Platform Papers 46: The Designer: Decorator or dramaturg?

In this paper Stephen Curtis, one of Australia's most respected designers for performance, draws on his 30 years' experience to argue for a deeper understanding of the designer's role as central to the development of any theatre performance. The task of giving concrete form to a play or dance work, he writes, is a team process in which the designer is a uniquely agile contributor to the dramaturgy by making meaning visually for both the participants and the audience, and offering an encompassing, fluid perspective. Curtis uses an historical overview of performance design to illustrate how the designer's role has evolved from scene painting to a complex discipline; and, in a valuable insider's account he investigates the way collaboration really works through sharing the intense process that brought The Secret River to the stage.

About the Author :
STEPHEN CURTIS is a set and costume designer for theatre and production designer for film. His extensive theatre career spans more than three decades and embraces designs for dance, drama, opera, physical theatre and musicals, including major collaborations with Australia's leading directors, choreographers, festivals and performance companies. Curtis' many striking designs for the stage include sets and costumes for La bohème, The Cunning Little Vixen and Lulu (Opera Australia), The Turn of the Screw (Huston Grand Opera),Shanghai Lady Killer (Stalker Physical Theatre), I Am Eora (Sydney Festival), Pygmalion (Queensland Theatre Company), Henry IV Bell Shakespeare Company, The Venetian Twins (Nimrod Theatre Company), sets for The Secret River and The Government Inspector (Sydney Theatre Company), The Blue Room, All About My Mother and Tribes (Melbourne Theatre Company), The Alchemist and Scorched (Belvoir) and costumes for Der Ring Des Neibelungen (State Opera of South Australia). Curtis' film production design credits include the features Looking for Alibrandi and Tracey Moffatt's stunningly visual Bedevil and Night Cries. For many years Curtis has also taught design for theatre and film at both a secondary and tertiary level. He has devised workshops for teachers and students taking drama as part of their senior secondary studies, initiated and taught units in production design at the University of Technology, Sydney and theatre design at The National Institute of Dramatic Art. He developed the new degree and post-graduate curriculum in design for the Australian Film, Television and Radio School where he held the position of Head of Design for four years.