Dan Potra

Designer

Dan is a designer across the full spectrum of the arts, designing sets, costumes, concepts and animation for opera, theatre, large scale events, dance and film. Dan has received five Helpmann Award nominations for his design work in opera and theatre in Australia of which he has won three, including Best Scenic Design in 2008 for Dead Man Walking at the State Theatre in Sydney.

International opera and theatre productions include The Portrait for Opera North and Opera de Lorraine, Idomeneo directed by Graeme Vicks at Coruna Festival in Spain, Cyrano de Bergerac  for the National Theatre of Greece, Sweeney Todd at Southbank London, The Barber of Saville for Houston Grand Opera, A Streetcar Named Desire and Norma for St Gallen Opera in Switzerland, La Bohème at Staatsopera in Berlin and Idomeneo with Pinchgut Opera.

Dan has designed many large scale sporting and cultural events, include designing the now famous Deep Sea Dreaming and Tin Symphony segments in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony for which he won the 2001 Helpmann Award for Best Costume Design. He also designed the opening and closing ceremonies for both the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games and the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, production design for the opening of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and the 2008 opening and closing ceremonies of the Liverpool European Capital of Culture directed by Nigel Jamieson.

Dan designed the costumes and projections for the Global Creatures / Dreamworks US stage adaptation of How To Train Your Dragon, designed a new opera by Phillip Glass: The Perfect American for English National Opera/Teatro Real de Madrid and has designed the Theatre Republic precinct as part of the 2014 Brisbane Festival.