The Redditch-born Theatre Set and Costume Designer, Anne Curry has died aged 66, after a courageous battle with Pulmonary Fibrosis - the same disease that previously robbed her mother and brother of their lives.

Anne was well-known within the profession for her creative brilliance, and in design education for her ability to inspire.

Friends and colleagues will vividly remember Anne’s infectious enthusiasm, humour and kindness, and her quiet devotion to her faith.

Anne was best known for her beautiful theatre costume drawings that she used powerfully in her design teaching work to instruct and stimulate students. She recently donated a large collection of her drawings to the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts (LIPA) to perpetuate this benefit.

Anne, who lived in Redditch all her life, gained a 1st Class Honours degree in Theatre Design at the then Birmingham Polytechnic (now BCU), receiving the Sir Barry Jackson Memorial Scholarship. During postgraduate study at the Slade School of Fine Art in London she was awarded a Royal Society of Arts Bursary for costume design enabling her to undertake costume studies in Italy. For the resulting research report she received the Jacobs Memorial Medal.

An Arts Council Design Bursary assisted Anne’s early career - she successfully combined set and costume design work in productions including ‘Dreams of San Francisco’ for the Bush Theatre (Thames Television Award for Best Production, 1986). Her costume designs for ‘The Boys in the Band’ transferred from the King’s Head to the Aldwych in 1997, the same year she designed the costumes for ‘The Vivienne Ellis Awards’ at Her Majesty’s. Her work for the performing arts industry was admired nationally and internationally.

Anne combined this work with significant contributions in higher education, applying her wealth of experience to student learning, leading the Degree Course in Theatre Design at BCU and later developing Costume Design and Interpretation at Nottingham Trent University. As a visiting tutor her infectious enthusiasm inspired students at the London College of Fashion, LIPA and again at BCU (Fashion for Performance) to name a few.

She became a much-in-demand external examiner for a variety of University courses including those at Edinburgh, Wimbledon, Bournemouth and Plymouth.

Anne’s design work has been exhibited widely including at the National Theatre Tokyo, the V & A London where her drawings are also held in the Archive of Theatre, and, including selection by peer review, at the Prague International Quadrennial in 1999 & 2006 and World Stage Design 2013. In 2016 her work was selected for the World Stage Design 2017 Exhibition, hosted in Taipei by the Taiwan Theatre Technology Association and Taipei National University of the Arts.

Anne was born and brought up in Redditch. Her father (an engineer in Redditch) was of Irish descent. She was educated at Roman Catholic schools in Redditch, and lived all her life in Mount Pleasant.

Information kindly provided by friend and designer David Rowe.