Associate Professor Richard Roberts

Lecturer
Design

Richard Roberts is a freelance theatre designer and teacher based in Melbourne. His design experience has included designs for drama, dance, film, television and opera.
Following graduation from the Flinders University drama course he was appointed as a resident designer with the South Australian Theatre Company in 1977.  He moved to Sydney in 1981 to practise as a freelance designer and in the following five years his work included designs for Nimrod, Sydney Theatre Co., Belvoir Street Theatre, and SBS Television.
In 1986 Richard moved to Melbourne to take up a position as a resident designer with Melbourne Theatre Co. where his designs included Macbeth, Dreams in an Empty City, As You Like It, and Hedda Gabler.  In this period he also worked as a freelance designer for Playbox, Sydney Theatre Co. and State Theatre Co. of South Australia.
In 1992 Richard went to Perth to establish the Design stream at WAAPA. While there, he continued to freelance as a designer. Some of his design work during this time included, The Battlers for the Seven Network, The Magic Flute and Die Fledermaus for the West Australian Opera and the Australian Opera, Lochie Leonard and Dead Funny for the Perth Theatre Company and Black Swan Theatre Company’s production of Blackrock by Nick Enright.
After five years in Perth at WAAPA he decided to return to Melbourne and resume his freelance career. In January 2000 he was appointed Head of the School of Production at the Victorian College of the Arts. The School provides the training (at both undergraduate and postgraduate level) for design, stage management, production management, lighting, sound, puppetry, scenery and costume students at the college.
He continues to practise as a designer. Recently he has designed the world premiere of Dirty Dancing for Jacobsen Entertainment, The Pirates of Penzance for Opera Australia and Raymonda for The Australian Ballet. In 2008 he did set diesign for My Fair Lady for Opera Australia and the STC production of Riflemind. He is currently doing the set design for Avenue Q.