Ford's Focus: John C. Dinning

First and Foremost an Artist

He loved math, chemical equations and doing research which, he mentioned in our interview at Centaur “ties in with what I do now; everything is transferable.”

by Barbara Ford

I once read that people born under the zodiac sign of Cancer tend to zigzag along the beach of life, mirroring the crab that symbolizes the sign, reaching their destinations despite appearing directionless in their course.  Cancerian set and costume designer, John C. Dinning, would make a great poster boy for that metaphor.   

His meanderings began in Hamilton, where he spent his first 5 years until he and his family moved to Burlington, Ontario.  He was an honour student at M. M. Robinson High School with equally strong interest and skill in the visual arts as well as the sciences, the only student given the title of supply teacher for the art classes.  

The Upstage Interview: John C. Dinning

We can’t, as an audience, be sitting and waiting for something to change in front 

of us. We have to see it morph into something else.

The Upstage Interview, each Monday, is a result of CharPo's media partnership with Upstage: Theatre on Radio on CKUT.

Upstage and CharPo contributor Sarah Deshaies spoke with Set Designer John C. Dinning about Schwartz’s The Musical. Below is an abridged version of the interview transcribed by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-Chief.

Deshaies began the interview by thanking Dinning for coming into studio.

Any chance I get to talk about designing for the theatre is always exciting for me because lots of people don’t know what we do.