Es Devlin

Es Devlin is a stage designer whose work crosses a wide range of genres: opera, dance, film, theatre, concerts and fashion. She also works as creative director for number of pop artists and has been designing shows and exhibitions for Louis Vuitton since 2014 . Devlin designed the London 2012 Olympic Closing Ceremony. She was appointed OBE (Order of the British Empire) in the Queen's New Years Honours List 2015.

Biography

Education

Devlin studied music at the Royal Academy of Music from age 12 as a Junior Exhibitioner while attending Cranbrook School in Kent.^[1] She went on to gain a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature at Bristol University, writing her final dissertation on the work of the American poet Adrienne Rich. A fine art foundation course followed at Central St Martins College of Art and Design before she was accepted to study set design on the Motley Theatre Design Course in London where she was taught by the designers Percy Harris, Alison Chitty and Kandis Cook. While studying Devlin worked as a stage hand for Le Cirque Invisible – the circus created by Victoria Chaplin and Jean-Baptiste Thierrée. She also assisted the artist Damien Hirst on Agongo, an installation at the Richard de Marco Gallery in Edinburgh in 1992.

Family

Devlin was born in Kingston upon Thames to author, campaigner and former teacher Angela Devlin, and Tim Devlin who is a former journalist.^[2] Devlin lives in Peckham, South London with her husband, costume designer Jack Galloway^[3] and their two children Ry and Ludo.

Career

On completing the Motley Theatre Design Course in 1995, Devlin was awarded the Linbury Prize for Stage Design – part of the prize was her first professional commission: Edward II for the Octagon Theatre, Bolton.^[4] More projects followed in small fringe theatres in London including the Bush Theatre (pictured) where she was appointed Artistic Associate from 1997–99.^[5] Devlin invited Trevor Nunn (director of the Royal National Theatre at the time) to see her work at the tiny pub theatre – he saw the show and commissioned her to design Harold Pinter's Betrayal at the National Theatre.

Theatre

Devlin has gone on to design for many of the major UK theatre companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company,^[6] Royal Court Theatre, Old Vic, Young Vic, Almeida Theatre, Arcola Theatre,^[7] Hampstead Theatre, Soho Theatre, Duke of York's Theatre, Haymarket Theatre, Comedy Theatre, Royal Exchange Theatre, Out of Joint and Theatre de Complicite plus productions in New York, Madrid, Dublin and Tokyo.

Devlin's Opera Stage/ Costume Designs

Howie the Rookie Bush Theatre, 1999. Directed by Mark O'Rowe

Opera

Devlin's first major opera commission was Ernst Bloch's Macbeth in 2003 at Theater an der Wien in Vienna. She now designs for many of the major European opera houses including La Scala Milan, El Liceu Barcelona, Netherlands Opera, Copenhagen Opera House, Greek National Opera, Finnish National Opera, Theater an der Wien, Vienna Staatsoper, Dresden Semperoper, Leipzig Opera, Oper Frankfurt, Ystad Festival Opera, Scottish Opera Go Round, English Touring Opera, Royal Opera House, English National Opera and Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

Dance

Devlin also designs for dance – including pieces for Russell Maliphant, Rambert Dance Company, Northern Ballet Theatre, Sadlers Wells^[8] and Cullberg Ballet, Sweden.

Pop music

In 2005 Kanye West saw images of Devlin's installation for the post punk band WIRE – a collaboration with the artists Jake and Dinos Chapman for the Only Connect Festival at the Barbican Centre. Kanye was in rehearsal for his Touch the Sky World Arena Tour. He commissioned Devlin to re-conceive his show 10 days before the first performance. More projects followed, including Jay Z and Kanye West's 'Watch the Throne' tour, Lady Gaga, Muse^[9] as well as Pet Shop Boys, Nitin Sawhney, Take That, Imogen Heap, Jamie Cullum, Shakira, Lenny Kravitz, Mika and Goldfrapp;^[3] for many of these projects Devlin provided the creative direction for the performance as well as the stage design.

Devlin's notable large scale project for Take That European Stadium Progress Live in 2011, featured a 20metre high mechanical man^[10] that stood up in the centre of the stadium (pictured). It was large scale stadium projects like this that led LOCOG to select Devlin and Take That's creative director Kim Gavin to conceive the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Design/ creative direction for pop concerts

Pet Shop Boys Pandemonium Tour 2009 / 2010

Film

Devlin's film work includes direction – a music video for Imogen Heap and a one-hour film for London's London IMAX to the music of Nitin Sawhney as well as costume design for Sally Potter's feature film RAGE and production design for short films and music videos by Mike Figgis.

TV

Her TV designs include MTV Europe Music Awards (EMAs) – 2011 and 2010,^[11] Rihanna's performances at the Grammy Awards and Brit Awards 2012, Pet Shop Boys Lifetime Achievement Award performance at the BRIT Awards 2009, a short film for BBC2 plus TV performances for Kanye West on American Idol, BET Awards and VH1 Storytellers.

London 2012 Olympic Closing Ceremony

Devlin designed the London 2012 Olympic Closing Ceremony (under the creative direction of Kim Gavin, within a creative team formed of music director David Arnold, lighting director Patrick Woodroffe, and executive producer Stephen Daldry.^[12] ) Devlin worked on the Closing Ceremony at the same time as designing David McVicar's acclaimed production of Les Troyens by Berlioz at the Royal Opera House.^[13]

Awards/honours

Devlin was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to stage and set design.^[14][15]

References

External links

• Es Devlin Official Website
• Video: Es Devlin talk for Bloomberg BusinessWeek January 2013
• Video: Es Devlin TEDx talk November 2012
• Video: Interview with Es Devlin for the Royal Opera House