Melanie is a freelance designer and maker for theatre, film, dance opera and circus.

This will be her fourth production with Pinchgut Opera. Design highlights include The Return of Ulysses in 2019, costumes for the immersive theatre work A Midnight Visit (Broad Encounters), HMS Pinafore (Hayes Theatre Co.), Romeo and Juliet (Bell Shakespeare), Athalia (Pinchgut Opera), Good Cook. Friendly. Clean (Griffin Theatre). She designed Set and costumes for the Sydney Opera House’s sell-out season of circus cabaret Funatorium- Captain Hook’s Pirate Party and Mad Hatters Tea Party,  Alice in Wonderland (Sydney Festival), No End of Blame and and the critically acclaimed production of Antigone for Sport for Jove. For the Q Theatre in Penrith, Melanie re-imagined  the Frankenstein, and for Australian Theatre for Young People, she designed The Trolleys and Between Us, both new written commissions for the company.

Together with Making Space- a company of designers based in Melbourne- Melanie has produced and created the interactive design based performances Closed for Maintenance and Beneath and Beyond presented by the iconic La Mama theatre. Also in Melbourne, Melanie designed Yellow Moon (MTC), This is Beautiful (Malthouse), Yarn and Button (La Mama).

Other design highlights have been working with Firenza Guidi and the National Institute of Circus Arts’ production Dreams from the Second Floor and creating The Dream Factory a new musical for St Martin Youth Arts Centre.

Melanie was nominated for two Sydney Theatre Awards this year for HMS Pinafore (Hayes Theatre Co.). She received an APDG award nomination for Athalia (Pinchgut Opera) in 2016 and was the winner of two Sydney Theatre Awards for Antigone (Sport for Jove) the same year.

She graduated from The Victorian College of the Arts in 2001 with a Bachelor of Creative Arts.

http://www.theloop.com.au/melanieliertz