Rosehill’s Messel magic enchants children (and adults)!

Rosehill Theatre, Whitehaven held two workshops during the February half-term holidays entitled ‘Messel Making & Doing’, introducing children aged 7-11 to the work of famous theatre designer, Oliver Messel and ensuring creative family fun was had by all. This initiative is part of a Cultural Offer Programme, co-ordinated by Creative Futures Cumbria and supported by Cumbria County Council and the Arts Council England to encourage children and their families to become more involved in activities in cultural venues.

The sessions were led by Kate Coleman, a theatre practitioner and designer. Kate is a founder member of Scene & Heard, a unique mentoring project, set up in 1999, that partners the inner-city children of Somers Town, London with volunteer theatre professionals, providing each child who participates with quality one-on-one adult attention and an experience of personal success through the process of writing and performing plays. Kate was supported by Daniel Ferringer, a storyteller from Storytree (a programme which is run by Theatre by the Lake) and two Cumbrian artists, Diana Markham and Wendy Kolbe who are being trained by Creative Futures Cumbria to work in community and educational settings.

Activities during the five hour workshops included an interactive quiz about Messel’s costume designs, character drawings, modelling of foil animals and making colourful and striking puppets using a mixture of materials including fabrics, sequins and inks.

Some of these techniques mirrored Messel’s own style of working. He was a remarkably creative individual and produced visually stunning designs for stage and screen - often on a limited budget.

In 1959 Oliver Messel was invited to Whitehaven by Sir Nicholas Sekers, founder of Rosehill, to design the theatre’s interior and he used silk from the local Sekers Mill to line the walls of the auditorium. The only other public building in the UK featuring interior design by Messel is a suite at the Dorchester Hotel in London.

Richard Elder, Rosehill Director, said “We are keen to encourage more community involvement at Rosehill and these workshops have proved very popular for the whole family. We hope to run similar events like this in the future.”

Comments from participants at the workshops included:

“We really enjoyed making the puppets as a family and it was nice to be creative.”

“It was a very good experience for me and my daughter, making things together…I am looking forward to coming back next time.”

“The whole day was very enjoyable and a great experience.”