Stuart Stanley Launch Party

Stuart Stanley and his set design models

Our Summer Exhibition in the gallery is quite a treat this year. We have the honour of hosting a retrospective of the work of STUART STANLEY, the Head of Design at the famous Thorndike Theatre, Leatherhead, back in its heyday. It's a collaboration with The Leatherhead Theatre who still hold a substantial archive of photographs, playbills and programmes from the Thorndike.

Stuart with curator, Cathy

Stuart created amazing stage sets and costumes for plays, musicals and pantomimes at the Thorndike between 1974 and 1986, many of which transferred to the West End and starred some of the biggest names of the British stage and screen.

The tiny gallery was buzzing with excited chatter on Friday evening

We launched Stuart's show with a Private View for invited guests on the Friday evening, then opened to the public on Saturday 22nd July. The weather had been unpredictable all through the previous week, but Friday evening was dry and warm, and the museum's garden and gallery were full of lively chatter and theatre reunions.

Stuart Stanley and Cathy (curator) with Tim Caffell (Leatherhead Theatre Manager) and 'Steve the Archivist'

The museum's curatorial team have created an innovative display that includes several of Stuart's stage set models, with the opportunity for visitors to create their own lighting designs with LED torches! There are many of Stuart's costume design and technical drawings, together with original programmes and photographs of the productions (provided by the Leatherhead Theatre archivist, Steve). You can find out a bit about the rich history of dramatic arts in our town, too, with evidence of performance back into the early 18th century.

The exhibition will transfer to the Leatherhead Theatre in December.

Thank you to Auriel Glanville and Robin Christian for the photographs.

Box Hill Picnic - A New Tradition

 

Curator, Cathy, and her dad, David

This weekend, the Leatherhead Museum team started a 'New Tradition' on Box Hill. As Leatherhead has now been firmly established as the inspiration for Jane Austen's fictional village, 'Highbury' (see the evidence in our 'Jane Austen's Leatherhead Exhibit' by Cathy Brett and Lucy Quinnell), our curator decided there should be an event to celebrate the famous picnic scene in Austen's 'EMMA'. She suggested an annual recreation of the carriage journey from Highbury to Box Hill would be something that many Austen fans might enjoy, not just the ones at Leatherhead Museum.

So, from next summer, there will be a new public event on Box Hill, the annual 'Jane Austen Regency Picnic'. This will be a collaboration between Leatherhead Museum, Dorking Museum and the National Trust, with the aim of making this mid-summer costumed event one of the highlights of the Surrey Hills season. It is hoped that Jane Austen fans from around the globe, many of them in Regency costume, will make the trip to our famous local hilltop, with its awesome views and numerous woodland and riverside walks.

Stewards, managers and the curatorial team and their families enjoyed a picnic with a view

Catherine McCusker of the National Trust said she could imagine the whole hill covered in character's from Austen's novel, and 'wouldn't that be amazing!'.

Michelle and her daughter Claire with fans for 'swatting wasps'

The Leatherhead Museum volunteers decided to 'soft' launch the event this year, with a Dress Rehearsal, when they gathered on Donkey Green, Box Hill, last Sunday. Many were in costume; home made coats and dresses or clever inventions from nightdresses and adapted modern items. And all had brought picnics - meat pies, 'routy cakes' and flagons of cider and, of course, bowls of strawberries from Mr Knightley's gardens at Donwell Abbey!

Authentic (sort of) Regency picnic goodies

If you want to join us next year, start planning your own costume now. The meddling Emma Woodhouse, the vicar Mr Elton or talented Miss Fairfax, who will you be? Let's make it a glorious annual event that puts our pretty corner of Surrey firmly on the Jane Austen trail.