Michael is a set and costume designer, known for his work across Canada in theatre, musical theatre, opera and dance. He has designed for 14 seasons at the Stratford Festival, North America’s largest repertory theatre, frequently collaborating with director Donna Feore. In 2018 the Stratford production of The Rocky Horror show became the longest running show in the Festival’s history. At the Shaw Festival he has designed for 8 seasons, collaborating on plays, musicals and new work, including the world premiere of The Divine, written by Michel Marc Bouchard and directed by Jackie Maxwell as well as numerous productions with Centaur Theatre artistic director Eda Holmes. Michael’s set design for Cabaret, directed by Peter Hinton at the Shaw Festival, was featured at the Prague Quadrennial for Performance Design and Space in 2015.

He has designed productions for Opera Atelier, Canadian Opera Company, National Ballet of Canada, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Canadian Stage Company, National Arts Centre, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Citadel Theatre, Theatre Calgary, Centaur Theatre, The Grand Theatre, Mirvish Productions, Musical Stage Company, Obsidian Theatre, Ross Petty Productions, Tarragon Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times, Segal Centre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Canadian Rep Theatre, Studio 180, Against the Grain, Young People’s Theatre, Neptune Theatre, Theatre Panik, Queen of Puddings Music Theatre, The Royal Conservatory of Music and Opera Ontario.

Recent projects include the set design for the world premiere of Hadrian by Rufus Wainwright and Daniel McIvor at the Canadian Opera Company, the costume design for Ricciardo e Zoraide at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro Italy, set designs for a revival of the Canadian opera Louis Riel at the Canadian Opera Company, the world premiere of The Hockey Sweater: A Musical at the Segal Centre and the National Arts Centre and sets for Billy Elliot and Little Shop of Horrors at the Stratford Festival. Michael created the costume designs for the world premiere of Frame By Frame created by Robert Lepage and Guillaume Côté for the National Ballet of Canada and Ex Machina.

Michael is a recipient of a Dora Mavor Moore Award, two Montreal English Theatre Awards, The Brian Jackson Award from the Stratford Festival and The Virginia and Myrtle Cooper Award in Costume Design from the Ontario Arts Foundation.