Tanya Moiseiwitsch, the pioneering designer of Sheffield's Crucible theatre stage

Through the episodes, Tedd, whose father Colin George was the inaugural Crucible artistic director, explores the origins of its radical design, its history and the challenges and surprises of working on its stage. An episode on Tanya Moiseiwitsch, the designer of the Crucible’s thrust stage, was by far the hardest he’s put together, he says. “She was a magnificent woman and I also wanted to feel I did her justice,” Tedd explains. “I felt that weight.”

He pulled out all the stops, working with a sound engineer to restore the quality of an interview that Tedd’s father had recorded with Tanya many years ago. It features in the podcast alongside interviews with Sir Ian McKellen, the first actor on the stage of the Crucible when it opened in 1971, and the theatre's original architect Nick Thompson.

Tedd explores Tanya’s career in the episode, which currently features in the University of Sheffield’s Off the Shelf Festival of Words and follows the renaming of the Crucible Studio as the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse earlier this year. “All the recordings I’ve come across and what people have told me about her is that she was a very warm and modest lady so I think she would have been far too modest to expect anything like this,” Tedd says. "But I think it’s really important to recognise her contribution to the theatre...She really was so significant in why the Crucible is such a wonderful theatre and that wasn’t recognised. This is her masterpiece.”

Tanya first connected with Sheffield during the time of the city’s Playhouse, designing a number of productions for the theatre towards the end of its life. “She was there during the Playhouse’s last years when they were doing lots of radical, unusual stuff," Tedd says. “They were trying to do new and different things.”

Tanya was the designer of the Crucible’s thrust stage, one that extends into the audience on three sides, as well as designing a number of productions at the theatre during its first two years. Tedd’s sister Lucy George says: "The shape of the Crucible’s thrust stage was Tanya’s creation, and the studio is a smaller version of that unique performing space. Tanya was a beloved member of the company and an inspiration for so many designers and women in the performing arts.”

Speaking in August when the Crucible Studio was renamed, artistic director Rob Hastie added: "Tanya Moiseiwitsch was a pioneer. Innovative, imaginative and a ground-breaker in her profession. Tanya created radical theatre shapes now enshrined and cherished in theatre buildings all over the world. Without her vision, neither the Crucible nor the newly named Playhouse would exist in the forms they do. Hers is an incredible legacy."

To listen to the podcast, visit offtheshelffest.podbean.com/e/crucible-at-50-tanya-moiseiwitch/