CHARLES CUSICH SMITH and PHIL R. DANIELS designed Dracula for West Australian Ballet in 2018. The production has been honoured with several awards in Australia including best costume design in West Australian Arts awards. They are very pleased to be mounting Dracula with the Latvian National Ballet.
Charles and Phil work co-designing Sets & Costumes for Ballet, Opera, Musical and Drama productions internationally. Their co-designs for Ballet include the world premiere of Alice in Wonderland and Casse Noisette for Ballet du Capitole in Toulouse, Giselle and Raymonda for Ballet Vanemuine in Estonia and Pinocchio and the Golden Key in Germany. Other designs for Ballet include Spartacus for Hong Kong Ballet Giselle for the Greek National Ballet, Giselle for English National Ballet. The Nutcracker for WA Ballet, The Three Musketeers, Romeo and Juliet and The Nutcracker for Estonian National ballet.
Their Opera credits include Aida, Nabucco, Der Rosenkavalier, Don Carlos, Cavelleria Rusticana & Pagliacci, Otello & Rigoletto, Czardasfurstin, The Cunning Little Vixen, Hello Dolly and Die Fledermaus in Germany. The Waltz Dream and Hello Dolly in Innsbruck, Il Trovatore in Hong Kong and Cavelleria Rusticana & Pagliacci, in Estonia
They have designed many musicals together most notably the European premiers of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies and Pacific Overtures.
In 2016 thirty of their theatre designs where acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London for inclusion in the National Collection. The V&A also acquired two of Phil’s designs this year for safety curtains for two Frank Matcham theatres in the UK. Charles costumes for their productions of Alice in Wonderland and The Nutcracker For the Ballet Du Capitol have been honoured with inclusion and used as the poster and book cover image for the major exhibition Contes de Fees at the Centre National du Costume de Scene in France.
Phil Trained at the Bristol Old Vic. He has designed work performed at the National Theatre (UK) most major Repertory theatres in the UK and for the BBC. Phil was nominated for best set design for Dracula in the West Australian Arts awards.
Charles Trained at Glasgow School of Art and The Slade in London. He has been awarded the T.M.A. best Designer Award, the Manchester Even News award for Best Design and Best Costume Design for Dracula in the West Australian Arts Awards.