Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1996 - 37

sign, the Festival's mandate, Newton says, "was to break
through the idea of Shaw as a rather stuffy individual in a
drawing room. We had to let these Victorian writers loose inside their work, rather than constricting them. It had been the
case that the design here tended to be naturalistic, not always,
but it tended towards that. Though you can't throw that out,
we wanted to explore and explode this. Canleron and I did a
Misalliance that didn't look like any Misalliance anyone had
ever seen, and then we did a SainI joan which didn't look like
any Sainljoan anyone had ever seen. We got incredible criticism, the hideous kind of criticism, vile stuff. But we were
right. We were doing the right thing. I know that in retrospect."
The corolla1)' to opening up design at the Shaw to new
ideas was openillg up opportunities for new designers.
"The other part of the mandate for design was to find
younger designers-and some of the ones who had been
working away in the prO\~nces-and to encourage them to re-

gard this as a center of interesting work," Newton says.
He turned to Cameron Porteous to carry out that mandate not only for his artistl)' but for the designer's practical
abilities and personal qualities as well.
"Cam is very generous in looking at other people. He's
fascinated by other designers, and he's fascinated by seeing
how people solve problems. Because we went through those
years at the Vancouver Playhouse, sometimes doing shows
with some money, and sometimes doing them with absolutely
nothing, he's Vel)' good with working \\~th a small budget. I
knew when we expanded to eleven productions the first year
we came here, we had to do them on a budget for six."
At age 59, Porteous is one of the doyens of Canadian design. His career metaphorically spans twentieth centul)'
scenecraft, from an apprenticeship grounded in nineteenth
centll1)' painting techniques, to current experiments with
teclulOlogy. Porteous has helped Canadian design become
\~sible in international forums, and he sets an ethic of artistic

the

des i g n

tea

ill

Porteous is proud of the team of designers he has assembled, with
Leslie Frankish and William Schmuck at what he calls the center core,
augmented with Christina Poddubiuk and Peter Hartwell. He also
mentions Toronto-based Michael Levine, whom he recruited from
Pamela Howard's progranJ at the Central-SI. Martin's School in London.
"Young Michael is probably one of the finest design talents in the
world right now, he's just an e.traorrunary person. I was lucky enough
to meet him, believe in him, and get him here at the Festival tight off
the bat, just at the start of the his professional career. His He01tbl'eak
House, the surreal element of it, became, as Dan Lawrence called it,
the definitive design, the definitive production. '

Shaw's You Never Can Tell, designed by William Schmuck (1995)

Shaw's Pygmalion, designed by Leslie Frankish (1992)

TD&T

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