Jocelyn Herbert

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Jocelyn Herbert (born February 22, 1917 in Hammersmith , London , † May 6, 2003 in Odiham ) was a British costume and set designer who worked for theater, opera and film.

Live and act

Jocelyn Herbert was the daughter of Member of Parliament, humorist and author Alan P. Herbert (1890–1971) and his wife Gwendolen, geb. Quilters. She grew up in Chiswick . Through her family and their environment, she came into contact with authors, artists and actors early on. After attending St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, Herbert, who initially wanted to be a painter, studied art with André Lhote in Paris and Vienna. She then studied stage design at the Slade School of Fine Art . In 1936 she began training at the London Theater Studio (LTS), which was founded in the same year. There she met the directors Michel Saint-Denis and George Devine (1910–1966) as well as the designers Sophia Harris (1900–1966), Margaret (Percy) Harris (1904–2000) and Elizabeth Montgomery Wilmot (Motley Theater Design Group), which they promoted. In 1937 Herbert married the lawyer and art manager Anthony Lousada, with whom she lived in Chiswick and had a son and three daughters over the next eight years. During this time and another ten years, her professional career rested. The LTS had to close in 1939 with the beginning of World War II.

In 1956 Herbert joined the newly formed English Stage Company at London's Royal Court Theater . First she worked there as a propmaker (maker of props), later as a stage painter . She was creative for the first time in 1956, when she recreated Teo Otto's set of The Good Man of Sezuan . In the following years she worked as a set designer in around 40 productions at the Royal Court Theater, starting with Eugène Ionesco's The Chairs (1957) and Arnold Wesker's Roots (1959). Herbert, who divorced her husband in 1960, became a longtime partner of George Devine, now director of the Royal Court Theater. She lived with him in Hampshire until his death . In addition to Devine, she frequently worked with directors John Dexter, Tony Richardson , Lindsay Anderson and Anthony Page . She was close friends with the author Samuel Beckett and participated in several performances of his plays. She worked with the playwright David Storey on seven performances of his plays, first at Home at the Royal Court Theater in 1970 .

Herbert became known for her sober, intelligently lit and atmospheric stage sets. She attached particular importance to respecting the intentions of the playwrights and to underline them with her own means. From the mid-1960s, she increasingly worked for stages other than the Court Theater. In 1963 she worked as a set and costume designer in the Broadway production of John Osborne's drama Luther at the St. James Theater . The following year she created the sets for Othello with Laurence Olivier at the National Theater . Herbert later also worked for the opera, starting in 1967 with Orpheus and Eurydice at Sadler's Wells . In 1977 she created the costumes and sets for Lulu at the Metropolitan Opera . In 1986 she took part in the world premiere of Harrison Birtwistle's opera The Mask of Orpheus at the London Coliseum .

Herbert was also involved in a number of films as a costume and production designer , even if this was not her preferred medium, as there was less control over the image design than with the director and cameraman. She worked several times with director Tony Richardson in this area, including at Hotel New Hampshire . For his comedy Tom Jones - Between Bed and Gallows , she took on the costume design and color advice. For this she was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Production Design in 1964 , together with Ralph Brinton , Ted Marshall and Josie MacAvin .

In 1981 Herbert met the writer Tony Harrison while she was working at the National Theater at Peter Hall's The Oresteia . Since then she has worked frequently with Harrison, including on his pieces The Trackers Of Oxyrhynchus , Square Rounds and The Kaisers Of Carnuntum .

In 1991 Herbert became an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Arts . In 2000, the Wimbledon College of Arts (WCA) awarded her an honorary doctorate . The college maintains an extensive archive of Jocelyn Herbert's papers.

Herbert died in Odiham in 2003 at the age of 86 .

Theater (selection)

  • 1957: The Chairs , Eugène Ionesco, Royal Court Theater
  • 1959: Roots . Arnold Wesker, Royal Court Theater
  • 1959: Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, John Arden
  • 1959–1960: Trilogy , Arnold Wesker, Royal Court Theater
  • 1961: The Kitchen , Arnold Wesker, Royal Court Theater
  • 1961: The Changeling , Royal Court Theater
  • 1961: Richard III, Stratford
  • 1962: Happy Days ( Happy Days , Samuel Beckett)
  • 1963: Exit the King, Eugène Ionesco, Royal Court Theater
  • 1963: Baal, Bertolt Brecht, Phoenix Theater
  • 1963–1964: Luther , John Osborne, St. James Theater
  • 1963-1964: Chips With Everything, Plymouth Theater
  • 1964: Game ( Play ), Samuel Beckett, Royal National Theater
  • 1964: Othello , Royal National Theater
  • 1965: A Patriot for Me, John Osborne, Royal Court Theater
  • 1965–1966: Inadmissible Evidence, Belasco Theater
  • 1969: Hamlet, Lunt-Fontanne Theater
  • 1970–1971: Home, David Storey , Morosco Theater
  • 1973: Not I , Samuel Beckett
  • 1974: Pygmalion, Albery
  • 1977: The Merchant, Plymouth Theater
  • 1978: Saratoga, Bronson Howard, Aldwych
  • 1981: The Orchestra, National Theater
  • 1985: Gigi, Lerner and Loewe, Lyric
  • 1989: 3 Penny Opera with Sting , Lunt-Fontanne Theater

Opera

Filmography

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Alan Strachan: Jocelyn Herbert. Spare, unfussy innovator in late-20th-century stage design. In: The Independent May 10, 2003. Retrieved February 1, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b c Timothy O'Brien: Jocelyn Herbert. In: The Guardian , May 8, 2003. Retrieved February 1, 2015.
  3. ^ Jocelyn Herbert, 86, British stage designer. In: The New York Times May 10, 2003. Retrieved February 14, 2015.
  4. ^ The 36th Academy Awards, 1964 oscars.org. Retrieved February 1, 2015.
  5. ↑ The Legacy ( Memento of the original from February 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. arts.ac.uk. Retrieved January 26, 2015.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arts.ac.uk
personal data
SURNAME Herbert, Jocelyn
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British costume and set designer
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH May 6, 2003
Place of death Odiham