#SCENECHANGE and one of the smallest theatre’s in the world...

In July of 2020, Philip joined forces with fellow designers Paul Wills and Jonathan Fensom to wrap The Tom Thumb Theatre in Margate with #MissingLiveTheatre hazard tape to highlight and raise awareness of the importance of our theatres (no matter their size) and how our industry has been affected by the pandemic and lockdown.

For more information visit www.scene-change.com

After twenty years working as a designer for theatre, I never imagined that practically overnight it would become almost impossible to bring theatre to audiences in the aftermath of The Covid-19 Pandemic. With a year of exciting projects and a full diary ahead of me, it quickly became apparent that day by day every production I was designing would be cancelled or postponed until further notice. I can't quite believe that one week prior to the UK lockdown, my wife and I were on holiday in California with no real sense of what we would be returning home to.

The first email I opened as we landed at Heathrow was the news I suspected would come.

It was heartbreaking knowing that my already completed and half-built designs for shows would be packed away and put into storage (where they still remain) and that so many in my industry may be faced with the same choices I am now grappling with regarding our futures in a creative industry that’s in hibernation. My own story and the impact of the lockdown is only a tiny microcosm of the devastating effect this pandemic has had on what was an already shrinking medium and one which is now facing a far more serious threat with the repercussions stretching into 2021 and beyond.

Philip and his trusted Greyhound ‘Millie’ outside the Tom Thumb Theatre in Margate.

I suppose that knowing all of us in the theatre industry were in the same position gave some strange form of comfort, but ultimately, we needed an organisation to be a loud visual voice representing this vital part of our story-telling culture that has currently all but vanished.

Scenechange and its community of set and costume designers (both established and emerging) associates and assistants are at the forefront of the fight to raise awareness and create real change regarding the government's response to these unprecedented times. I started noticing the Scenechange organisation through social media channels and after a call-out for designers in particular regions I reached out to offer my support. With theatres closed and surviving on only skeletal staffing, not to mention health and safety concerns from some organisations, it was harder than I imagined to find a theatre in Kent that was happy to be involved. Luckily the wonderful Alex and Sara at The Tom Thumb Theatre in Margate were completely up for us wrapping their unique Japanese and Alpine Architecture theatre in the ‘Missing Live Theatre’ hazard tape.

Team #SCENECHANGE together with Alex and Sara of The Tom Thumb Theatre with support from fellow Margate creatives and family.

As a designer, you rarely get an opportunity to meet and collaborate with fellow set and costume designers, so having an opportunity to meet and work with Paul and Jonathan on this project was such a lovely experience and one I will treasure.

So on a beautiful summers day in Margate, something wonderful happened, we came together and we made a small contribution to the nationwide voice to say…we miss live theatre, we miss creating and sharing stories and we will be back!

Team #SCENECHANGE Time-lapse.

Watch this space as I navigate through these strange times…