Thomas Stephen Towry Piper

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(born 24 November 1964) is a British theatre designer who regularly collaborates with director Michael Boyd. He became an associate designer with the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...

in 2004.

Early life

Tom Piper was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

on 24 November 1964, the only son of art historian and museum director (

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

) Sir David Piper (1918–90) and novelist and playwright Lady Anne Piper (1920–2017), and the younger brother of three sisters. He was educated at

Magdalen College School, Oxford Magdalen College School (MCS) is a public school (English independent day school) in Oxford, England, for boys aged seven to eighteen and for girls in the sixth form. It was founded by William Waynflete about 1480 as part of Magdalen College, ...

. In 1984 he entered

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

to read biology, but in mid-course switched to art history. From 1988 to 1990 he attended the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

postgraduate course in theatre design. Tom is the father of five daughters.

Theatre

In 1990 he spent six months with

Peter Brook Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Shak ...

's theatre company in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, working on Brook's visionary production of '' The Tempest'', before becoming a freelance designer working at the

Nottingham Playhouse Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in 1948 when it operated from a former cinema in Goldsmith Street. Directors during this period included Val May and Fr ...

Hampstead Theatre Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in South Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. Roxana Silbert has been the artistic director since ...

and the

Royal Lyceum Theatre The Royal Lyceum Theatre is a 658-seat theatre in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, named after the Theatre Royal Lyceum and English Opera House, the residence at the time of legendary Shakespearean actor Henry Irving. It was built in 1883 by a ...

in Edinburgh and winning the London Fringe Best Design Award for ''Cat in the Ghetto'', staged at the Tabard Theatre,

Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district of west London, England. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist William Hogarth; Chiswick House, a neo-Palladian villa regarded as one of the finest in England; and Full ...

, West London. He first worked with Michael Boyd at the

Tron Theatre The Tron Theatre is located in the corner of Trongate and Chisholm Street, in what was formerly the Tron Kirk which had started as the Collegiate Church of Our Lady and St. Anne in the Trongate area of Glasgow, Scotland. The Tron Steeple still ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

with his design for the 1991 production of the pantomime ''Jack and the Beanstalk'', since when their careers have been closely linked. Piper claims he first got into theatre design almost by accident. He had wanted to be a biologist and was studying natural sciences at Cambridge University, when his old school friend,

Sam Mendes Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes (born 1 August 1965) is a British film and stage director, producer, and screenwriter. In 2000, Mendes was appointed a CBE for his services to drama, and he was Knight Bachelor, knighted in the 2020 New Year Honour ...

, was directing a production of ''The Tempest'' and Piper volunteered to build the set. A year after Boyd became RSC Artistic Director, Piper was appointed the RSC's associate designer.

Other work

Piper collaborated with ceramic artist

Paul Cummins Paul Cummins MBE (born 26 September 1977) is an English artist from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, who produces landscape installations using ceramic flowers. Education / work Cummins worked as a maker of architectural models, and then studied ce ...

in 2014 on the ''

Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red ''Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red'' was a public art installation created in the moat of the Tower of London, England, between July and November 2014. It commemorated the centenary of the outbreak of World War I and consisted of 888,246 ceramic ...

'' installation at the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...

. The installation consisted of 888,246 ceramic poppies and was a commemoration of the centenary of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He was appointed a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to theatre and First World War commemorations.

Achievements and awards

In 2009, Piper collected the

Laurence Olivier Award for Best Costume Design The Laurence Olivier Award for Best Costume Design is an annual award presented by the Society of London Theatre in recognition of achievements in commercial London theatre. The awards were established as the Society of West End Theatre Awards in ...

for his work on ''The Histories''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piper, Tom 1964 births English scenic designers Living people People educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Alumni of University College London Members of the Order of the British Empire