The Society of British Theatre Designers (Training)

BRISTOL OLD VIC THEATRE SCHOOL

Theatre Design
2 Downside Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 2XF
Telephone: 0117 973 3535 x 143 design / x 137 wardrobe
Fax: 0117 923 9371
Email: enquiries@oldvic.ac.uk (information)
Website: http://www.oldvic.ac.uk

Course Titles:
Theatre Design Course (4 x 1 yr, full time) - Post Graduate Diploma
Costume for Theatre, Television and Film (4 x 2 yr, full time) - Diploma
Stage Management and Technical Theatre Course (20 x 2 yr, full time) - Diploma
Professional Stage Management - 3 year BA course.
Scenic Art - (4 x 1 yr, full time) - Post Graduate course.
Validating Body: Independent
Hours per week: 35
Places: 4 / 4 / 20
Entry requirements: Interview and portfolio
Minimum age: usually over 20, none for the wardrobe course
Closing Date: October - May - early application is advisable
School Principal: Christopher Denys
Course Leaders: Andrea Montag (Design) - Mary Trenfield (Costume)

Course Description: Design
The first term is project-based, teaching the process of theatre design. Students work with professional directors for a designated theatre and to a given budget. They are required to produce scale models, ground plans and costume drawings for each project. One of these projects will normally be an opera or dance piece. Through the projects they develop an understanding of the director/designer relationship and learn to discuss their designs with a Production Manager in a construction and costing meeting. Projects are presented to and assessed by a Production Manager, Master Carpenter, Costume Supervisor, Guest Designer and a Staff Director.

Classes are organised round the projects and vary from year to year depending on the needs of the particular student group. These generally include: Model-making, Technical Drawing, Scene Painting, History of Costume, Life Drawing, Costume Drawing, Set Construction Methods and Prop Making techniques. The majority of the teaching, however, is one-to-one with the Head of Design and visiting specialists as the students develop their designs.

During the Spring and Summer terms the students design the Theatre School's public productions. Unlike many other courses, they are able to see their designs fully staged in public theatres for two and three week runs. This gives them essential vocational training. They work in pairs on the set and costume designs for four full-scale productions at Bristol Old Vic Main House and Studio as well as the Redgrave Theatre in Clifton. They also design both set and costume for the season of 'lunchtime Theatre' in the New Vic Basement.

The last weeks of the course are spent composing portfolios and mounting the end of year exhibitions at the Bristol Old Vic and in London. The designers also attend a number of interviews with prospective employers. The course prides itself on producing designers who are fully equipped to do the job from the moment they leave us. Many of our designers have gone on to careers in television, film, opera and dance as well as theatre.

Course Description: Costume
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School recreates the disciplines of a working theatre company staging twelve productions each year at local Bristol theatres. Each production is put on entirely by the students of the school in the stage management, design, wardrobe and acting departments. This means that the training is entirely hands-on and students from the wardrobe course progress rapidly from basic skills training, through costume-making and backstage assisting, to costume supervisor with full responsibility on at least two large-scale productions.

Each BOVTS wardrobe student leaves the course fully-equipped to compete for, and hold with confidence, a costume assistant post in any theatre. Past students have found work at the Northern Ballet, Royal Shakespeare Company, at Glyndebourne Opera, on tour for Cameron Mackintosh and in many London and regional theatres. Others have found work in Film and Television. Students seeking a career in Wardrobe must be prepared for freelance short-term contracts and to work anywhere in Britain - sometimes involving considerable travel.

Just four students are taken on for the course ensuring a high staff/student ratio. The school makes every effort to simulate a theatre company working environment so training runs from 9.30 - 5.00 pm. In production weeks the days extends until the job is completed! BOVTS enjoys close links with the Bristol Old Vic Company and wardrobe students have placements for work experience with them.

Course Description: Scenic Arts
The course is designed for people with a degree in Fine Art or in Theatre Studies who wish to put their skills into a vocational training, and for people with previous experience in the industry who want to broaden their skills and contacts.

A thorough grounding in painting techniques and styles together with the staging of several public shows in an intensive one year course will provide the students with the tools to work as scenic painters in Theatre, Film, Television, 3D Animation and any related industry.

During the three terms of the course the students will attend introductory lectures in various specialist departments including carpentry, lighting, props and technical drawing. They will also work on a variety of painting projects to familiarize them with the different styles through the ages together with life drawing and work on composition and colour theory.

The students will study gilding, marbling, woodgraining, textures and spray techniques and the essentials of scenic painting such as scaling up, priming and glazing, and they will paint most of the school public shows.

The students will have more and more responsibility during the course of the year's productions: direct contact with the designer, interpretation of the design, budgeting and ordering of materials, the organization of the workshop and managing of timetables and team.

Up to six weeks work experience is provided in the form of short term placements to theatres and studios. There will also be visits to professional organizations, lectures and short courses given by specialist tutors. By the end of the year the students will be proficient in all aspects of scene painting and will have compiled a large portfolio of work and made practical contacts within the profession.