THE MUMFORD THEATRE

The Mumford Theatre originally opened in 1970 under the name of the ‘College Auditorium’, when Anglia Ruskin University was known as CCAT (Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology). In 1977 The theatre was renamed in honour of the then Principal, Deryck Mumford to mark his retirement. The Mumford was launched with a gala performance of Menotti’s opera The Consul for which John designed the costumes and sets.

As Principal, Deryck Mumford created the conditions for a particularly vivid period of theatre at the college, encouraging and involving creative collaboration between many departments. This was a very productive period for John, who worked closely with colleague Brian Anderson from the Drama Department.

John’s theatre design work began at the college in 1951 and continued through to 1985. The following productions featured below are those he worked on for The Mumford Theatre.

The production pages on this site show a small selection of the materials that are still available, gathered by John’s children after his death, also kindly lent by; Brian Anderson’s widow Dorothy, as well as by Mumford Theatre & Ruskin Gallery Manager, Richard Purkiss – our sincere thanks to them both.

PLEASE NOTE

John left nine bulging portfolios of drawings and paintings. A mass of material with nothing labelled, so some detective work has been used to piece together the patchwork of materials for the various productions. We would be very happy to receive any clarification from anyone who may recognise something that is in the wrong section or where the information needs correction. We would also love to hear from you if you have memories to share, just go to the Contact page – thank you.