MICHAEL HOLT
Designer
Michael’s design career has taken him to
theatres throughout the United Kingdom for productions of opera,
ballet and drama. He has been associated with playwright Alan
Ayckbourn at his theatre in Scarborough for over 20 years. His
numerous designs for this author/director include Life of
Riley, Communicating Doors,
Awaking Beauty, Trip To Scarborough, Intimate
Exchanges, The Safari Party, What
Every Woman Knows, Taking Steps,
Wolf at the Door, Man of the
Moment, Time and the Conways, and the
much praised Othello with Michael Gambon. He also
designed the American premiere of Alan Ayckbourn’s
Season’s Greetings at the Joyce Theatre, New
York.
Other international credits include Intimate
Exchanges, New York; Woman in Black,
Australia and New Zealand; opera productions for the Royal Opera
House, Copenhagen, the Avignon Festival, the Knokke Opera Festival
(Belgium), the Brisbane Festival in Australia; ballet designs for
the Hong Kong Ballet company, and many plays for Den Nationale
Scene, Bergen, Norway and the Alley Theatre, Houston, Texas. Most
notable among his ballet designs are The Sleeping
Beauty, Madam Butterfly and Romeo
and Juliet for Northern Ballet.
Michael’s numerous designs for Opera include notable
productions of La Boheme (Sadler’s Wells
Theatre), Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd
(Brisbane) and Vaughan Williams’ The Pilgrims
Progress (the Royal Opera House).
West End credits include the long-running West End success
The Woman in Black; Absurd Person
Singular (Whitehall Theatre), The Glory of the
Garden (Duke of York’s Theatre), Rough
Justice (Apollo Theatre), and June Moon
(Vaudeville Theatre). He designed Julius Caesar at
the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and the highly successful
centennial touring production of Charley’s
Aunt.
Recent touring and repertory theatre includes: The Glass
Menagerie, The Admirable Crichton and The
Rivals, New Vic Theatre; Joking Apart and
Special Occasions, Mill at Sonning;
Private Lives, Oldham Coliseum; Life of
Riley and Communicating Doors, Stephen
Joseph Theatre; Taking Steps, Orange Tree Theatre;
We'll Always Have Paris, Mill at Sonning;
Shining City, Derby Live; Man of the
Moment (part of the Ayckbourn season directed by Alan
Ayckbourn), Royal and Derngate Theatres; Blithe
Spirit, Oldham Coliseum; The Price, New
Vic; These Four Streets, Birmingham Rep;
My Brilliant Divorce, Nick Brooke Ltd;
Tony And Twizzle The Glory Years, LipService;
An Inspector Calls, Oldham Coliseum; Jane
Bond, LipService; Cider With Rosie, New
Vic Theatre; Bedroom Farce,
Deadlock and Strangers on a
Train, Nick Brooke Ltd; Misery, New Vic
Theatre; Framed and Arsenic and Old
Lace, Nick Brooke Ltd; A Chorus of
Disapproval, Stephen Joseph Theatre; The Turn of
the Screw and Driving Miss Daisy, Oldham
Coliseum; Mixed Feelings, TEG Productions Ltd;
House and Garden, Salisbury Playhouse; Way
Upstream, Stephen Joseph Theatre; The Safari
Party, Hampstead Theatre; Snakes and
Ladders, TEG Theatre Productions; Just Between
Ourselves and Taking Steps, Mill at
Sonning Theatre; Romeo & Juliet and
Big Maggie, for the New Victoria Theatre and
The Things We Do For Love, Salisbury
Playhouse.
Future productions include: Taking Steps, Oldham
Coliseum.
Michael has also written a number of books on stage and costume
design and has published a book on the plays of Alan
Ayckbourn.
