59 Productions Explained

59 Productions
Industry:Specialist Design
Predecessors:-->
Successors:-->
Founder:Leo Warner (co-founder Mark Grimmer)
Location City:London
Location Country:United Kingdom
Owners:-->
Num Employees:35

Fifty-Nine Productions (59 Productions) is a design studio with offices located in London and New York City.[1] [2]

Origins

59 Productions was founded in Edinburgh by Leo Warner (shortly joined by co-founder Mark Grimmer). Their early public projects were largely video-led designs for theatre, and included video designs for Stellar Quines Theatre Company's Sweet Fanny Adams in Eden in 2003,[3] and video designs for the then recently-formed National Theatre of Scotland's Roam and Black Watch in 2006, which was featured at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and won several awards.[4] [5]

59 Productions relocated to London, where they began a series of collaborations at the Royal National Theatre.[6] Critics at The Guardian commented that with an adaptation of The Waves that they worked on, the team had "created an entirely new art form".[7]

Warner and Grimmer were part of the original creative team for War Horse in 2007, which won several Laurence Olivier Awards[8] in London and five Tony Awards for its subsequent production on Broadway.[9]

59 Productions worked on its first opera in 2007 at the English National Opera, providing the projection design for Philip Glass's Satyagraha, directed by Phelim McDermott and co-directed/designed by Julian Crouch, both of the theatre company, Improbable.[10] This was the first of several collaborations with Improbable, including the design for the Metropolitan Opera's 125th Anniversary Gala in 2009, which raised over $10 million.[11]

In 2012, director Danny Boyle asked 59 Productions to provide the animation and projection design for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics, which was viewed by over a billion people.[12] They also led the design of the David Bowie exhibition for the Victoria and Albert Museum.[13] The company was commissioned for the Light the Sails project at the Sydney Opera House for the 2014 Vivid Sydney Festival.[14] In 2015, they were responsible for the projection design for the first-ever Broadway production of George Gershwin's An American in Paris. The production won four Tony Awards, including Best Scenic Design of a Musical for Bob Crowley and 59 Productions.[15]

In 2017, the company developed and produced its first production. It was an adaptation of Paul Auster's City of Glass, written by Duncan Macmillan. City of Glass was a co-production with the Lyric Hammersmith, HOME arts center, and Karl Sydow. The production was described by The Daily Telegraph as a "neo-noir thriller that rewrites the rulebook for theatre design."[16]

In 2018, 59 Productions provided both the set and projection design for The Last Ship, a musical by Sting that tells the story of shipbuilding in North East England. The production opened at Northern Stage before embarking on a UK tour. Other projects include the design of Marnie, an opera by Nico Muhly that transferred to the Metropolitan Opera after an initial run at the English National Opera in London. The company also designed events in 2018 for both the first night of the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and the Edinburgh International Festival.

Alongside their work on the stage, 59 Productions made two virtual reality films in 2018: Grenfell: Our Home,[17] a collaboration with Parable and Channel 4 that won the Audience Award at Sheffield DocFest,[18] and Nothing To Be Written,[19] which was commissioned by the BBC and won Best UK Experience and two other awards at the Raindance Film Festival.[20] In November 2018, Deep Field, their film collaboration with composer Eric Whitacre and NASA, premiered at the Kennedy Space Center.[21]

Selected productions

Selected tours

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 59 Productions . 2023-11-17 . 59 Productions . en-US.
  2. Web site: About . 2023-11-17 . 59 Productions . en-US.
  3. Web site: Sweet Fanny Adams in Eden - Stellar Quines . 26 October 2023 . Stellar Quines.
  4. News: Brantley. Ben. To Tell These War Stories, Words Aren't Enough. 24 October 2007. The New York Times. 24 October 2007.
  5. Web site: Awards for the National Theatre of Scotland . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140410100608/http://www.nationaltheatrescotland.com/content/default.asp?page=s7_13 . 10 April 2014 . 23 May 2014 . National Theatre of Scotland.
  6. News: Sears. Amelia. Interviews with the Creative Team. 16 May 2014. National Theatre Education. July 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20140714233820/http://d1wf8hd6ovssje.cloudfront.net/documents/Some_trace_of_her_workpack.pdf. 14 July 2014. dead. dmy-all.
  7. News: Gardner. Lyn. Waves sets a high-water mark for multimedia theatre. 16 May 2014. The Guardian. 4 December 2006.
  8. News: Shenton . Mark . Hairspray Wins Four 2008 Laurence Olivier Awards Including Best Musical . 23 May 2014 . Playbill . 9 March 2008 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140324015047/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/115735-Hairspray-Wins-Four-2008-Laurence-Olivier-Awards-Including-Best-Musical . 24 March 2014 .
  9. News: British play War Horse triumphs at Tony Awards. 23 May 2014. The Telegraph. 13 June 2011.
  10. Web site: Brieler . Philip . The Art of Satyagraha . 2023-10-26 . www.metopera.org . en.
  11. News: Tommasini. Anthony. Anthony Tommasini. A Gala of Singing and Nostalgia (Addio, Speeches). 23 May 2014. The New York Times. 16 March 2009.
  12. Web site: London Olympics Opening Ceremony 2012. STROMA Films. 16 May 2007.
  13. News: Menkes. Suzy. David Bowie Brought to Life, in All His Guises. 23 May 2014. The New York Times. 18 March 2013.
  14. Web site: Watch all Lighting of the Sails from the past decade . 2023-10-26 . Sydney Opera House . en.
  15. Web site: Winners . 2023-10-26 . www.tonyawards.com . en-US.
  16. News: Neo-noir thriller that rewrites the rulebook for theatre design - City of Glass, Lyric Hammersmith review. Allfree. Claire. 2017-04-27. The Telegraph. 2018-11-23. en-GB. 0307-1235.
  17. News: A new VR documentary takes you inside Grenfell before the fire. Evening Standard. 2018-11-22. en-GB.
  18. Web site: Grenfell - Our Home . 2023-10-26 . 59 Productions . en-US.
  19. Web site: BBC - The first ever Virtual Reality Prom - Media Centre. www.bbc.co.uk. en-GB. 2018-11-22.
  20. News: Award Winners - Raindance Immersive Stories 2018 - Raindance. 2018-10-07. Raindance. 2018-11-22. en-GB.
  21. Web site: Deep Field: The Impossible Magnitude of our Universe . 2023-10-26 . Deep Field . en-US.
  22. News: Fisher. Neil. How to melt the Sydney Opera House. 23 May 2014. The Times. 21 May 2014.
  23. News: Brantley. Ben. A Cold War Casualty, Hot for Freedom (and Heels). 16 May 2014. The New York Times. 22 April 2014.
  24. News: Stasio. Marilyn. Broadway Review Les Miserables. 16 May 2014. Variety. 23 March 2014.
  25. News: Loomis. George. Amid Upheavals, a Steady Salzburg Festival. 16 May 2014. The New York Times. 18 August 2009.
  26. News: Chadwick. Alan. First Class Act. 16 May 2014. The Metro. 6 April 2006.
  27. Web site: War Horse on Stage: Official Site . 2023-10-26 . War Horse.
  28. News: Aames. Timothy. Jónsi & Fifty Nine Productions: Taxidermy Fire Inspires Darkness-to-Light Aesthetic. 16 May 2014. Alarm. 20 January 2012.
  29. Web site: Les Misérables Welcome to the Official Website . 2023-10-26 . Les Miserables . en-US.
  30. News: Brantley. Ben. Six Lives Ebb and Flow, Interconnected and Alone. 19 May 2014. The New York Times. 17 November 2008.
  31. News: National Theatre of Scotland's Black Watch US Tour Dates Announced. 19 May 2014. All Media Scotland. 16 July 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20141006073359/http://www.allmediascotland.com/media-releases/22340/national-theatre-of-scotlands-black-watch-us-tour-dates-announced/. 6 October 2014. dead. dmy-all.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "59 Productions".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.