Leo Warner - Designer and director of 59 Productions

Leo Warner
Designer and director

Leo is a founding director of 59 Productions - one of the world’s leading companies specializing in video and projection design for stage and live event environments. Since co-founding the company in 2006, Leo and the 59 team have taken leading creative roles on more than 50 shows across the world at venues including The Royal Opera House, The National Theatre, The Royal Court, The Young Vic, English National Opera, The Metropolitan Opera (New York) and theatre festivals in Salzburg, Berlin and Avignon. The company is based in London (with an office in New York), and as well as ongoing shows in the West End and Broadway, currently has over a dozen touring and repertory productions in theatres internationally including in Japan, China, Australia, Korea and North America.

In 2012, Leo led the 59 team that provided the video design and content for the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony. He worked with Danny Boyle to realise the Oscar-winning director’s vision, art-directing the video content for all video display systems in the Olympic stadium (including the vast stadium-wide “audience pixel” seat-mounted LED fixtures), and overseeing production by 59’s twenty-strong team of animators, filmmakers, graphic artists and technicians.

Over the last 5 years, 59 Productions has established itself as a heavyweight collaborator on a range of theatre, opera, fine art, dance and film projects. As well as joining creative teams in a video-specific role, the company has also led and produced projects including the world tour of the acclaimed Go Live, a rock show for Icelandic singer Jónsi (of Sigur Ros’ fame). Leo has personally undertaken the set and production design for many of these projects, including for Go Live in 2010, and the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters in New York and Philadelphia in 2011. He has also co-directed a number of shows with Katie Mitchell, developing a cinematic-quality live-video process, which has formed the cornerstone to a series of award-winning collaborations across Europe since 2007, many of which remain in repertory in Germany and France today.

2013 will see 59’s first major debut in the museum world with the opening of David Bowie Is at the V&A in March, with the company leading both the creative design and the technical execution of the whole project.

Complementing the company’s “live” work, 59 has an active slate of live action and animated films, including a feature film in development with Film4. The company’s last two shorts, A Family Portrait and The Pub were both Oscar longlisted and between them have appeared in almost a hundred festivals worldwide.

As well as providing creative and design services, 59 also has a dedicated research and technical programme which develops practical solutions to help realize new and exciting possibilities in performance. 59 is one of the few companies in the world who take this holistic approach, focusing not just on what a show might look like, but also on how it can be technically delivered.

59 is currently developing the company’s first “solo” show, a theatrical production exploring the link between music and the brain, which will premiere in summer 2014.