Ann Pugh, artist and film maker
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
