Michael Kantor - Director
Michael Kantor studied at the University of Melbourne and at L’École Philippe Gaulier in Paris. As an Actor and Director of theatre and opera, he has worked for theatre and opera companies throughout Australia and is currently Artistic Director of the Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne. At the Malthouse he has directed productions of Woyzeck, Through the Looking Glass, Vamp, Sleeping Beauty, The Ham Funeral, Not Like Beckett, Journal of the Plague Year, Babes in the Wood, Sleeping Beauty and the Wesfarmers Arts Commission The Odyssey for the Melbourne and Perth International Arts Festivals in 2006.
Kantor’s work as a director covers several fields, including the devising of new works – Excavation for the 1996 Adelaide Festival and Natural Life for the 1998 Adelaide Festival and Playbox Theatre Company, Sydney. The latter was also presented as Natural Life 2 in 1999 at the Lincoln Centre in New York.
He has directed several new plays, including Lenz for the 1996 Melbourne International Arts Festival, Meat Party for Playbox and Howard Katz for the Sydney Theatre Company.
Among classic dramatic works Kantor has directed are The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Macbeth, The Ham Funeral and Ubu for Sydney’s Company B. He has also worked with opera, directing The Burrow for the 1994 Perth Festival and for the 2000 Adelaide Festival, Moon Spirit Feasting, which later toured to Melbourne, Berlin, Zurich and Tokyo.
He directed Melbourne dance company Chunky Move’s 2003 Melbourne Festival production Tense Dave, which toured to the Sydney and Perth festivals in 2004, and has collaborated with Barrie Kosky’s Gilgul Theatre, performing in The Dybbuk, Es Brent, The Wilderness Room and The Operated Jew.