Michael is a director, writer, producer, actor, dramaturg, acting coach, and co-Artistic Director of Matrix Theatre.

As director, over the last 35 years, Michael has compiled an impressive CV of multi-award-winning hit productions, many commanding return seasons and touring nationally, to significant critical acclaim. He has collaborated with QT, Shake and Stir, La Boite, QPAC, The Brisbane Festival, The Queensland Music Festival, Opera Queensland, Critical Stages, Performing Lines, the Australia Council and Arts Queensland, amongst many others, in presenting high-quality and memorable productions viewed by hundreds of thousands of theatregoers Australia-wide. Michael has been the recipient of a Green Room Award for the direction of A Beautiful Life (Matrix/Performing Lines), numerous Best Director Matilda Awards, a Helpmann Award Nomination for best touring production The Kursk (Matrix/Critical Stages), and two APACA Drover’s Awards for Shake and Stir’s touring productions of Animal Farm and 1984.

Most recently Michael wrote and directed the sell-out season of The Mystery of the Valkyrie for Woodward Productions at QPAC and has directed Shake and Stir’s A Christmas Carol in multiple return seasons at QPAC and the Canberra Theatre Centre.

Other directing credits include: for Shake and Stir: Jane Eyre, Endgame, Dracula and Tequila Mockingbird; for Queensland Theatre (Company): 1001 Nights (with Zen Zen Zo/QMF), Treasure Island (with Matrix), Grimm’s Tales, Rabbit Hole, The Glass Menagerie, Explosions and Oz Shorts; for La Boite: Pale Blue Dot, Walking By Apple Tree Creek, The Wishing Well (with Matrix), The Drowning Bride, James and Johnno and Salt; for Matrix Theatre: Diary of a Madman, Piano Lessons (with QMF/Metro Arts), The King and the Corpse! and 1347; for Opera Queensland: Dirty Apple (with Backbone); for Griffith Uni: Oresteia, All Sorts, The Caucasian Chalk Circle; for QUT: The Cherry Orchard, The Winter’s Tale, The Merchant of Venice, Three Sisters, Cymbeline, Camille, As You Like It, Enemies and Children of the Sun.

As a writer, Michael’s published works include (all co-written with Helen Howard): for Currency Press: A Beautiful Life (2000), The Drowning Bride (2005), The Wishing Well (2008); for Playlab: Citizen Jane (2002) and The King and the Corpse! (2013). A Beautiful Life won a Matilda Award for best play, was nominated for an AWGIE, short-listed for a Queensland Premier’s Literary Award, toured nationally in 2000 and was also recorded for ABC radio. The Drowning Bride won a Matilda Award for Best Play and was short-listed for the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award. In 2008 Michael and Helen Howard received a Playlab Award for outstanding contribution to Queensland writing. Michael’s other writing credits include: The Mystery of the Valkyrie (Woodward Productions); The Blood Votes (QSE/UQ); Haneef (Matrix/TheatreiNQ); 1347, (Matrix): Disobediently Yours, Edmund Kean (Hen and Chickens Theatre, London). Adaptations include: 1001 Nights (QMF/ZZZ/QTC); Treasure Island (Matrix/QTC); The Duel, Memoirs of a Physician (QUT); and The Master and Margarita (Matrix/Powerhouse).

As acting coach for screen Michael’s credits include: Rock Island Mysteries Season 3 (Fremantle/Nickelodeon); The Family Law Seasons 1-3 (Matchbox/SBS); Grace Beside Me (NITV); Answered By Fire (Simpson Le Mesurier/ABC TV); The Sleepover Club (Burberry Prods/Disney).