David is an award-winning production, stage and costume designer, working with leading theatre, dance, ballet and opera companies. His practice spans various genres and forms, creating works distinct for their theatrical ambition, visual elegance and acuity.
David continues to develop, create and tour pieces locally and internationally, with recent highlights including Suzie Miller’s RBG; Of Many One for Sydney Theatre Company, Gilgamesh for Sydney Chamber Opera and Opera Australia, the London premiere of Fangirls and Impermanence for Sydney Dance Company which has toured extensively throughout Australia, Europe and the U.S. His work has been recognized with numerous industry awards and appointments including The Berlin Music Opera Award, the Kristian Fredrikson Fellowship and the Thelma Afford Award for Costume Design in Stage and Screen. He was co-resident designer for Sydney Theatre Company through 2012-2013 and continues to teach as an associate lecturer for the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA).
David’s extensive work in theatre also includes Into the Shimmering World, Oil, The Seagull, Death of A Salesman, Blithe Spirit, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, The Harp in the South, The Deep Blue Sea, Saint Joan, Top Girls, Chimerica, Speed The Plow, The Golden Age, Children of The Sun, Travelling North, Romeo and Juliet, Australian Graffiti, Machinal and many more for Sydney Theatre Company including Playing Beatie Bow, the first production in the recently renovated Wharf Theatres; Love and Information, Calpurnia Descending for Malthouse Theatre; Myth for Melbourne Theatre Company; A Room Of One’s Own, Opening Night, Hedda Gabler, Woyzeck for Belvoir St Theatre; The Brothers Size, Between Two Waves, The Sea Project for Griffin Theatre; Scenes from a Marriage and Hedda for Queensland Theatre.
His opera credits also include Aida for Opera Australia; The Rape of Lucretia for Sydney Chamber Opera, which was also performed as part of Dark MOFO in Tasmania, as well as Griselda and L’Amant Jaloux for Pinchgut Opera. His work in music theatre includes Boundary St (as associate designer) for Black Swan and Brisbane Festival; Der Gelbe Stern at the New York Musical Theatre Festival; Kiss of The Spiderwoman, No Way to Treat a Lady for Darlinghurst Theatre; and more recently Fangirls for Belvoir St Theatre, which has continued multiple national tours in 2021 and 2022, as well as a new version in the U.K. for the Lyric Hammersmith and Sonia Friedman Productions.
David’s work in dance includes multiple productions for Sydney Dance Company including Ocho, Ab[Intra] and Impermanence (featuring the Australian String Quartet) – seeing presentations at Chaillot Théâtre National de la Danse, The Kennedy Center, The Joyce, Festival Dei Due Mondi de Spoleto, and Mercat de les Flors, among other prestigious dance festivals. Other credits include the company’s first New Breed season of Pictures of a One Night Stand as well as My Brilliant Career for Queensland Ballet, choreographed by Cathy Marston, with whom he is currently creating a new Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev) for Ballet Zürich.
