About

"SAMMY IS A SUPERB THEATRE DESIGNER"

I have been a professional  Set and Costume Designer since 1994. I trained at The Slade and quickly went on to become the resident designer at The Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, working there until 2014. 

Having worked in-the-round for nearly twenty years I've embraced the chance to work in a multitude of different types of theatre spaces. In the last three years I've worked all over the country in small, medium, found, and full scale theatres, designing in-the-round, thrust, proscenium and traverse.  

I am hugely dedicated to my profession and am constantly trying to push the boundaries of my intellect and craft but my USP is that I'm great  to work with and am regularly re-hired by my colleagues.  I truly value and believe in the team effort of theatre making, am generous, kind and incredibly hard working. 

TESTIMONIALS

"SAMMY IS A SUPERB THEATRE DESIGNER AND AN ABSOLUTE DELIGHT TO COLLABORATE WITH. THE BREADTH, ORIGINALITY AND QUALITY OF HER WORK IS EXTRAORDINARY. IF YOU WANT TO GET TO THE HEART OF A PLAY AND BRING IT TO LIFE WITH INTEGRITY, VIBRANCY AND FUN ... WORK WITH HER!"

DAVID ANTROBUS - FREELANCE THEATRE DIRECTOR

"WORKING WITH SAMMY MEANS THAT YOU DON'T JUST GET A DESIGNER - YOU GET ENTHUSIASM, PASSION AND CREATIVE INPUT THAT REACHES ACROSS THE WHOLE PRODUCTION. PRACTICAL, PRAGMATIC, ALWAYS GRINNING, SAMMY IS BOTH A PLEASURE TO WORK WITH AND HAS  INVALUABLE, INSTINCTIVE, AESTHETIC VISION FOR A PRODUCTION."         

JOHN TERRY - ARTISTIC DIRECTOR - CHIPPING NORTON THEATRE

"A DESIGNER FOR MANY OF MY PRODUCTIONS (IN-THE-ROUND AND PROSCENIUM ARCH). SHE IS A JOY TO WORK WITH, ORIGINAL, STYLISH AND WITH A STRONG ABILITY TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. GRAB HER IF YOU CAN!"                

 AURIOL SMITH - ORANGE TREE THEATRE ASSOCIATE - 2014 AND FREELANCE THEATRE DIRECTOR

FULL BIOGRAPHY

Sammy trained in theatre design at the Slade School of Fine Art.  

She is a set and costume designer, principally for theatre and more recently for film.

She is also an art workshop leader designing art projects for primary (Gold Art Mark) and secondary school children.

She is also an experienced scenic artist, seamstress and upholsterer.

Until June 2014 Sammy was the designer-in-residence at The Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond. She has now been freelance for 3 Years.

Coming up: 

2018 She will be designing “Taste of Honey” for Chris Lawson at Oldham Coliseum and “The Burial at Thebes” for Martin Wylde at Central School for Speech and Drama.

2017

Designed “The Island” for John Terry at Chipping Norton (Co Pro with Dukes Lancaster), designed “Hard Times” for Chris Lawson at Oldham Coliseum and “Beweep Outcast” for Martin Wylde at Central School for Speech and Drama. Co-ordinated the designs for Kings College school annual community project “The Pilgrim of Love” with David Antrobus.

2016

Designed “Stones in his Pockets” for John Terry at Chipping Norton (Co Pro with Dukes Lancaster) designed “Heresy of Love” for Martin Wylde at Central School for Speech and Drama and designed “Bluebird”with Emma Faulkner for Lightbox Theatre. Co-ordinated the design for Kings College school annual community project “The Man who Planted Trees” with David Antrobus,

2015

Designed “Deep Blue Sea” with Auriol Smith for Central School of Speech and Drama. Designed and co directed tales from Ovid with David Antrobus in Edinburgh, Led an Islamic art project for Park Walk Primary school, Co-ordinated the design for Kings College school annual community project “Mysteries”,  staged a rehearsed reading of “Spring and Winter” for Frontier theatre with Auriol Smith, designed “The Air Around Us” with Emma Faulkner for Lightbox Theatre, and designed costumes for “The Winter’s Tale” with Adam Cross at Kings College School.

2014

Co-ordinated the last Festival Of New Writing under the artistic leadership of Sam Walters at The Orange Tree Theatre. 

Re-designed Invincible for the St James Theatre (West End) in Victoria.

For Kings College School (winner of The Times Independent School of The Year 2014) Designed costumes for How To Get Ahead in Business Without Really Trying with Adam Cross and Peter Grimes with David Antrobus.

2013

Designed The Breadwinner, Seven Year Twitch and Unrivalled Landscape (co-design).  Invincible, It Just Stopped and The Middlemarch Trilogy for The Orange Tree Theatre.

Film: Costume supervision and continuity on A Small Dot On The Western Front for Hurcheon films.  Costume and set design on I Can’t Find Myself a film by Beatrice Allegranti for Roehampton University.

Design and styling on a promotional film for Bellisima, Tokyo Band. 

2002-2012  

For The Orange Tree Theatre

Designed Henry V, Me and My Friend, A Kind of Alaska, Engaged, The Fabulous Fables of Aesop, The Road to the Sea, The Taming of the Shrew, The Hebrew Lesson, Unsent Letters, Simplicity, King Cromwell, Me, Myself and I, Strange Orchestra, Twelfth Night, Hippolytus and the Middle Years, Summer Again, The Mikado, Adam Bede, Previous Convictions, The Tempest, Scenes from a Separation, The Women of Lockerbie, A Journey to London, Larkin with Women, Tosca’s Kiss, The Years Between, Chains, The Woman Hater, Next Door’s Baby, De Montford, Last Train to Nibroc, The Story of Vasco, The Vaclav Havel Season (Leaving, Mountain Hotel and Audience), Private View, Protest, Mary Goes First, Greenwash, The Promise, The Thunderbolt,  The Company Man, Once Bitten, Autumn and Winter, Three Farces, How to be Happy, The Charity that Began at Home, The Conquering Hero and Definitely the Bahamas/ Playhouse, White House Murder Case, Love’s Comedy, Sauce for the Goose and The Man Who Pays the Piper.

1996 and 1997 - 2002

Re-trained as an actor and spent the next four years working exclusively as an actor.  Returned to the Orange Tree Theatre  in 2002 designing and acting for another 4 years. She appeared in Engaged, Barnarda Alba, Dona Rosita, The Mob, Anne Leete, The Beggars Opera and Monkeys Uncle.

1996

Designed main house productions at The Orange Tree Theatre of The Power of the Dog, Family Circles and Inheritors.