Sunday 19 April 2015

Ann Pugh, Artist and Film maker


Ann Pugh, artist and film maker
26th September 1955 – 25th February 2015

 
It is with great sadness that we let people know that our dear friend and colleague, Ann, passed away on Wednesday 25th February after a short illness.

Ann, who worked with Redweather Productions, made all the wonderful films on The Firebird website and also developed the use of projections in our performances.

Ann made nine films for Firebird: six short films which show the development of The Breadhorse in 2013; two films of The Lying Doctors, 1998, and a documentary film in 2007. These films were always just right – always saying more about our work than anything else could. Her interview style and what she did with a camera is recognized as outstanding by many people, locally, nationally and internationally, not least ourselves. When she made films for us, she made us feel relaxed, she knew what we wanted to say and she would support us to say it: she got our message out and we know that whatever we said was as important to Ann as it was to us.

Ann also brought something very special and artistic to three of our productions in particular; she made projections of artwork made by Carol Chilcott, company artist, photographs and film for The Tempest, Nine Lessons of Caliban and The Breadhorse. These were projected during the performances along with the words that were spoken in the show. This made our work stronger and also acted as an access tool for audiences. She also made sound recordings for performances, particularly for The Tempest and Nine Lessons.

Ann has been in our lives for a long time and has supported us to do some amazing work; she has also been instrumental in making important things happen for us. Ann enabled us to develop some very powerful work which we could not have done without her. She made the film of The Lying Doctors over 15 years ago, which is still incredibly strong today.

Many people know of Ann’s strengths as an amazing filmmaker who has captured and recorded very important moments on film for many organizations. She also did so much more, not least for Firebird Theatre and our sister organization, Artists First, of which she was Chair of Trustees and a brilliant fundraiser. Ann was fun, calming, a real team player, unassuming, a blower of trumpets for other people – not her own, she got on with things, she was a doer and she certainly did for us.

Out of good working relationships, friendships grow and Ann was a wonderful, strong, generous friend to us and she will be missed, more than words can say.

Our love and thoughts are with Ann’s family: Frank, Ruby and Ben.

Please click on this link for Ann’s films of The Breadhorse


Please click on this link for Ann’s short documentary film about Firebird


Please click on this link for Ann’s film of The Lying Doctors