Peter Cazalet

Peter Cazalet (1934-). Highly regarded and influential designer of costumes and sets for opera, ballet and theatre.

Biography

Born in Zimbabwe

Training

He originally trained as an architect at the University of Cape Town.

Career

He gained recognition locally and overseas as a dancer, spending 13 years in the UK, finally as principal dancer for the Scottish Ballet. A broken back ending that career, he began designing ballets and returned to Cape Town in the 1970s to work for CAPAB and later Artscape as a freelance designer and later head of design. In the time he designed approximately 30 ballets, 25 operas and many plays. After 1994 he gradually began working internationally as well.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Among his major productions have been the many of the Shakespeare productions done by CAPAB, Maynardville and (in 2005) the Baxter Theatre. **As You Like It, Maynardville, 1984,

He has designed sets and/or costumes for productions such as Aap in die Mou, Antony and Cleopatra, Macbeth, Diepe Grond, Falstaff, Die Jogger, Mirakel, Ons Hou Konsert, Richard III, Amadeus, Annie Get Your Gun, Arms and the Man, As You Like It, Boy Meets Boy, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, Wuthering Heights, Jocasta Rising, Long Day's Journey into Night, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado about Nothing, On the Razzle, Richard II, Romeo and Juliet, The Wizard of Oz, The Dybbuk, Peace, Ghetto, Travesties, Francis, The Madness of George III, Love's Labour's Lost, In the Summer of 1918, The Merry Widow, La Bête, Twelfth Night, or What You Will (Maynardville 1989 and 1998).

Awards, etc

His numerous awards include a number of Fleur du Cap and Vita awards for design.

Cazalet, Peter for `The Madness of King George III' (best costume design)

Sources

See: De Beer, 1995, Joyce 1999; programme Hamlet, Baxter, 2005.

Go to ESAT Bibliography

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