girl and has already released ‘Stop Hey’ and ‘Four Floors’ as well as making covers of Ke$ha’s ‘Tik Tok’ and MGMT’s ‘Time to Pretend’. Her forth coming single ‘Human Love’ is set to be released on 1 May.