Charlotte Hurrell MA Performance Design

Charlotte Hurrell

Charlotte Hurrell

MA Performance Design

Charlotte explored Architecture and Landscape Architecture before a degree in English and Theatre from the University of Sheffield, where she specialised in Set Design. She has gained experience from working in a range of art galleries and exhibition spaces before completing her MA in Performance Design at BOVTS.

Credits include:

Set and Costume Design for The Pied Piper (BOVTS Online) and Katie Johnstone (The Wardrobe Theatre) and Set Design for Absolute Scenes (The Marble Factory). During the course she specialised in Site Specific design, aligning with her passion for architecture and spatial design.

Portfolio

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Absolute Scenes

The Marble Factory’s structural make up of concrete, rusted metal and worn factory windows is the ideal site specific venue for an end of the world party. I created a space where the audience felt the intruding sun in every crevice and the conflicting warmth of life and threat of death as the partygoers celebrated their last moments together. Creating a COVID safe design for a large cast encouraged the 360-degree use of a party space by adding projection-based ‘rooms’ upstairs, and therefore adding the feeling of the party carrying on beyond the immediate space. Set dressing encouraged this further, as the audience arrive into a ‘used’ space as a spectator.

Ineffable Love

The vast and impressive chapel designed by Le Corbusier in Ronchamp, reflects his interest in ineffable space, and, although an post-modern style building, it is filled with his respect for raw, unfinished materials. The narrative, written by Pearl Andrews-Horrigan, follows a cyclical story of Audrey and Cecil’s life together and celebrates their important moments of life as they dance with each other, and their future selves, through Corbusier’s pools of ineffable light, cast through his sculptural wall of windows. A homage to my love of architecture and my father who filled my childhood with structures.

The Pied Piper

I created a playground for the 14 actors to devise a narrative based on the fable, The Pied Piper, for children, based on Bristol. The industrial aspect of Bristol city seeps in, mixing with Paul Klee and Hundterwasser style structures, adding a fairytale feel to the set. The entire set is made from cardboard, producing a sustainable and imaginary playground for the actors to create the story from. I adapted the design to be used for a Zoom performance, and stayed true to the initial cardboard fairytale design.

One of my favourite parts about BOVTS is that it feels ‘homegrown’. From the set to the costume, lighting, acting and sound, every single aspect of a theatre production or film is down to the students. The location of Clifton is so serene and the School being so small everyone knows each other and it feels so personal and special. Violet Morris, BA Professional Acting Student