Desmond Heeley, Celebrated Scenic and Costume Designer, Dies at 85

	Desmond Heeley in 1983

Noted theatre scenic and costume designer Desmond Heeley died Friday, June 10 in New York. He was 85.

Heeley's death was first reported by the Stratford Festival in Ontario, where he was a regular presence.

"Desmond played a formative role with the Festival second only to that of our founding designer, his friend and mentor Tanya Moiseiwitsch," said Stratford artistic director Antoni Cimolino. "Throughout a stellar international career that ranged from the Metropolitan Opera in New York to La Scala in Milan, from The Old Vic to Broadway, he treated the Stratford Festival above all as his true artistic home."

Heeley began his career at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. "I was a very obedient child," he told Lighting&Sound America in 2011. "I won a tiny scholarship and my headmaster suggested that I go to work as a gofer at Stratford-Upon-Avon. My formative years were at Royal Shakespeare Company. I was a handyman in the theatre, because I could make things -- the odd sculpture, the odd prop. I don't think I was very good, but I was quick. I was lucky to fall into the company of Tanya Moiseiwitsch and [director] Tony Guthrie, and an incredible bunch of people in wardrobe and props."

At Royal Shakespeare Company, his first shows were Toad of Toad Hall, notable for its masks and headdresses and depiction of animal hands and feet, and as Peter Brooks' assistant at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, where he designed Titus Andronicus with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. He was soon designing for opera and ballet, as well as for theatre, including the original productions of Loot by Joe Orton; Gentle Jack by Robert Bolt, featuring Dame Edith Evans; Carving a Statue by Graham Greene, starring Sir Ralph Richardson, and Terrence Rattigan's In Praise of Love, directed by John Dexter.

It was a working relationship with former Stratford Festival Artistic Director Michael Langham, established in Stratford-upon-Avon, which brought Heeley to Canada, where, in addition to the Stratford Festival he also designed for the National Ballet and the Canadian Opera Company. His work was to be seen in the theatre, the opera, and the ballet: at the onset, the Ballet Rambert, then with John Cranko and Kenneth MacMillan ballets at Sadler's Wells and Covent Garden, including Benjamin Britten's only full-length ballet, Prince of the Pagodas. Continuing with Cranko, he designed for London's West End, including a musical in conjunction with Lord Snowdon, employing advanced photographic techniques.

His work at the Old Vic Theatre with artistic director Michael Benthall ranged from Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde. On the operatic scene, he designed I Puritani for Joan Sutherland at Glyndbourne, and La Traviata and Iolanthe for the Sadler's Wells Opera. He designed for the Marquis de Cuevas Ballet in Paris, and for the Opera at La Scala in Milan.

Sir Rudolph Bing commissioned him to design Norma for Joan Sutherland at the Metropolitan Opera. Following this, he designed Pelleas and Melisande for the Met. In the 1970s, Heeley also designed a three-act version of The Merry Widow, directed by Sir Robert Helpmann in Australia, which was presented on Broadway and then in London's West End, starring Dame Margot Fonteyn. He also designed the sets and costumes for the Stuttgart Ballet's The Sleeping Beauty. For John Dexter, Heeley designed the Metropolitan Opera's production of Don Pasquale starring Beverly Sills.

Heeley designed New York City Opera's productions of Brigadoon and South Pacific, the London Festival Ballet's (now English National Ballet) production of Coppélia, the Vienna State Opera's Maria Stuarda, and The Merry Widow for the National Ballet of Canada. He designed several productions for Houston Ballet, including The Nutcracker, Solitaire, The Sleeping Beauty and Coppélia.

His Broadway credits included Twelfth Night (1958), featuring a very young Judi Dench; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1967, a National Theatre production); the musical Cyrano (1973), starring Christopher Plummer; Teibele and Her Demon (1979, a Guthrie Theatre production); a 1980 revival of Camelot, first starring Richard Burton, and, later Richard Harris; The Circle (1989), starring Rex Harrison, Glynis Johns, and Stewart Granger.

Heeley designed nearly 40 productions for the Festival, beginning with the 1957 production of Hamlet, starring Christopher Plummer, which opened the newly constructed Festival Theatre (a later Hamlet he designed for the National Theatre, starred Peter O'Toole). A cascade of acclaimed work followed at Stratford, including Cyrano de Bergerac (1962), The Duchess of Malfi (1971), Amadeus (1995 and 1996), London Assurance (2006), and Camelot (1997).

His last production for the Festival was in 2009, The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by and starring Brian Bedford. The production subsequently transferred to New York's Roundabout Theatre, winning Heeley a Tony Award for best costume design. This was his third Tony. In 1968, he was the first person to win both the scenic- and costume-design Tonys for the same production: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

A particularly stunning aspect of 2009's The Importance of Being Earnest served to illustrate his amazing spirit of invention particularly well. The set featured a massive "crystal" chandelier that only on very close inspection revealed itself to be made of plastic wine glasses, picnic cutlery, and packing tape. "the chandelier was done in a day and a half," he told Lighting&Sound America. "We went to the joke shop and got some plastic glasses and assembled them to aluminum pipe held with parcel tape. Then we added crystal drops. If you see it too closely, it's pretty alarming. But, from a distance, it's very different. I did a South Pacific at New York City Opera some years ago and Bali Ha'i was made of plastic tree bark and Scotch tape.

"The wonderful thing is, I've had three worlds," Heeley added. "Classical theatre taught me about ballet, because you could treat Giselle like a play, making it plausible. The dance world taught me a great deal about working with actors, and I learned from opera as well."

This season's production of The Hypochondriac at the Stratford Festival will be dedicated to his memory.