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NTU alumna and lecturer designs Miss Saigon stage set for US tour

16 October 2018

NTU alumna and BA Hons Theatre Design Associate Lecturer Totie Driver (BA Hons 3D Design (Theatre) 1992) first designed the stage set for the Miss Saigon UK tour fifteen years ago under world-renowned producer Cameron Mackintosh.

The production has since been replicated for producers in Japan and Korea, and licenced to other producers around the world. Totie, along with fellow UK-based creative team members, goes to each country each time to set up and hand over the production to local companies.

This summer, after a successful run on Broadway, the production team set up a US tour, with Totieworking in the United States with a company who would be on the road for two years visiting every major US city.

When at NTU, Totie teaches on the technical side of theatre design, helping students develop skills in AutoCAD, Photoshop and SketchUp.

She said: “I'm very interested in the development of design technology within the professional industry, particularly  the use of 3D AutoCAD, and how these drawings can easily be created and scaled down to 3D print scale models.

“As an NTU alumna, I appreciate the importance of work experience and therefore I like to facilitate and apply students’ current and past work into professional practice situations.”

In addition to Miss Saigon, Totie has spent the last 25 years working on numerous stage designs for the National Theatre, RSC, Donmar Warehouse, Complicite, Glyndebourne, and London’s West End. In 2016, Miss Saigon hit the big screen in cinemas across the world, for which Totie won ‘Best Stage Designer” at the WhatsOn Stage Awards.

 

Read more about Totie’s work on the Miss Saigon set and at NTU.