Melanie Mitchley - Theatre Designer and Maker
Whilst at Wimbledon I have experimented with a variety of aspects of design for performance as well as producing realised projects. I have really enjoyed the chance to try out so many different styles of performance from site specific work to work in our own theatre and speculative work for large scale theatres. I have found it particularly exciting and interesting when I have been able to follow through my designs to the final constructed piece.

I enjoy collaborating with others and working as a team, producing a set for our Hamlet performance was a great opportunity to do this. During this project I learnt about working as a theatre company with a director and actors whilst sticking to a restricted budget. I also worked with a team of designers on a ballet backcloth based on the four seasons. Working on such a large scale was a new experience for us all, but it was amazing to see our preliminary designs transformed into a huge backcloth at the back of the theatre stage and with dancers performing in front of it.

At the end of my second year I became interested in puppetry and incorporated puppet designs into my work. In my third year I followed this through and attended a puppetry course to help me understand how puppets are used and how to make a simple puppet. Puppetry is definitely something I would like to explore further. I find puppets fascinating because of the strong characteristics that can be created in them and how they can be used to mesmerize an audience. I think masks have similar characteristics and I’ve really enjoyed making my Polar Bear mask for ‘Northern Lights’. I had no experience in making this kind of mask before, but found it was something that really came naturally to me and I hope to have the chance to experiment more with mask designs and construction.

Specific Skills: Costume and set design, Model making, set and costume construction, technical drawing, basic puppetry and mask construction.