Peter Mumford (lighting designer)

Peter Mumford is an international lighting designer who trained at the Central School of Art in London. He won Laurence Olivier Awards for his work, in 1995 and 2003.

Biography

Peter Mumford trained at the Central School of Art in London, under Ralph Koltai,[1] in the late Sixties. In 1969, during his last year at art school, he became a founder member of the mixed media experimental theatre group Moving Being (director Geoff Moore), with whom he worked as designer and lighting and projection designer on all productions until 1978. Mumford moved to Cardiff with Moving Being in 1972, where he designed a temporary theatre space for the new Chapter Arts Centre.[2] After that he continued to work with Moving Being on a project basis but began a wider based freelance career. In the late Seventies he became a part-time member of the faculty of the London Contemporary Dance School at The Place, teaching a course relating choreography to visual art and design and also at that time began collaborating with a number of choreographers in their early work at The Place, such as Siobhan Davies, Richard Alston, Ian Spink and many others.[3] When the company Second Stride was formed in the early Eighties Peter was a founding collaborator as lighting designer - another working relationship that would last for nearly another decade.[4] In the Eighties, Peter designed the lighting for a huge number of dance works for companies such as London Contemporary Dance Theatre, Rambert Dance Company, Second Stride, Siobhan Davies Dance Company and many other individual projects at that time. He also continued to design projects with Moving Being like the major site specific “Mabinogion” - first at Carnarvon Castle and later in Cardiff.[5] His work gradually expanded into opera, designing sets/costumes and lighting for “Parsifal“ for Welsh National Opera in 1978 and then into drama more towards the end of the 1980s.[6] The Overgrown Path at The Royal Court Theatre in 1985 was the first straight play he lit in London.

In 1986 he co-founded Dancelines Productions, a film/TV production company committed to creating and producing dance for television.[7] He produced and directed many programmes/films for Dancelines for both Channel 4 and BBC2 up until the mid- Nineties and during that period the work won many awards including OperaScreen IMZ 1991- Best New Work / DanceScreen 1992 - Best Studio Adaptation/ Video Danse Grand Prix 1994 - best series (Dance House) and an Emmy Award Nomination for the TV adaptation of Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake which Peter directed.[8] The last real work in this area was the series “48 Preludes and Fugues” (Bach) for BBC2 in 2002 - 48 short films, of which Peter directed 24 and was lighting director on the rest. His work is now predominantly in the area of lighting design, but still designs sets on certain projects and most recently was Director of Photography for Francesca Zambello’s film of “The Little Prince”.[9]

He has directed on occasion in the theatre as well as film and television. Productions include “Hamletmachine” and “No, to the Yes-sayer” (Jasager/Neinsager); both at St. Stephens Theatrespace in Cardiff. “The Man with the Foot-soles of Wind”; Almeida Opera. “Earth and the Great Weather”; Almeida Opera. “ L’Heure Espangnol” & L’Enfant et Les Sortileges”; Opera Zuid.

Work in the theatre nowadays, is spread fairly equally across drama, dance (ballet) and opera.

Most recent work includes “Corybantic Games” (Royal Ballet); “John” (National Theatre, London); “My Name Is Lucy Barton” (The Bridge Theatre); “The Way Of The World" (Donmar Warehouse); “The Ferryman” (The Gielgud Theatre); “Long Day's Journey Into Night” (Wyndham's Theatre, London); “Carmen” (The Metropolitan Opera, New York).[10]

Peter was Chairman of the British Association of Lighting Designers from 2011-2017.[11]

Awards

Personal life

Peter splits his time between London and Kefalonia with his wife, Alix Harvey-Thompson.

References
  1. Henrietta Bredin, "The man who sheds light on the music: Peter Mumford", The Spectator, 14 June 2007. Accessed 20 May 2013.
  2. Archived September 7, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  3. "The Place". The Place. 2014-12-31. Retrieved 2015-02-21.
  4. "Peter Mumford - Lighting Design". LondonDance. Retrieved 2015-02-21.
  5. "Siobhan Davies – Chronology" (PDF). Siobhandaviesreplay.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 February 2015. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  6. "Topfoto - Preview ARP1130520 - PARSIFAL - Wagner Welsh National Opera 1983 Conductor - Reginald Goodall, Producer Mike Ashman, Designer Peter Mumford: DONALD MCINTYRE as Gurnemanz". Arenapal.com. 2011-03-17. Retrieved 2015-02-21.
  7. Ashley, Linda (2012-04-13). Essential Guide to Dance, 3rd edition - Linda Ashley - Google Books. ISBN 9781444169751. Retrieved 2015-02-21.
  8. Ulrich, Allan (1998-06-10). "Stunning "Swan Lake'". SFGate. Retrieved 2015-02-21.
  9. Mermelstein, David (8 May 2005). "A 'Little Prince' for All Ages". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  10. "Peter Mumford Authorised Biography | Debrett's People of Today". Debretts.com. 1946-12-12. Retrieved 2015-02-21.
  11. "Association of Lighting Designers re-organises - 26 March 2013 - Daily Online News". LSi Online. Retrieved 2015-02-21.
  12. "Olivier Winners 1995". Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved May 16, 2013.
  13. "Die Jury". Archived from the original on August 1, 2005. Retrieved May 20, 2013.
  14. "Iphigenia at Aulis 2001 | Abbey Theatre". Abbeytheatre.ie. Retrieved 2015-02-21.
  15. Archived June 1, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  16. "Knight Of Illumination Awards". Knight-of-illumination.com. Retrieved 2015-02-21.
  17. "2013 Nominees and Winners | Helpmann Awards". Retrieved 2018-09-25.
  18. "2013 Green Room Award Winners | Stage Whispers". Retrieved 2018-09-25.
  19. "South Bank Sky Arts Awards – Winners 2017". 9 July 2017. Retrieved 2018-09-25.
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