59 Productions

59 Productions was founded in Edinburgh by Leo Warner and Mark Grimmer. Their early projects include video designs for Stellar Quines Theatre Company's Sweet Fanny Adams in Eden in 2003,[1] and video designs for the then recently formed National Theatre of Scotland's Roam and Black Watch in 2006, which was featured at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.[2] 59 Productions relocated to London shortly after winning multiple awards for Black Watch, including a Critics' Circle Theatre Award, a South Bank Sky Arts Award, four Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland, four Laurence Olivier Awards, a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, and several other awards at Edinburgh festivals.[3] In London, they began a series of collaborations at the Royal National Theatre.[4] Critics at The Guardian commented that with an adaptation of The Waves that they worked on, the team had "created an entirely new art form."[5]

Warner and Grimmer were part of the original creative team for War Horse in 2007, which went on to win several Laurence Olivier Awards[6] in London and five Tony Awards for its subsequent production on Broadway.[7]

59 Productions worked on its first opera in the year 2007 at the English National Opera, providing the projection design for Philip Glass's Satyagraha, which was directed by Phelim McDermott and co-directed/designed by Julian Crouch, both of Improbable theatre company.[8] This was the first of several collaborations with Improbable. including the design for the Metropolitan Opera's 125th Anniversary Gala in 2009, which raised over $10 million.[9]

In 2012, director Danny Boyle asked 59 Productions to provide the animation and projection design for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics, which was viewed by over a billion people.[10] They were also asked to lead the design of the David Bowie Is exhibition for the Victoria and Albert Museum. The exhibit was described as "brought to life by technology and united in sound and vision in a way rarely seen in a museum."[11] The company was commissioned for the "Light the Sails" project at the Sydney Opera House for the 2014 Vivid Sydney festival.[12] In 2015, they were responsible for the projection design for the first-ever Broadway production of George Gershwin's An American in Paris. The production went on to win four Tony Awards, including Best Scenic Design of a Musical for Bob Crowley and 59 Productions.[13]

In July 2016, 59 Productions mounted an immersive show for over 80,000 spectators across 30 performances at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington. Called The Boeing Centennial Projection Spectacular, it was a celebration of the Boeing company's centennial. The show featured an animated sequence projection mapped onto the body of a Boeing 747 to present the history of the aircraft, as well as a specially commissioned soundtrack by composer Jeff Beal.

In 2017, the company developed and produced its first production. It was an adaptation of Paul Auster's City of Glass, written by Duncan Macmillan. City of Glass was a co-production with the Lyric Hammersmith, HOME arts centre, and Karl Sydow. The production was described by The Daily Telegraph as a "neo-noir thriller that rewrites the rulebook for theatre design."[14]

In 2018, 59 Productions provided both the set and projection design for The Last Ship, a musical by Sting that tells the story of the shipbuilding in North East England. The production opened at Northern Stage before embarking on a UK tour. Other projects include the design of Marnie, an opera by Nico Muhly that transferred to the Metropolitan Opera after an initial run at the English National Opera in London. The company also designed events in 2018 for both the first night of the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and the Edinburgh International Festival.

Alongside their work on the stage, 59 Productions made two virtual reality films in 2018: Grenfell: Our Home,[15] a collaboration with Parable and Channel 4 that won the Audience Award at Sheffield DocFest,[16] and Nothing To Be Written,[17] which was commissioned by the BBC and won Best UK Experience and two other awards at Raindance Film Festival.[18] In November 2018, Deep Field, their film collaboration with composer Eric Whitacre and NASA. premiered at the Kennedy Space Center.[19]

59 Productions currently employs 35 individuals globally and has offices in London and New York. The company specializes in set design, video projection design, exhibition and event design, film, theatre, and interactive production. In 2016, the company expanded to include an architecture department with a particular focus on design for performance environments and narratively led architectural expression.

• 2018—The Last Ship. Set and projection design for new production of Sting's musical about shipbuilding in North East England.
• 2018—The Shadow Factory. Set design and projection design for new play by Howard Brenton at Nuffield Theatre Southampton.
• 2018—Array. Animated artwork projection mapped onto the interior of Beech Street Tunnel in Barbican Centre, London, set to Karawane by composer Esa-Pekka Salonen
• 2017—Reflections. Animated artwork projected onto the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao as part of the museum's 20th birthday celebrations.
• 2017—City of Glass. Stage adaptation of Paul Auster's novella, co-produced by 59 Productions, the Lyric Hammersmith, HOME Manchester, and Karl Sydow.
• 2015—An American in Paris. At the Palace Theatre (New York City), starring Robbie Fairchild and Leanne Cope. The projections transform from simple line drawings to completed works of art as they would in a sketchbook. The video design integrates with the staging and scenic elements to recreate the Parisian streets where the story is set.[20]
• 2014—Lighting the Sails. At the Sydney Opera House for the VIVID Live festival. Commissioned to create a bespoke animated film for projection onto the roof of the Sydney Opera House. It traced the evolution of the building from its design and construction.[21]
• 2014—Hedwig and the Angry Inch. At the Belasco Theatre, starring Neil Patrick Harris. 59 Productions' Ben Pearcy designed projections.[22]
• 2014—Les Misérables. At the Imperial Theatre. Projections inspired by Victor Hugo's watercolors for new production of the musical.[23]
• 2013—David Bowie Is. Exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The first time that the V&A Museum asked a theatrical design company to lead the design of an exhibition. It includes over 300 objects, video installations, and set works, and draws on a range of influences to bring Bowie's creative and cultural impact to life.[24]
• 2012—2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony. Directed the video content delivered to the Olympic Stadium's four LED screens on the stadium roof and the "audience pixels"—a video surface with a nine-pixel LED panel mounted between every one of the 70,000 seats.[10]
• 2009—Al gran sole carico d'amore. At the Salzburg Festival. Katie Mitchell directed Luigi Nono's opera with Leo Warner, creating a "live film" production in which action on stage and visual effects were created, shot, and edited live, and relayed to a cinema screen above the stage.[25]
• 2007—War Horse at the Royal National Theatre. Story based on a children's book by Michael Morpurgo and directed by Tom Morris and Marianne Elliott. Staged with life-size horse puppets created by Handspring Puppet Company and animation and projection design by 59 Productions.[26]
• 2007—Satyagraha by the English National Opera. Opera by Philip Glass with libretto by Constance DeJong. 59 Productions designed the video projections using large-scale text instead of surtitles and aesthetics from Mahatma Gandhi's newspaper Indian Opinion.[8]
• 2006—The Waves. At the Royal National Theatre, based on the novel by Virginia Woolf. Leo Warner developed a mode of "live film-making" with director Katie Mitchell to evoke the stream of consciousness style of the novel.[5]
• 2006—Black Watch. For the National Theatre of Scotland. 59 Productions designed the video projections for this play about the famous Scottish regiment in Iraq. It started at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe but went on to tour Europe, North America, Australia, and Asia.[2]
• 2006—Roam. By Grid Iron Theatre Company at the Edinburgh Airport. 59 Productions created CG and film content and designed the technical systems for the delivery of video in this show. It included a mock-up of a live news report describing Edinburgh's descent into civil war.[27]
• 2003—Sweet Fanny May Adams in Eden. Produced by the Stellar Quines Theatre Company in a garden. 59 Productions' video was used for scenography and narrative in the outdoor promenade production.[1]

• 2011–2014—War Horse. After a successful run at the Royal National Theatre, the production won five Tony Awards on Broadway, including Best Play and Best Design. The show also toured in the UK, Ireland, North America, Netherlands, Germany, and South Africa.[28]
• 2010—Jónsi Go Live World Tour. 59 Productions conceived, designed, and produced the stage show for Jónsi's 2010 tour of North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan.[29]
• 2009–2014—Les Misérables. The new, redesigned version of the musical toured the UK, Japan, South Korea, Spain, and Australia.[30]
• 2008—The Waves. Started at the Royal National Theatre. It toured the UK, North America, and Europe.[31]
• 2006–2011—Black Watch. Started at the National Theatre of Scotland. It went on to tour the UK, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.[32]

• 59 Productions Official Website