THEATRE DESIGN

From a traditional theatre design background (BA Theatre Design at Central St Martin’s) Tahra started her professional career assisting on major West End musicals including the original The Phantom of the Opera. From the start she was working with some of the best makers, workshops, fabric suppliers, dyers and specialist services in the industry.

Tahra moved on to design set and costumes for projects of her own, mainly operas both in the UK and abroad, such as Eugene Onegin for English National Opera and The Rake’s Progress at Aldeburgh, and La Boheme for Mid Wales opera, the year the when they won the Prudential Award.

CREATURE, COSTUME EFFECTS AND PUPPETS

Tahra has always been interested in costume effects, and started working as a fabricator and subsequently as supervisor in the workshop and on set for feature films including The Fifth Element, Lost in Space and for the Jim Henson Creature Shop on films including Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

As a freelancer she also worked on pop promos and commercials where she developed and made several memorable characters such as the ITV Digital Monkey and the Velux Windows, Bears and toys.

The different media Tahra worked in came together when she was asked to supervise the animals in the theatre version of Dr Doliittle in 1998, the first time a special effects technique perfected for film was applied to a stage musical with the attendant problems of eight shows a week and a live audience. She has subsequently worked on several projects that employ the same mixed media approach such as 3 Musketeers for Endemol in Rotterdam and Berlin.

 

EVENT DESIGN

Another area where traditional costumes and special effects are combining is in Special Events, where Tahra designed and supervised the costumes for The Opening and Closing Ceremonies of The Commonwealth Games, in Manchester, 2002. There she led a department, which produced costumes for around 7,500 people; the professionals in the department led many volunteers who worked with the department to complete this task. She also designed the costumes for the opening of le Tousserock Hotel in Mauritius and the launch of a Nordbank in Hamburg.

 

SUPERVISION AND MANAGEMENT

Because Tahra has a wide experience base she is often called into the planning stages of new projects as Consultant to explore feasibility, advise on budgets, schedules, set up workshops, supervise fabrication of prototypes etc. Tahra has worked with some of the top people in the industry and can gather together a first class team of sculptors, mechanics, tailors, dyers, wigmakers and painters to achieve the desired effect.

Each project is different and tailored to fit. But whether it is sending 500 children into an arena to paint each other at the Commonwealth Games, or supervising the guinea pig’s close up on set in Alice in Wonderland there are the same basic requirements; they have to be ready on time, they have to function as they should and they have to look great. Making sure that happens is what she does.