Terry Parsons

Terry has designed thirty-six productions in London’s West End. Among the many musicals are Grease with Craig McLachlan, South Pacific with Gemma Crayen, Sweet Charity with Bonnie Langford, Some Like It Hot and Singin’ in the Rain both with Tommy Steele, Charlie Girl with Cyd Charisse, and not quite in the West End, he recently designed The Pirates of Penzance for The New Shakespeare Company at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park. Among the plays are Silly Cow with Dawn French, Gasping with Hugh Laurie and Two Into One with Donald Sinden and Michael Williams. He has also designed numerous other
straight plays – ranging from Shakespeare, Sheridan and Congreve to Orton, Ionesco and Dürrenmatt – notable amongst them the critically acclaimed production of When We Are Married with Timothy West, Prunella Scales and Patricia Routledge at the Whitehall Theatre, Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge with Topoi and Priestley’s Time and the Conways directed at The Old Vic by Richard Olivier featuring his mother Joan Plowright and his sisters Tamsin and Julie Kate Olivier.

Terry has been Head of Design at three major theatres: the Theatre Royal Plymouth, the Haymarket Leicester, and the Belgrade Coventry to which he won an Arts Council scholarship following his training at Cardiff Art College and London’s Central School of Art.

Among Terry’s extensive regional designs are, at Chichester, Miranda with Penelope Keith and Underneath the Arches which transferred to the West End; at Liverpool No Trams to Lime Street, and at Southampton The Surprise Party with Peter Duncan, Matthew Kelly and Ruth Madoc. He is well-known for his pantomime designs, among them lavish vers ions of Cinderella for Stanley Baxter, The Sleeping Beauty for Hinge and Bracket, Mother Goose for Danny La Rue and the much acclaimed series of traditional pantomimes which ran for many years at the Richmond Theatre. Grease currently continues its highly successful tour of the U.K.
Terry has a string of international credits and is constantly in demand overseas.
Recently on Broadway he created Sian Phillips’ stunning concert costume for her appearance as Dietrich in Marlene, and also designed productions of Fame in Scandinavia, Grease in Paris and Denmark, Chicago in Athens and Romantic Comedy in Vienna for Vienna’s English Theatre. He has just designed a brand new show for the QE2 – he also created three spectacular hi-tech shows for the new liner ‘Splendour of the Seas’, and co celebrate the birthday of one of the world’s wealthiest Sheikhs he designed the ultimate party in Dubai far three thousand guests with a magical fairy-tale Arabian Nights setting in the desert. He has worked in Canada, Australia and Japan, as well as the Far East and Hong Kong where he regularly designs all-star productions which have included Harvey, Habeus Corpus, The Reluctant Debutante, Key For Two, Private Lives, California Suite, Lloyd George Knew My Father and They’re Playing Our Song.

Early in 2001 Terry designed a major new production of Showboat in Copenhagen and his most recent credits are Where’s Charley for the New Shakespeare Company in Regent’s Park and the current national tour of the Open Air Theatre’s successful revival of The Pirates of Penzance.