Porteous served as the head of design at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, from 1980 to 1997. He is also known for his production designs for films, including the 1992 HBO television drama film Beethoven Lives Upstairs.
Biography
Porteous initially started acting in high school, but was more attracted to scenic and costume design; he completed a degree at the Banff School of Fine Arts and began working in design for television.
Seeking more training for theatrical design, Porteous studied at the Wimbledon College of Arts in London before returning to Canada in 1969. As a student in London, he was exposed to the work of European and British designers such as Richard Negri, Tanya Moiseiwitsch, Joseph Svoboda, and Sean Kenny, and Continental trends became an important influence on his work.[1]
At the Shaw Festival, Newton and Porteous championed total design, achieving unity by assigning set and costume designs to the same designer. For the Shaw's production of Noël Coward's Cavalcade, the North American premiere of the play, Porteous used a hydraulic turntable to transport actors, props and the elaborate set pieces on- and offstage within seconds, and projections to suggest a variety of settings and time periods.
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