About me
I'm Josh...I like to work collaboratively to create work in which process is highly considered, with roots in both text and movement. My specific interests lie in designing for performance heavily rooted in physicality, in which light can have more freedom to tell a parallel story. I enjoy applying these ideas across all forms of performance as, for me at least, the process of theatre making presents the opportunity to find truth in storytelling. I am particularly drawn to creating visual images that add layers to the work through directness and clarity.
I trained at The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, where I spent a majority of my time exploring the role of lighting designer within heavily collaborative processes. In order to facilitate this I began a journey of interviewing a wide range of theatre makers about what the process of collaboration means to them. I now want to turn my attention to documenting the what collaboration means for young and emerging designers.
I am currently part of The Nuffield Theatre's Laboratory associate program working as Associate Lighting Designer for 2016/2017.
Projects
- RISE: Macro vs. Micro - Pop Up PlaysRISE: Macro vs. Micro - Pop Up Plays The Old Vic New Voices Community Company for Old Vic New Voices The Old Vic Workrooms Written and Performed by The Old Vic New Voices Community Company Director: Rachel Briscoe, Joeseph Hancock & Jess Daniels Designer: Naomi Kycuk-Cohen Lighting Designer: Joshua Gadsby Producer: Joanna Mackie Design Assistants: Alice Cousins, Becky-Dee Trevenen, Chloe Dunscombe, Jess Banting & Rosemary Maltezos Production Electricians: Ben Jacobs, Hector Murray, Iyce Haights Kariuku, Lara Davidson & Liam Tranter Photography:Richard Lakos Seven new plays written and performed by members of the Old Vic New Voices Community Company discussing environmental issues. We transformed two floors of The Old Vic Workrooms to ask audiences 'What small actions have massive implications?'
- Russian DollsKing's Head Theatre - April 2016 Winner of the 2015 Adrian Pagan Award Writer: Kate Lock Director: Hamish Macdougall Assistant Director: Jennifer Davies Designer: Becky-Dee Trevenen Lighting Designer: Joshua Gadsby Sound Designer: Max Pappenheim Stage Manager: Sinead Sexton Assistant Stage Managers: George Smith, Dave Spencer Casting Director: Andre Davies Photography:Andreas Griege Hilda is blind, lives alone, and is visited by a carer once a week. Camelia is a young offender looking for her next mark. A surprising and curious relationship sparks off between these opposites as both search for connection and purpose. Russian Dolls presented the opportunity to subtly warp the edges of what 'natural' light is, shifting the story onwards in an ever present abstraction of a living space.
- In Good CompanyJoel & Pete with Inky Cloak The Place - Resolution 2016 Choreographer: Joel O'Donoghue Directors: Martin Moriarty Daniel Fulvio Costume Designer: Rosemary Maltezos Lighting Designer: Joshua Gadsby Composition: Pete Yelding Photography. Foteini Christofilopoulou Loosely based around Seaford Beach on the south coast of England, In Good Company was primarily concerned with a very personal experience of the landscape. Anonymous figures seen in the distance on rainy days on the pebble stone beach and a great, ominous statue of a commerant bird which sits in the middle of the water.
- Miss SarahThe Monkey House (Zoo Venues) - Cicada Studios Writer: Ella Cook Director: Angus Wilkinson Designer: Becky-Dee Travenen Lighting Design: Joshua Gadsby Associate Lighting Designer: Ben Jacobs Executive Producer: Rebecca Blake Photography: Angus Wilkinson How long ‘til someone is gone, how long ‘til someone missing, how long ‘til dead? A rusty old Ute clangs along the highway. Meanwhile, a girl sits in a sticky motel room, curtains drawn, counting the turns of the ceiling fan. When Mel’s best friend, Sarah, goes missing at a music festival she wonders if she is the only one really looking. Inspired by true events, Miss Sarah looks at the deliberating nature of hope, focusing on the unseen victims of missing person cases, those left behind.
- Dragging WordsThe Place - Resolution! 2015 Choreographer: Joel O'Doneghue Composer: Pete Yelding This piece was originally about nothing. Pete and Joel came together and wanted to make something that included dance, music and theatre. Their philosophy was to try and make something that interested both of them. Pete taught Joel how to sing (a bit), and Joel taught Pete a small movement phrase. Dragging Words started life as two artists exploring each others practice, and developed through the course of a year. What emerged was an absurd exploration of the quirks of London city life. For me this piece became much about moulding space to heighten the absurdity of intimacy in a city of 8 million.
- LoadedJacksons Lane - RCSSD/OUT OF INC Director: Sine?ad Rushe Choreography: Vicki Manderson Design: Rosie ElNile Sound Design: Alexandre Kosanke Lighting Design: Joshua Gadsby Photography: Patrick Baldwin Gravity shapes us. From birth to death, what bodies can do is bound by what they weigh. Things fall, softly or heavily, constantly or all at once. Some things are too heavy to carry, or to lift. Some things carry us. From early on on the process it became clear that Loaded required an organic almost raw aesthetic. The challenge for light within the piece was to develop a strong visual arc that wasn’t too contrived yet still supported the emotional intensity.
Skills
- Theatre
- Programming
- Lighting Design
- Design
- Final Cut Pro
- Indesign
- Photoshop
- Assistant Lighting Design
Education
BA(Hons) Theatre Practice Theatre Lighting Design
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