Hannah Strange - Production Designer
My work has developed from an interest into the art and culture of the 1920’s and through my interpretation of the 1920’s novel ‘The Green Hat’ written by Michael Arlen and published in 1924. A story that tells the tale of a wild young woman at the beginning of the roaring twenties. It takes on the themes of love and honour amongst the upper classes culminating in a tragic ending for the heroine. I created a speculative piece where I devised and designed for a site specific performance of the story, choosing the magnificent space at 33 Portland Place, London. My later work developed from looking closely at the film interpretation of The Green Hat, the 1928 cinematic classic ‘A Woman of Affairs’ directed by Clarence Brown and starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. As a silent film it gave me a fantastic opportunity to devise a realised piece from the obvious imagery used and so my speculative work developed into a live installation. I wanted to draw on the similarities between installation art and theatre. Through the use of a variety of objects from the 1920’s era and symbolic to the story I could develop a space to create a sensory experience for an audience. To a certain degree the installation stands as an evidence room, incorporating artefacts of the story’s heroine and her life. To realise this I spent time buying and sourcing many objects from the 20’s era, and designing the layout of the installation itself. Finally through a series of photographic stills from the installation and the individual objects, I created a montage of image in an attempt to transcend to the audience the themes and emotions of the classic tale using sound, text and image. My work stems from an interest into design and creating visual imagery for an audience as an aid to text. I have a passion for the theatre and performing arts and would love to work within a range of areas for live performance.

Specific Skills: Through out the course of my theatre design degree at Wimbledon and through work experience I have taken on, I have developed skills that include, set design, costume design, costume making, model making and story boarding, both for theatre and film. I have developed the ability to interpret a variation of texts for design, and have become more competent when using programs such as photo shop and Auto Cad. I have also gained experience in live performance both as a set and costume designer with sole responsibility for the wardrobe department when working as the designer on a musical with Youth Music Theatre UK. During the performances I also took on a stage management role. This has been valuable experience as they will be skills that can take me forward into a profession of design within live performance.