Dave Gillan Set Designer

Dave Gillan is a Fine Art graduate of the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee, specialising in sculpture. He moved to Cardiff and taught Art in a local arts centre, and worked as an usher in the cinema and theatre there. This brush with the theatre led to an opportunity working at the Welsh National Opera's workshops as a scenic artist. After gaining several years experience at WNO he began work as a freelance scenic artist working largely in the south west, alongside more established painters, before striking out on his own. Since then Dave has worked extensively in opera, ballet, TV, theatre and film.

He moved back to his native Sheffield in 1991 and continued to work as a scenic artist, principally in the world of opera and ballet. His long association with Northern Ballet Theatre began with his painting sets for the 1996 production of Dracula, and has worked on every production since. For the last six years he has also painted sets for the York Theatre Royal's ever-popular Panto. Dave's other projects include working on the Millennium Mystery Plays in York Minster, and more recently he was Project Manager for Alton Tower's ‘Splashdown’ hotel/waterpark project.

Over the last few years Dave has re-discovered his own art practise and has undertaken several sited design projects and sculptures which he hopes to continue, and views this production of Swan Lake as part of that development. Though Dave has produced some small scale touring sets in the past, Swan Lake is his first full scale design for the stage.

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