Graduate Exhibition 2025

Bristol Old Vic Theatre School proudly announces its 2025 Graduate Exhibition, a vibrant showcase featuring the exceptional work of graduating students from the MA Performance Design, BA/FdA Costume for Theatre, Film and TV, and BA/FdA Production Arts programmes. The exhibition will run from 2-5 July 2025 at Sparks Bristol (BS1 3DS).

This thoughtfully curated exhibition celebrates the creativity, craftsmanship and technical expertise that brings the drama school’s theatre and film productions to life, offering visitors a glimpse into the remarkable talent emerging from one of the UK’s leading drama schools.

Visitors will experience a diverse range of exhibits, including:

• Ava Harker (BA Costume): An extraordinary nature-inspired bodysuit that merges folk costume traditions with forest imagery. This labour-intensive piece showcases multiple embroidery and surface decoration techniques, including innovative use of dissolvable paper to create spider-web moss and skeleton leaves. Ava’s handcrafted felt, transformed into autumn leaves through embroidery and needle felting, demonstrates exceptional attention to detail and commitment to traditional craft techniques applied in contemporary ways.

• Bessy Mo (BA Costume): ‘Antaeus’ costume, showcasing stunning goldwork embroidery inspired by Seamus Heaney’s ‘North’ anthology and Irish mythology. Bessy’s masterful goldwork embroidery creates an intricate border filled with bog plants, alongside depictions of two pigs and the figure of Antaeus. The piece represents a sophisticated dialogue between literary inspiration and visual storytelling through textiles.

• Lasya Purohit (BA Costume): A cloak fit for a pirate! When she was assigned to be a costume maker for the School’s production of Treasure Island in November 2024, Lasya’s brief for the costume of ‘Israel Hands’ was “a well-travelled pirate who fights and is a little bit gross”. Lasya incorporated fabrics from across the globe, including China and India, but had a big focus on fabrics originating from African nations: South African shweshwe, Egyptian cotton, Angolan samakaka, Madagascan lamba, and traditional Moroccan prints). Most striking is the innovative “bloody” faux fur collar, recycled from a children’s scarf. Through creative use of sugar, red paint, Vaseline, charcoal, airbrush, and dry brush techniques sealed with hairspray, Lasya achieved the authentic look of a bloodthirsty pirate on the high seas.

• Rosie Gaynor (BA Costume): A meticulously researched 1415 houppelande inspired by medieval French nobility. Drawing from Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (a Christian devotional manuscript), Rosie created this historically accurate ensemble, capturing the height of medieval French fashion with unreasonably long skirts, voluminous sleeves and an elaborate headdress! The multi-layered construction includes a lightweight chemise, false red kirtle sleeves, and the main green houppelande with blue collar and intricate sleeves. The striking headdress, based on period funeral effigies, was constructed using buckram and wire for performance durability. Demonstrating sustainable practices, Rosie hand-dyed silk elements herself and created the entire costume from materials donated to the Theatre School.

• Bobby Joynes (MA Performance Design): Festival-inspired set design. Inspired by Glastonbury Tor and music festival landscapes, Bobby’s grassy set design for the Theatre School’s spring season productions of Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream seemed to rise from the ground itself. The design supported the Bard’s fast-paced scenes, accommodating playful entrances and exits – perfect for our actors to explore their physical comedy talents. The set pieces took about three weeks to fully construct and scenically finish by the School’s construction department. It was a huge collaborative effort to combine the trees made by the props dept, the field, and the festoon lighting to create the final design seen by audiences.

• Raph Hampton (BA Production Arts): Animal masks. Leading a talented team of prop makers, Raph embarked on a mask-making journey! The process began with sculpting animal forms onto plaster face casts, which were then moulded into plaster. Using traditional papier-mâché techniques, Raph pressed glue-soaked cotton paper into the plaster moulds, creating lightweight, well-fitted masks.

Exhibition Details

Address: Sparks Bristol, 78 Broadmead, Bristol BS1 3DS

Open to General Public (Free event, no booking required):

• Wednesday 2 July: 2pm-6pm
• Thursday 3 July: 10am-6pm
• Friday 4 July: 10am-6pm
• Saturday 5 July: 10am-3pm

Please note we are also hosting a private view on the evening of Thursday 3 July (6:30-9:30m) which is open to all Theatre School alumni and industry professionals. If you wish to attend the private view, please email [email protected].