Rose Rage: Production Design - Set and Costume

This research project, a scenographic commission for a world premier adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry VI Parts 1,2 and 3, had two phases. The first was in the UK, followed by an international tour and the second in the United States. The work was produced initially at West Berkshire Playhouse and then toured in the United Kingdom including the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London before going to Europe and the USA (New York).

The production was devised collaboratively between the creative team and the all-male performance ensemble ‘Propeller’ of which Pavelka is a founder member. As set and costume designer Pavelka’s research was concerned with exploring the ways in which metaphorical scenographic motifs might enhance the themes of violence and revenge threaded through Shakespeare’s histories.

Pavelka referenced the films of Lindsay Anderson (most notably ‘If…’ 1968) with whom he collaborated on two productions in the 1980s, and Stanley Kubrick’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’ (1971). Fieldwork included photographic surveys of abattoirs, Smithfield Market and national monuments such as Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral. The extensive rehearsal process explored the use of balletic choreography and rhythmic musicality in relation to scenography. The final designs also incorporated elements of a public school gymnasium as a metaphorical arena in which to explore the underlying class struggles in the narrative.

The next phase was a commission from the Chicago Shakespeare Theater that gave the artistic team an opportunity to re-examine the precepts of ‘Rose Rage’ as conceived and executed by 'Propeller'. The production then transferred to the Duke Theater on 42nd Street, New York.

Pavelka was invited to give research presentations on the work at Lawrence University, Wisconsin and contributed to a Theatre Design Seminar in Guangzhou, China supported by the British Council. Pavelka was nominated for Best Costume Designer, 2004 Chicago Jeff Awards.

Michael Pavelka is an award-winning international scenographer who has designed over 130 productions world-wide, many of which have been new plays or new musicals. His 'Midsummer Night's Dream' and 'Galileo' both won Manchester Evening Standard Awards (for Best Production and Best Design respectively). 'Rose Rage' (a two-part adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry VI trilogy) won the 2002 Barclay's Theatre Award for Best Touring Production and (in a later production at the Chicago Shakespeare Company) the Chicago Jeff Awards nominated him for Best Costume Design. His designs for the Royal Shakespeare Company include 'The Odyssey', 'Two Gentlemen of Verona', 'Henry V' and 'Julius Caesar'. While on the Designer's Committee of Equity, he played a role in formulating prototype professional contracts for theatre designers. He is Course Leader of the Design for Performance course at Wimbledon College of Art.

Pavelka's early theatre work included designs for two productions by Lindsay Anderson including 'Holiday' at the Old Vic and for numerous other West End plays and musicals. He has exhibited at the 'Time and Space' and '2D>3D' expositions of stage design. From the mid to late 1990s Pavelka worked in Uganda with leading African writer-performers on the first African language production (in Lugandan) of Bertold Brecht's 'Mother Courage And Her Children', which toured the Grahamstown Festival in South Africa, and the African Odyssey season at the Kennedy Center, Washington DC.