NEWS Just in:  Michael Hunt announced as Director for two new productions at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.  Further details soon

Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, London
Recipient of the State Prize for Culture, Russia (only non-Russian to receive this honour)
Italian Critics Award – Best European Opera Production 2013
WLR Arts Person of the Year 2007
Waterford Chamber of Commerce Businessman of the Year 2007
Irish Times Theatre Award – Best Director and Best Production 2005 & 2008
Board Member of Music Theatre NOW in Rotterdam, Netherlands - current
 
I am an experienced artistic leader in the performing arts.  My management style is people oriented. My background in Chemistry makes me analyse problems empirically to assist me as an artist.  I give and get confidence, bring harmony to a work environment but also inspire artistically.   I am inspired by the organization and people I work with – we work together.  I have been honoured by the Russian and Irish Governments for my work in the field of culture, as well as being invited to deliver the 2010 Allianz Lecture on European Theatre Arts in Berlin.
 
I have held leadership roles in arts organisations including:  
CEO of the world famous Wexford Festival where I negotiated an increase in core grant from €950,000 to €2 million per year as well as completing the capital fundraising for the new theatre;
Artistic Director and CEO of Theatre Royal in Waterford, where we increased audiences by 35% and developing grants from zero to €180,000 per year;
Artistic Director of Co-Opera which toured Ireland for 12 years increasing the number of performances from 12 to 52 per year as well as touring to The Faroe Islands and throughout France.
Associate Director of the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham where I directed AMADEUS, BLUE REMEMBERED HILLS and THE JUNGLE BOOK
 
My production of Shakespeare’s KING LEAR was presented to great critical acclaim in 2021 at The Grange Festival starring Sir John Tomlinson, Sir Tom Allen, Kim Begley, Susan Bullock, Emma Bell, Louise Alder and directed by my good friend Keith Warner - a veritable who's who of British opera talent.  Following these highly successful performances and one of the best reviews I've ever seen in The Times, we are planning a West End transfer and international tour.

Unfortunately, I have had to leave my post as Artistic Director of Cape Town Opera.  The COVID 19 pandemic resulted in the South African Government suspending applications for work visas and although I was appointed in 2020 and worked to plan the 2022 -24 seasons,  it is not the kind of job that can be managed at distance and the best thing to do was to allow CTO to select a local person to take over. COVID 19 has decimated the performing arts sector and is continuing into 2022 with projects and appointments being cancelled or delayed.  I wish the amazing artists in Cape Town a successful future and hope that one day I might return. 

My trilogy of children's theatre at the Perm Theatre for Young Spectators - PETER PAN, THE LION, WITCH AND THE WARDROBE & ALICE IN WONDERLAND was completed in December 2020.   ALICE finally opened  following final rehearsals supervised by me on Zoom - a small victory over the pandemic!
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Moscow Musical Express
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Russia

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"Michael Hunt’s direction of Fidelio brilliantly plays artifice off against found mise-en-scene almost as a research method...sustained power, searing intensity and superlative musicanship and stagecraft of this fine production."      

 

 
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Sir Tom Stoppard

Playwright
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Every Good Boy Deserves Favour

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"I think your production of EGBDF is magnificent.  I admired everything about it – the actors especially, but the continual inventiveness and style of the whole thing, the movement, the dancers, the physicality and the look of it all. But the two Ivanovs above all.  I thought you cast it so well. "            

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Michael Dervan

Music Critic
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Irish Times

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‘His tenacity in the face of adversity and his fortitude in dealing with limited resources are exceptional.’ 

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Michael Billington

The Guardian
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London

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‘Elegantly staged ... the image that stays with you is of Picasso as the minotaur: a mixture of man and monster’

‘the piece is beautifully staged by Michael Hunt on a circular sandpit and eloquently acted’

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