But while her talent is legendary in theatrical circles, Rae Smith is not as well known as the stars she has worked with.
Now, the North West Londoner is coming out from behind the scenes to show her working process in an exhibition at Queen’s Park gallery Worldly Wicked and Wise.
Rae Smith designed the costumes and set for Hello Dolly! starring Imelda Staunton. (Image: Manuel Harlan) Drawings on show include sketches for War Horse for which she won a Tony and Olivier award, and which “continues to gallop around the country” on tour.
There is also her acclaimed design for The National Theatre’s The Importance of Being Earnest, which transfers to the West End this autumn with Olly Alexander replacing Ncuti Gatwa in the role of Algy Moncrieff.
Rae, who describes herself as “someone who creates the environments to tell stories” also designed Bob Dylan musical Girl From The North Country which returns to the Old Vic this month, Oedipus, staring Rami Malek, last year’s Hello Dolly! featuring Imelda Staunton, and Waiting For Godot with Ben Whishaw.
“Coming up in a business as an outsider you have to run your own course. And as an artist you always have to throw yourself a gauntlet and expand your horizon,” she says.
After studying theatre design at Central School of Art she started her career working in LGBT theatre and regional venues like the Glasgow Citizens which had “no money but limitless imagination”.
She also has a three decade working relationship with playwright Conor McPherson from The Weir to The Brightening Air.
“I love the theatre and live arts, being a part of the process to imagine and create a whole visual world to support what the actors are doing,” she says.
“And I love actors, they are great people to be with – there are some disappointing moments, but mostly they are the best people, resilient and kind with an expansive sense of understanding everyone’s difficulties, looking at human nature, and finding a way of telling that story using their own bodies. You have to be fabulously brave to do that.”
War Horse opened in 2007 but was four years in development.
“It wouldn’t happen today,” she says. “We were allowed to do this hands on R&D, this multi-faceted creative team thinking about the development of the horse puppets and how they worked on stage. They trusted us to get on with it and it led to the most imaginative, fabulous storytelling with incredible interaction between puppetry, lighting, animation, projection and live action that creates some sense of being there.”
Working on Hello Dolly! with West Hampstead actor Imelda Staunton was a “pleasure.”
“The challenge was how are you going to fill that huge wide space at the London Palladium within a reasonable budget while keeping the story fluid?
“Imelda Staunton, what a great actor and what a tremendous leader! She leads the company just through dint of her work ethic and being excellent. She is a human dynamo on stage who fills everyone around her with energy. It was my great pleasure to design costumes for her.”
And of Paddington star Ben Whishaw she says: “He is a great actor, so mercurial, you watch him and every part of his body is active. There is nothing not telling the story.”
“I have a long time love affair with Oscar Wilde. and his belief in artificiality. He is the father of the gay aesthetic and dressing in codified ways – I had great fun with that.”
She describes the exhibition as: “Drawings which represent moments in the creative process that is usually hidden behind the scenes.”
“It’s revealing the magic,” she adds.
“My job finishes on the first night. There’s excitement, it’s live, and the actors are working away. Then it evaporates into air and all you have left is your drawings.”
Bloody Shoes by Rae Smith runs at Worldly Wicked and Wise in Chamberlayne Road, NW6 from July 1-31.
