Michael Scott-Mitchell

Michael Scott-Mitchell
Designer

“Swift-moving and packed with detail, Des McAnuff’s well-drilled production is greatly aided by
Michael Scott-Mitchell’s brilliant settings.”
Frank Hatherley, Stage Whispers

“Michael Scott-Mitchell’s set designs are fabulous, ranging from imposing pillared columns retreating in perspective (a mix of real sets and CGI) to once grand, bombed out buildings and shattered glass windows in the midst of the civil war. Projections (e.g. photos of soldiers) are also used to great effect. I also particularly liked the use of the revolve/platform for the ‘train’.
Lynne Lancaster ArtsHub

“Elke Neidhardt, with her team – Michael Scott-Mitchell (sets), Nick Schlieper (Lighting & associate designer) and Stephen Curtis (Costumes) – have come up with one of the most beautiful, thoughtful and spectacular stagings of recent times.” Hugh Canning Opera (UK)

“The ravishing sets, designed by Michael Scott-Mitchell-who was also responsible for the recent Adelaide Ring Cycle and the cauldron design at the Sydney Olympic Games-are magnificent, making use of rich, burnished jewel-like colours to create an iconic medieval fantasy world.”
Bill Stephens ARTLOOK

“The set alone is worth the price of admission, though part of its brilliance is that it complements the play rather than competing with it.”
Allen Myers Green Left Weekly

“An absurd corrugated-iron set which succeeds”
Peter McCallum Sydney Morning Herald

“But back to the greatest of the many good elements of this production: the design… While the individual artistic influences of each of the designers were distinguishable, there was nevertheless a strong sense of thematic cohesion in the production…I sensed that this production involved the vision of a group of strong creative genii who thankfully knew how to co-operate.” Nicholas Cavanaugh M/C Reviews
“Olympic-quality settings like Scott-Mitchell’s magical balloon forest, his mix of water and fire and the rising rings that were surely descended from his iconic Sydney Games cauldron” Jeremy Eccles State of the Arts

"There were four stars in this Production, and the first was the set." Ballet Talk




Michael Scott-Mitchell studied architecture at Sydney University before receiving a Bachelor of Dramatic Art - Design from NIDA.

His extensive credits include the set design for State Opera of South Australia’s Der Ring Des Nibelungen which opened in November 2004 after four years of development, winning the 2005 Helpmann Award for the Best Scenic Design. This work also won Helpmann Awards for the Best Opera and the Best Special Event. In 2005 under the auspices of the Goethe Institute a major exhibition of Michael’s Ring Cycle photographs were exhibited at the Sydney Opera House. The collection of these images has now been acquired by the National Library. Other major work includes conceiving and designing the Cauldron & Ceremonial Stage for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and the Cauldron, Ceremonial Stages and a number of Cultural Segments for the Opening Ceremony of the 2006 Asian Games in Doha. Michael’s Cauldron for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games is now permanently displayed in Olympic Park, Homebush NSW and is youngest design work to be heritage listed in Australia. His Cauldron for the 2006 Asian Games in Doha is also on permanent display in Doha.

In 2015 Michael is the Scenic Designer for the Broadway production of the musical Doctor Zhivago and set designer for Arms and the Man with Sydney Theatre Company. Storm Boy for Barking Gecko Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company will receive encore seasons in Sydney, Wollongong, Geelong, Canberra, Mandurah and Perth, and Tosca for Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House and L’elisir d’amore at the State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne.

Michael’s 2014 designs include Jasper Jones for Barking Gecko Theatre Company, Switzerland for Sydney Theatre Company and the Asian Football Cup launch staged in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House and return seasons of Tosca and L’elisir d’amore for Opera Australia and Il Trovatore for West Australian Opera.

2013 designs included Tosca for Opera Australia, Storm Boy for Barking Gecko/Sydney Theatre Company and Freeze Frame for Brisbane Festival.

2011/12 designs included Boundary Street for Black Swan and Brisbane Festival, set design for the Opening Ceremony of CHOGM in Perth, and the new Musical Dr Zhivago (Greenroom Nomination for Best Set Design and a APDG Highly Commended Award) directed by Des McAnuff for the Gordon Frost Organisation, which opened in Sydney and toured to Melbourne, Brisbane and Korea.

2010 designs included Honour and Long Day’s Journey into Night for Sydney Theatre Company in Sydney and in Portland in the United States and the IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championships, Doha.

Other recent designs include Travesties and Elling for Sydney Theatre Company, La Fanciulla del West (APDG Award for Best Design on a Theatre Production 2011) for Opera Conference, mounted by State Opera of South Australia and West Australian Opera, Opera Australia (Sydney) and Opera Queensland, FIFA World Congress 2008, staged in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House, Don Giovanni for Opera Australia, and World Youth Day - Stations of the Cross, which was broadcast internationally in July 2008.

Other major work includes production design of the Opening Ceremony for CHOGM 2002 and the smash hit musical Shout! for Jacobsen Entertainment. He has worked extensively in opera designing Andrea Chénier for Opera Conference, Opera Australia’s L’Elisir d’Amore (Green Room Award for best Opera Design), Rinaldo (Green Room Nomination for Best Opera Design), Tannhäuser (Green Room Nomination for Best Opera Design) and The Puccini Spectacular. For Opera Queensland, State Opera of South Australia and WA Opera, he designed Il Trovatore (Adelaide Critics Award and an inaugural Helpmann award nomination for Best Opera Design).

For the Sydney Theatre Company he has designed twenty-nine productions. Apart from the productions already mentioned these include Ying Tong (Sydney Theatre Award nomination and Green Room Award), Macbeth, Amigos, Major Barbara, A Delicate Balance, Life of Galileo, As You Like It, Les Parents Terribles (Chief Glugg’s Award), Dead Funny and The Trackers of Oxyrhyncus. He was Bell Shakespeare Company’s inaugural designer and has designed ten productions for them, including Troilus & Cressida, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice. For the State Theatre Company of South Australia he designed A Hard God, Tales from the Arabian Nights & Solstice. Michael has also designed for the MTC, the Tempest (Green Room Nomination for Best Theatre Design) and The Unexpected Man, QTC, Gift of the Gorgon, Navigating, Long Day’s Journey Into Night and the Tempest and Belvoir Street Theatre, Diving for Pearls, Cockroach Opera and The Unexpected Man as well as Harry M. Miller’s arena and theatrical productions of Jesus Christ Superstar.

He was a founding director of the architectural firm D4DESIGN formed in 1987 with partners Bill MacMahon and Stephen Roberts. The company took on a wide range of design briefs, amongst the most notable, the design for the multi award winning Rockpool Restaurant in Sydney’s Rocks and Regents Court Hotel. More recently he refurbished Rockpool with another original D4 partner, Bill MacMahon.

Michael has lectured in Theatre Design at UTS, Wollongong University, Sydney University and NIDA and has taught Interior Architecture at The University of NSW. He is currently Head of Design at NIDA and Director, Undergraduate Studies and sits on NIDA’s Board of Studies and on the board of Legs on the Wall.