Production Designer

Production Designer was a new-ish role developed in 2011 by Chris Armstrong as an excuse to get over-involved in the production. Historically, the PD title was given to William Cameron Menzies for the obscene amount of work he did for Gone with the Wind. In the context of the usual hierarchy for York G&S shows, PD bridges the gap between Technical Director and Artistic Director by working on the overall visual look of the show. This takes set design away from the TD and costume and lighting design away from the AD(s), leaving them to focus on other essential aspects of the show - for example, this is a useful role to have if there is only one Artistic Director running the show as it leaves them to concentrate entirely on the cast.

Whether the society would like to elect a PD again depends on the outcome of the 2011 production of The Gondoliers and whether any artistic or technical directors want to give up some of their creative duties to someone else.

The main duties of PD are all about the visual aspects of the production that are presented to the audience, including:

  • Set design
  • Costume design
  • Lighting design
  • Some general choreogaphy
  • Poster and publicity
  • Dressing the front-of-house

In theory this also overlaps with the other ad hoc position of Production Manager.

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