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Stones of Venice

59 Productions
Direction / Design / Animation / VR Development

59 Productions is an award-winning design studio and production company based in London and New York. Our focus is on “story driven design” – finding new ways of telling original stories through innovative design.

The company’s designers, writers, directors, architects, animators, visual artists and technologists work together to produce artistic work in a range of disciplines. From architectural projection mapping to exhibition design; from VR experiences to events; from stage design to artistic installations, 59’s team uses design to tell memorable stories.

59 Productions is the Olivier and Tony Award-winning design studio and production company behind the video design of the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games; globe-trotting smash hit, War Horse; the design and creative direction of the record-breaking David Bowie Is exhibition, and the decor concept design for The Met Ball, hosted by Anna Wintour. Led by directors Leo Warner, Mark Grimmer, Lysander Ashton, Richard Slaney and Anna Jameson, with the company’s New York branch led by Ben Pearcy, 59 are world-leading specialists in design for stage and live events, the go-to team for generating creative and technical ideas to realise ambitious artistic projects.

Building on a decade of experience making theatrical work for some of the world’s greatest venues – including the National Theatre, the Royal Opera House, The Metropolitan Opera and the Salzburg Festival – the Company has more recently become renowned for creating spectacular public artworks, projection-mapping some of the world’s most iconic buildings, including the Sydney Opera House, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

In 2017, the company began producing its own theatrical work, with its first full-scale production, Paul Auster’s City of Glass playing at Home, Manchester and the Lyric, Hammersmith. Building on the success of this production, the company opened Invisible Cities in 2019, premiering at Manchester International Festival before playing at Brisbane Festival, with more international tours planned for the coming years. 59 Productions has also created a number of award-winning VR projects, including Grenfell: Our Home (in collaboration with Parable and Channel 4) – winner of the Audience Award at Sheffield Doc Fest, and a Silver Award at the British Arrows 2019, and Nothing To Be Written (in collaboration with the BBC), part of the Official Selection at SXSW 2019 and Winner of Best British Experience at Raindance.

Jeffrey Shaw
Motion Capture

Professor Jeffrey Shaw has been a leading figure in new media art since the 1960s. With a prolific body of widely exhibited and critically acclaimed works, he has pioneered and set benchmarks for the creative use of digital media technologies in the fields of virtual and augmented reality, immersive visualisation environment, digital cultural heritage and interactive narrative. His seminal works include The Legible City (1989), The Golden Calf (1995) and the curation of numerous media art exhibitions such as Future Cinema (2000) and WYSIWYG (2019).

Professor Shaw is the Endowed Chair Professor of Media Art and Director of the Centre for Applied Computing and Interactive Media at City University of Hong Kong (CityU). He was Dean of CityU’s School of Creative Media (2009-16), founding director of the Institute for Visual Media of the ZKM Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany (1991-2002), and co-founding director of the UNSW Australia iCinema Centre (2003-08). He is currently also Visiting Professor at CAFA Beijing and EPFL Switzerland.

Professor Shaw’s recent awards include: Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship (2003); Oribe Award (Japan, 2005); Lifetime Achievement Award, Society of Art and Technology (Canada, 2014); Visionary Pioneer of Media Art, Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica (Austria, 2015); Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art, ACM SIGGRAPH Distinguished Artist Award (2020).

School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong
Motion Capture

The region’s first such institution, the School of Creative Media was founded to nurture a new generation of interdisciplinary artists and creative media professionals, and to develop new ideas and technologies for the creative industries in Hong Kong, mainland China, and abroad. Now after two decades of growth and development, we continue to espouse and advance these aims as the clear leader in our field. Our students are trained across a range of disciplines spanning photography, animation, film, interactive media, gaming, installation art, and digital media art. We bridge the boundaries between art and technology, and between traditional and new media. Our internationally recruited faculty members are amongst the foremost artists and researchers in the field. Our graduates have consistently demonstrated high employability, with over 90% of those who graduated now working as independent artists and professionals in the creative industries – film, television, advertising, publishing, and media production. Many have won prestigious international and local awards for creative and technical innovation.

Lolita Chakrabarti
Screenplay

Lolita Chakrabarti is an award-winning playwright and actress. Writing credits include the theatre adaptation of Life of Pi, which has won eight major awards to date and will open in London’s West End in 2021; the ambitious Invisible Cities (MIF); Red Velvet, which opened in London’s West End and New York and won Lolita the Most Promising Playwright Award at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards and Critics Circle Awards; and the forthcoming Calmer at The Rep. She also curated and wrote a monologue for The Greatest Wealth at The Old Vic. Acting credits include playing Queen Gertrude, opposite Tom Hiddleston, in Sir Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (RADA), Fanny & Alexandra (Old Vic) and Free Outgoing (Royal Court), with TV credits including A Casual Vacancy (BBC1/HBO), To Provide All People (BBC2), Beowulf (ITV), Jekyll and Hyde (ITV), Riviera (Sky), Criminal (Netflix), Defending The Guilty (BBC) and the forthcoming Wheel of Time (Amazon) and Vigil (BBC1).

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
Choreography

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui defies easy description: choreographer, opera director, dancer, composer... Artistic Director of Royal Ballet Flanders as well as of Eastman, and Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells. The thirst to join hands with his counterparts has been a constant in his artistic DNA. Sutra (with the Shaolin monks and sculptor Antony Gormley), Dunas (with Maria Pagès), zero degrees (with Akram Khan) and Session (with Colin Dunne) are well-known examples. His work for other genres includes A Season in the Congo (with Joe Wright, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor; Young Vic), Shell Shock (La Monnaie), Pluto (Bunkamura), and Hamlet (starring Benedict Cumberbatch; Barbican). The slew of awards he has picked up reflects this genre-transcending prolificity, and include two Olivier Awards, a Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Outstanding Male Performance (Modern), and the Europe Prize Theatrical Realities.

Rambert
Staging

We believe that to give brilliant and daring people the chance to inspire others is to give them the power to change the world for the better. As one of the world’s most diverse companies of dancers, we transform everyday spaces by making dance that is awe-inspiring, adventurous, dynamic and relevant, and taking it to our neighborhood, the nation and the world. We want to hear the most exciting and radical ideas wherever they may come from, and connect with brilliant and daring audiences and participants from all backgrounds. Through performances, dance and wellness classes and courses for people of all ages and abilities, we want to ensure we are inspiring, engaging and relevant to everyone.

Dustin O’Halloran & Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie
Music

Before forming A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Dustin O’Halloran played a pivotal role in the Los Angeles indie scene, delved into the post-classical world and scored Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette; while Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie founded pioneering drone project Stars of the Lid.

Four years after the pair met backstage in 2007, A Winged Victory for the Sullen’s self-titled debut emerged: a grand, elegiac composition, featuring seven different harmonic landscapes, redolent of the large acoustic spaces in which it was recorded. It was followed in 2014 by Atomos, written for choreographer Wayne McGregor and premiered at Sadler’s Wells. Since its release, they have played at venues such as the Barbican Centre and the Royal Albert Hall (for the BBC Proms), and scored Jalil Lespert’s thriller Iris.

O’Halloran has recently focused on film music: winning an Emmy Award for his theme to Transparent; with Hauschka, earning Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for the score to Lion; and scoring Marc Turtletaub’s Puzzle. Wiltzie has also written music for television and cinema, including a collaboration with Jóhann Jóhannsson on the Golden Globe Award-winning score for The Theory of Everything; feature films The Yellow Birds and American Woman (starring Sienna Miller); and documentaries Salero and Whitney.

Gareth Fry
Sound

Gareth Fry is a sound designer best known for his work in theatre, having won multiple Tony and Olivier awards for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and Complicité’s The Encounter. He has also designed events and exhibitions, from the V&A’s landmark David Bowie Is exhibition, to being asked by Danny Boyle to design the sound effects for the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games. He is a specialist in the use of binaural stereo sound, in theatre, VR, exhibitions and advertising campaigns, including for Bose, Volvo and Land Rover. His work in VR has been featured at the Tribeca, Vienna and Sundance festivals.

Sam Jones CDG
Casting

Jones has previously been Head of Casting at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Casting Director of the Almeida Theatre and of National Theatre Wales for its first six award-winning years as well as Casting Director for Emma Rice’s new company Wise Children.

She has previously worked for companies such as Manchester International Festival, Kneehigh, Told By an Idiot, Shared Experience and English Touring Theatre; and for theatres including Contact Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, Bath Theatre Royal, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Sheffield Crucible and in London, the Royal Court, Old Vic, Young Vic and Hampstead Theatre.

Her numerous West End productions include: Mojo, Electra, The Children’s Hour, Old Times, Hamlet and Betrayal for Ian Rickson, five casts of Journey’s End for David Grindley, After Mrs Rochester, Dinner, Another Country, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg as well as many productions for Sir Peter Hall at the Haymarket Theatre and beyond.

Her recent television work includes: Life, Don’t Forget the Driver, Black Earth Rising, Wanderlust, To Provide All People, Paula, NW, The Hollow Crown, Under Milk Wood, Occupation all for BBC; and The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, Next of Kin, Beowulf, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Dark Angel, Love and Marriage, Dr Thorne, Above Suspicion and Trial and Retribution for ITV.

She is a member of the Casting Directors’ Guild and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.

Joseph Lee*
Motion-Capture Dancer

Born in Hong Kong, Joseph Lee began his dance training at 17. He graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and completed his master’s degree in contemporary dance at The Place, London Contemporary Dance School in 2015.

In 2015, Lee joined Unlock Dancing Plaza as a resident artist. Later in 2020, he was appointed as Associate Art Director, curating a series of contemporary dance programmes and platforms for both local and international dance communities – an effort to facilitate artistic discourse in local contexts. He also tries to incorporate dance into artistic creations of other disciplines in order to expand audience perception of choreography. Through the reading, transfer, and re-enactment of bodily experience, he questions the performative nature of everyday life in contemporary society. His recent choreography credits include Folding Echoes (2016), The World Was Once Flat (2018) and Drifting (2019).

Lee was given the Arts Development Award for Young Artist (2017) and named the Chin Lin Foundation of Emerging Choreographer (2016). He has received commissions from Hong Kong Arts Festival (The Hong Kong Jockey Club Contemporary Dance Series), Tai Kwun, and Stella & Artists (Macau). He is also a member of the International Contemporary Dance Collective (iCoDaCo) 2018-20, creating and performing together with five other choreographers from Europe for two years.

*Participates in Stones of Venice with kind permission of Unlock Dancing Plaza

Alice Ma
Motion-Capture Dancer

Alice Ma graduated from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) with a bachelor’s degree (with honours) in contemporary dance and choreography. While at the Academy, she received a scholarship to participate in the American Dance Festival (ADF), where she was chosen by William Forsythe Company as one of the Forsythe’s Project trainees. In 2012, she was granted the ADF choreography scholarship to stage her work, Base-Line II, in Henan, China. She also garnered the Tom Brown Emerging Choreographer Award from the Hong Kong Dance Alliance in 2020.

Ma has collaborated with many companies and artists, including Hong Kong Arts Festival, E-side Dance Company, Hong Kong Dance Company, Y-Space and City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC). She has been teaching part-time at CCDC and HKAPA since 2009 and 2016 respectively.

Ma’s recent creations include Wu and Over-master for the Hong Kong Arts Festival’s Jockey Club Contemporary Dance Series, Soulless for E-Side Dance, WuDaoQingNian 2015 for CCDC, and Upstairs Downstairs for Y-Space’s i-Dance Festival. In 2019, Wu was selected for showcase at the New Dance for Asia International Festival in Seoul. In 2020, Over-master was invited to tour Asian countries including Japan and Singapore. In the same year, she was nominated for outstanding choreographer for the piece at the Hong Kong Dance Awards.

Jeffery Kissoon
Voice Actor (Kublai Khan)

Jeffery Kissoon has worked extensively in British theatre, film, television and radio, notably with the Royal National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and BBC. He has worked with leading directors such as Peter Brook, Peter Hall, Robert Lepage, Simon McBurney, Calixto Bieito, Trevor Nunn and Nicholas Hytner on productions such as Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, The Tempest, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Mahabharata, Anthony and Cleopatra, Vladimir in Waiting for Godot, Julius Caesar, Shlink in In the Jungle of the Cities and Danforth in The Crucible. Film and television credits include: Star Wars: The force Awakens, Dirty Pretty Things, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Agatha Christie’s Marple, Dalziel and Pascoe, Eastenders, Holby City, Casualty, Grange Hill and Space: 1999.

As a director his work includes: Hamlet (Black Theatre Live), Dare To Do and The Meeting/Vision of Youth (Ka-Zimba Theatre), Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Nubian Nights), Knock Down Ginger, Where the Flowers Grow and Naked Soldiers (all by Mark Norfolk at Croydon Warehouse), Ave Africa (Double Edge Theatre) and adaptation of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.

Andrew Leung
Voice Actor (Marco Polo)

Andrew Leung trained at East 15 Acting School. On television, he has most recently been seen as Kevin Duff in Stephen Frears’ mini-series Quiz opposite Matthew Macfadyen and in Pop’s Flack with Sophie Okonedo and Anna Paquin. Other TV credits include BBC’s Doctor Who, PhoneShop and Queens of Mystery.

On stage, Leung has appeared in Chimerica at Almeida Theatre and Harold Pinter Theatre, winner of Best Play Award at London Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 2013. Since then he has appeared in Romeo and Juliet at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield and Snow in Midsummer for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Leung’s film credits include Lilting, playing the lover of Ben Whishaw and Stephen Speilberg's Ready Player One. He is soon to be seen playing the assistant to Emma Thompson in Walt Disney’s Cruella, due for release in 2021.

Wong Wing-sze
Cantonese Voice-over Director

An active stage performer and playwright in Hong Kong, Wong Wing-sze graduated from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts where she majored in acting for her bachelor’s degree, and playwriting for her master’s degree.

Her work includes The Truth about Lying, My Grandmother's Funeral, Awakening, What is Success, I Hate Therefore I Married, Why We Chat, and Bad Time Story. Winner of the Hong Kong Drama Award for Best Script, the Hong Kong Golden Bauhinia Award for Best Screenplay, the Hong Kong Drama Award for Best Actress (Comedy/Farce); and nominee for the Golden Horse Award for Best Original Screenplay. Recent musical Love, Death and Everything In-between won her the Hong Kong Drama Award for Best Lyrics.

Ko Hon-man^
Cantonese Voice-over (Kublai Khan)

Since joining the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre in 1986, Ko Hon-man has created more than a hundred roles spanning young and old, encompassing figures East and West, historical and modern. Apart from appearing on stage, Ko has participated as a voice artist in numerous motion pictures. He is the designated voice artist for several animated characters such as Mr Peabody (Mr Peabody & Sherman), Prince Charming (Shrek the Third) and the Beast (Beauty and the Beast). His voice is also featured in Thomas & Friends and The Polar Express. He also recorded the character of the Bear in Disney Channel’s Bear in the Big Blue House as well as over a hundred children’s songs.

^Participates in Stones of Venice with kind permission of Hong Kong Repertory Theatre

Chiu Tsang-hei
Cantonese Voice-over (Marco Polo)

A sought-after composer, arranger, producer and concert director for many Hong Kong and Asian big names, Chiu Tsang-hei has composed and produced numerous award-winning singles over the past three decades.

Apart from pop music, Chiu has produced Cantonese theme songs for many Disney animations, including Frozen I & II, Coco and Toy Story 3 & 4, just to name a few. Chiu has also participated in WALL-E as a dubbing artist, and in the Leisure and Cultural Services Department’s “WeWeWebWeb Carnival” as a storyteller.