Timothy Bird.
UK - Timothy Bird, director of The Knifedge Creative Network, is celebrating again this week after his company's ground-breaking projections for Sunday in the Park with George helped the West End musical win five Laurence Olivier Awards, including Best Set Design and Most Outstanding Musical Production. Last year, Bird and fellow designer David Farley also won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Design, and the Critics Choice Theatre Award for Best Design for the same production.

Directed by Sam Buntrock, Sunday in the Park with George first opened at The Menier Chocolate Factory in November 2005, before transferring to Wyndham's Theatre in May 2006. Originally written by Stephen Sondheim, the musical tells the story of pointillist painter Georges Seurat and his muse Dot.

Knifedge's innovative projections have been a key feature of the production, allowing audiences to see Seurat's masterpiece "Sunday Afternoon On the Island of La Grande Jatte" forming before their eyes. Real actors interact with animated projected characters to tell thestory in a highly original and meaningful way.

Bird comments: "As a broadcast branding specialist, it's been tremendously exciting to bring those skills into the live theatre environment. This was also a great collaborative project with set designer David Farley and director Sam Buntrock. Together we had this ambitious vision of bringing Seurat's work to life before audience's eyes sympathetically and relevantly using the latest projection technology. The production seems to have really captured the imagination of both audiences and critics alike. To be recognised by the Oliver Awards is both an honour and a mark of the effectiveness of daring and collaboration."

Bird has just completed work on a new touring production of The Hound of The Baskervilles which opened in Colchester on 8 February, and arrives in Windsor this week.

(Lee Baldock)


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