Saileóg, Enda and Peter share with us their different career journeys, talking about the importance of knowing all the aspects and roles involved in costume design, as well as the significance of developing a trusting relationship with actors, reflecting also on the collaborative nature of the craft.
They also discuss the differences of designing costumes for diverse art forms on stage and screen, particularly when theatre is a more intimate working environment that allows for a different creative process than big-budget films; and finally they consider the impact of technology on costume design and its pros and cons.
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Each Stage Left episode covers different aspects of scenography and its processes with designers from all disciplines at a variety of stages in their careers.
You will find information on the productions mentioned in this podcast further down this page.
This podcast was recorded on Zoom, which might affect sound quality.
Productions Mentioned
The Fall of the Second Republic
Corn Exchange / Abbey Theatre
Director: Annie Ryan
Costume Designer: Saileóg O’Halloran
Set Designer: Katie Davenport
Lighting Designer: Sinéad Wallace
Composer: Denis Clohessy
Video Designer: José Miguel Jimenez
Abbey Theatre
24 February – 14 March 2020
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Photograph by Ros Kavanagh
The Great Gatsby
A production by Gate Theatre Dublin
Director: Alexander Wright
Costume Designer: Peter O’Brien
Lighting & Set Designer: Ciarán Bagnall
Composer: Isobel Waller-Bridge
Choreography: Muirne Bloomer
Bios
Saileóg O’Halloran is a Costume Designer based in Dublin.
Her work in film and theatre has travelled worldwide, with her work for Dead Centre travelling to various countries in Europe, Asia and Australia.
Recent film work includes “Algorithm”, “Kathleen Was Here”, “Cynthia” and Jack Reynor’s directorial debut “Bainne”.
Recent theatre work includes “The Great Hunger” & “The Fall of the Second Republic” for the Abbey Theatre.
Street spectacle work includes “Danse Macabre” & “Out of the Wild Sky” for Macnas.
Saileóg is an Irish Times Irish Theatre Award nominee and a member of ISPD.
Enda Kenny is an award winning designer based in Belfast. He has worked as a milliner,designer,leather worker,designer and costume prop maker in film.
In the last few years he has specialised in leatherwork and Millinery. He started his own craft label Éinín craft work. Enda creates hand cut, stitched and dyed leather bags and satchels drawing on his 20 years of experience from the film and theatre industries.
He has worked internationally as a costume designer, prop costume maker, textile artist, and milliner. Theatre work includes productions for English National Opera, NI Opera, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the National Theatre London, Saddlers Wells and the Lyceum Theatre London.
His film work credits include Dungeons and dragons, The Northman, His Dark Materials, Outlander, Game of Thrones and Pirates of the Carribbean.
Peter O’Brien was born in London to Irish parents, returning to Ireland as a child. Receiving a traditional education, he left secondary school early, going to work in visual display in Dublin department stores.
At 19, Peter moved to London and worked in display in Marshall & Snellgrove (now Debenhams). On the advice of British fashion editor Eve Pollard, to whom he had shown some sketches, he applied to Saint Martins School Of Art and was accepted on a foundation course. After completing a three-year degree course in Fashion Design, he graduated with 1st class honors. Peter then completed a post-graduate course at Parsons School of Design in New York.
Upon graduating, Peter moved to Paris where he worked at Christian Dior under Marc Bohan, at Givenchy, and as a senior designer at Chloé . In 1989 he was appointed creative director at Rochas, where he remained for 12 years, designing women’s wear and accessories, and overseeing menswear, perfumes and licenses.
Peter returned to Ireland in 2004 where he has since been working as a freelance designer, creating collections first for retailer AWear and now an exclusive capsule collection for Arnotts department store.
In 2005, Peter started designing for theater, utilizing his skills honed in the ateliers of Paris and calling on the services of a unique range of craftspeople and suppliers from his years working abroad. To date he has designed the costumes for numerous plays at Dublin’s Gate Theatre, including ‘Lady Wyndemere’s Fan, The Constant Wife, Private Lives, Present Laughter. He has also designed costumes for Pygmalion, at The Abbey Théâtre, Dublin.
In 2012, fine art printers and book publishers Stoney Road Press launched a limited-edition, hand-printed book of O’Brien’s theatre and fashion drawings spanning 30 years and titled Workbook.
In 2013, he was costume designer on the film The Price of Desire (dir: Mary McGuckian), based on the life of furniture designer and architect Eileen Gray.
Stage Left Podcast
Stage Left Podcast is funded by the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland
Featured Music Venn Diagrams from How To Square A Circle by Lux Alma
Produced by Noelia Ruiz