A Strange Career?

A quick personal history…

I began my strange career back in the 1980s as the senior set designer for the world renowned Jorvik Viking Centre in York, England.

Jorvik became very influential in historical interpretation and remained one of the top ten of visitor attractions in Britain for over a decade. It still attracts queues 36 years later (although the original Jorvik is now replaced). It changed the face of museum display worldwide. The concept of imaginatively recreating what the archaeologists had dug up – complete with smells for the first time in a museum – and putting visitors in automated ‘time cars’ was a first.

My intimate connection with Jorvik was undoubtedly the biggest influence on my whole career in this somewhat specialised field.

Then, in 1999, came the second most important career influence. I headed a prestigious project, scripting, designing, constructing and installing a theatrical immersive attraction to mark the bi-centennial of the death of the first President and super-hero at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, North America’s premier heritage house. This automated theatre – with sound, lights, scenery and effects, ran to great acclaim for the commemorative year. As a consequence of that project I have created many more immersive theatres in USA.

Later, I was contracted for exhibits for Shakespeare’s Birthplace – bagging the two most visited heritage houses in Britain and USA. With advising the new Khodumodumo Dinosaur Museum in South Africa, I have now worked on four continents!

In the past decade almost all my projects have been in USA, frequently in collaboration with Boston Productions Inc.