Nicholas Cannon

A stage director, performer and teacher.

As artistic director of Mopoke Theatre Productions, he turned the rough and unpolished space of Adelaide’s Queens Theatre in 2016 to a post-apocalyptic setting of Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas. It was a triumph of venue, space, orchestra and performance all coming together to create an unforgettable production, full of physical life and energy with no compromises on musical quality.

As a director, Nicholas focuses on a clear story, a dynamic physicality and strong emotional performances. Having worked and performed in a variety of venues, from an unconventional woolshed in country Australia to Germany’s ornate Coburg Landestheater, the extraordinary is not unexpected.

Nicholas is also a highly focused and dedicated performer himself. Pioneering the role of Quick Lamb in the opera Cloudstreet (State Opera of South Australia), Graf Homonay in Der Zigeunerbaron (Coburg Landestheater, Germany) and continuing the playfulness in The Cranky Bear (Patch Theatre Company), Nicholas is a versatile comic and dramatic actor, and lyric baritone.

In 2017 Nicholas developed a series of physical theatre workshops for opera performers in preparation for the award-winning production of Saul in the Adelaide Festival. These workshops were received with such positive feedback that he held them once more in 2018. With his background in Lecoq training, musical theatre performing and straight theatre, Nicholas is well equipped to create and develop a workshop suitable for any occasion.