Laurel Frank

Last updated

Laurel Frank is an Australian costume designer who has designed for physical theatre, parades and events.

Contents

Early life

Laurel Christine Frank grew up in Melbourne, Victoria. Her mother was a dressmaker and she pursued the same line of work. [1] Laurel studied at RMIT and took her BA at La Trobe University in the 1960s, sharing houses with performers from the Pram Factory Theatre in Carlton. [2] She worked as a sound technician and stage manager.

Costume design

Frank was a member of the Australian Performing Group in Melbourne from 1973-1980. In 1978 she joined the new company Circus Oz, and continues as one of their longest serving members and designers. She learnt chorus work, acrobatics and clowning but instead became its chief costume designer and wardrobe mistress, adapting the costumes to suit the physicality required of the performers. [3] [4]

She has also designed and made costumes for other circus companies and solo performers. These include the Flying Fruit Fly Circus and the National Institute of Circus Arts. She has designed costumes for parades and events, including costumes for the Moomba parade in Melbourne. [5] She designed many costumes for the Light Fantastic Parade and Lunchtime Parades at World Expo 88 in Brisbane. [6] She has designed and produced costumes for children’s television series including L’il Horrors.

Her work has been displayed in the Performing Arts Museum in Melbourne. She has also produced historic costumes for the National Museum in Canberra, Immigration Museum of Melbourne, State Museum in Carlton, Jewish Museum in Sydney, Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and the Bendigo and Ballarat Regional Museum. The University of Queensland Fryer Library holds sketches and photographs of Frank's work for World Expo 88. [7]

Awards

Lifetime Achievement Award, Green Room Awards 2016 [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Burley Griffin</span> American architect and landscape architect (1876–1937)

Walter Burley Griffin was an American architect and landscape architect. He designed Canberra, Australia's capital city, the New South Wales towns of Griffith and Leeton, and the Sydney suburb of Castlecrag.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Expo 88</span> Worlds fair held in Brisbane, Australia in 1988

World Expo 88, also known as Expo 88, was a specialised Expo held in Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia, during a six-month period between Saturday, 30 April 1988 and Sunday, 30 October 1988, inclusive. The theme of the Expo was "Leisure in the Age of Technology", and the mascot for the Expo was an Australian platypus named Expo Oz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Circus Oz</span> Australian circus troupe

Circus Oz is a contemporary circus company based in Australia, collectively owned by its Membership, founded in 1977. Its shows incorporate theatre, satire, rock 'n' roll and a uniquely Australian humour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oodgeroo Noonuccal</span> Aboriginal Australian poet, artist, teacher and campaigner for Indigenous rights

Oodgeroo Noonuccal ( UUD-gə-roo NOO-nə-kəl; born Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska, later Kath Walker was an Aboriginal Australian political activist, artist and educator, who campaigned for Aboriginal rights. Noonuccal was best known for her poetry, and was the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of verse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marion Mahony Griffin</span> American architect and artist (1871–1961)

Marion Mahony Griffin was an American architect and artist. She was one of the first licensed female architects in the world, and is considered an original member of the Prairie School. Her work in the United States developed and expanded the American Prairie School, and her work in India and Australia reflected Prairie School ideals of indigenous landscape and materials in the newly formed democracies. The scholar Deborah Wood stated that Griffin "did the drawings people think of when they think of Frank Lloyd Wright ." According to architecture critic, Reyner Banham, Griffin was "America’s first woman architect who needed no apology in a world of men."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theatre of Australia</span> Overview of theatre in Australia

Theatre of Australia refers to the history of the live performing arts in Australia: performed, written or produced by Australians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine Martin (designer)</span> Australian designer and producer (born 1965)

Catherine Martin is an Australian costume designer, production designer and set designer. She has received numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over three decades, including four Academy Awards, six BAFTA Awards, and a Tony Award. Martin is best known for frequent collaborations with her husband, filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, including Strictly Ballroom (1992), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Australia (2008), The Great Gatsby (2013), and Elvis (2022).

James Martin Devaney was an Australian poet, novelist, and journalist.

<i>The Venetian Twins</i> (musical)

The Venetian Twins is an Australian two-act musical comedy. It was adapted from a commedia dell'arte play - I due gemelli veneziani by Carlo Goldoni - and the lyrics were written by Nick Enright; the music was composed and arranged by Terence Clarke.

James Birrell (1928-2019) was an architect responsible for the design of significant buildings in Queensland, Australia. James Birrell practiced from 1951 to 1986.

Meryl Tankard is an Australian dancer and choreographer who has a wide national and international reputation.

Vivienne Joyce Binns is an Australian artist known for her contribution to the Women's Art Movement in Australia, her engagement with feminism in her artwork, and her active advocacy within community arts. She works predominantly in painting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daryl Jackson</span> Australian architect

Daryl Sanders Jackson AO is an Australian architect and the owner of an international architecture firm, Jackson Architecture. Jackson also became an associate professor at University of Melbourne and Deakin University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bronwyn Bancroft</span> Australian artist (born 1958)

Bronwyn Bancroft is an Aboriginal Australian artist, administrator, book illustrator, and among the first three Australian fashion designers to show their work in Paris. She was born in Tenterfield, New South Wales, and trained in Canberra and Sydney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thelma Afford</span> Australian stage actor and costume designer (1907–1996)

Thelma May Afford was an Australian costume designer, theatre performer, and fashion journalist who worked in Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Performing Arts Collection</span> Australian museum collection

The Australian Performing Arts Collection at Arts Centre Melbourne, formerly known as Performing Arts Museum (PAM), is the largest specialist performing arts collection in Australia, with over 780,000 items relating to the history of circus, dance, music, opera and theatre in Australia and of Australian performers overseas.

Peter Tully (1947-1992), was a jeweller, designer and artistic director, notable for his influence on jewellery design in Australia through the utilisation of found and non-precious materials, as well as his artistic direction of the Sydney Mardi Gras (1982-1986).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Langer (architect)</span>

Karl Langer (1903–1969) was an Austrian-born architect in Queensland, Australia. A number of his works are listed on the Queensland Heritage Register.

Ponch Hawkes is an Australian photographer whose work explores intergenerational relationships, queer identity and LGBTQI+ rights, the female body, masculinity, and women at work, capturing key moments in Australia's cultural and social histories.

Judith Wright in Meanjin (Brisbane) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans installation, video, sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking and assemblage.

References

  1. Olijnyk, Max (13 June 2015). "Six burning questions for Laurel Frank". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  2. Johnson, Murray (14 May 2000). "Dressing up the stars". Sunday Herald Sun.
  3. "Costumes for Performance". www.artfilms.com.au. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  4. Cerabona, Ron (26 July 2018). "Circus Oz marks 40 years with a giant-sized show". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  5. "On the Couch with Laurel Frank". Australian Arts Review. 18 June 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  6. "UQFL563 Laurel Frank Collection" (PDF). University of Queensland Fryer Library Finding Aid. 2015.
  7. "Laurel Frank Papers - Fryer Manuscripts". manuscripts.library.uq.edu.au. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  8. "About". Born in a Taxi. Retrieved 2 December 2019.