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Mitchell Butel

Mitchell Butel is a multi-awarded director, performer, writer and producer and Sydney Theatre Company’s Artistic Director and Co-CEO.

Over his three-decade career, he was worked on eighteen Sydney Theatre Company productions: he directed Edward Albee’s The Goat, Or Who is Sylvia? (a co-production with State Theatre Company South Australia) and performed in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Arms and the Man, Face to Face, Romeo and Juliet, The Grenade, A Life in Three Acts, The Republic of Myopia, Harbour (which opened the Roslyn Packer Theatre), Summer Rain, Holy Day, Mourning Becomes Electra, Tartuffe, Two Weeks with the Queen, Dead White Males, The Café Latte Kid, Summer of the Aliens and Six Degrees of Separation.

Mitchell holds four Helpmann Awards, four Sydney Theatre Awards, two Victorian Green Room Awards and two Adelaide Ruby Awards for his work in Australian theatre and opera and has received two AFI/AACTA nominations for his work as an actor in Australian feature films. He has worked in Australia, New York, London, Hong Kong and New Zealand on over 150 professional productions incorporating classical repertoire, new Australian work, contemporary international writing, music theatre and opera. Additional to his work with Sydney Theatre Company, he was worked as a director or performer for Melbourne Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre, Belvoir, Bell Shakespeare, Griffin, Malthouse, Opera Australia, Sydney Chamber Opera, Pinchgut Opera, The Production Company, David Atkins Enterprises, New Theatricals, Gordon Frost Organisation, GWB Entertainment, Sonia Friedman Productions, Trafalgar Entertainment Group, The Hayes Theatre, New Victory Theatre, New York and Southbank Centre, London and for the Sydney, Adelaide and Perth Arts Festivals.

Mitchell was Artistic Director and Co-CEO of State Theatre Company South Australia from 2019 to 2024 where his directing credits included The Questions, Hibernation, Ripcord, Candide (co-director, co-produced with State Opera South Australia), Decameron 2.0 (co-director, co-produced with ActNow Theatre) and Girls & Boys (including its Adelaide Festival, Sydney Festival and Theatre Royal, Hobart seasons). He also performed in Dance Nation, Candide, Decameron 2.0 and The Normal Heart while he was Artistic Director of the Company.

Other directing credits include Francesco Cavalli’s The Loves of Apollo and Dafne for Pinchgut Opera, the Sydney and Melbourne seasons of the Hayes Theatre/Blue Saint production of Violet (which received three Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Director of a Musical and Best Production of a Musical), Spring Awakening (Australian Theatre for Young People, which won the Sydney Theatre Award’s Best Production for Young People), Porgy and Bess, The Bernstein Songbook and Funny Girl (all for Sydney Symphony Orchestra), Candide (Sydney Opera House/Sydney Philharmonia), An Act of God (Darlinghurst Theatre Company, co-director), Marjorie Prime and Croon Tunes (Ensemble Theatre), Approximate Balance (Griffin Theatre Lysicrates Prize winner), Dead Cat Bounce (Griffin Theatre), Excellent Adventures (Chapel Off Chapel and Noosa Festivals), Killing Time (Adelaide, Brisbane and Summersalt Cabaret Festivals), Caroline, or Change (Hayes Theatre), the opera The Blessing (Coriole Music Festival) and Moments in the Woods: Songs and Stories of Stephen Sondheim for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

His performing highlights include Mr Burns, a Post-Electric Play (Helpmann Award Best Supporting Actor), Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love, Pinocchio (with Windmill Theatre Company and New Victory, NY) and Rumpelstiltskin (with Windmill Theatre Company and Southbank, London) (State Theatre Company South Australia); Disgraced, The Grenade, The Madwoman of Chaillot, Tomfoolery, Urinetown, Piaf (Melbourne Theatre Company); The Merchant of Venice (as Shylock for which he won Best Actor Sydney Theatre Awards), Othello (Bell Shakespeare); Angels in America, Strange Interlude, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, The Laramie Project, A View from the Bridge, Dead Heart (Belvoir); Stones in his Pockets, The Venetian Twins (Helpmann Award Best Actor in a Musical) (Queensland Theatre); The Government Inspector (with Belvoir), Meow Meow’s Little Match Girl (with Sydney Festival), Woyzeck (Malthouse), Laughter on the 23rd Floor (Ensemble), Emerald City (Griffin), The Mikado (Helpmann Award Best Actor), Orpheus in the Underworld (Opera Australia), Biographica (Sydney Chamber Opera), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Kismet, Sugar, The Producers, Little Me, Oklahoma, Hair (The Production Company) and commercial theatre productions of South Pacific, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Boeing Boeing, Assassins, Avenue Q (Helpmann Award Best Actor), Saturday Night Fever, Dusty, Grease and Little Shop of Horrors.

Mitchell’s film and TV acting highlights include Austin, Stateless, A Sunburnt Christmas, Dance Academy, Holding the Man, Gettin’ Square (AFI/AACTA nomination), The Bank, Strange Fits of Passion (AFI/AACTA nomination and official competition Cannes Film Festival), Dark City, Deep Water, Hiding, Janet King, The Broken Shore, Rake, Grass Roots, Wildside, GP, Playschool and Bordertown.

Mitchell wrote the book of the musical Starstruck (RGM Productions) and has also written material for the Sydney Festival/Malthouse production of Meow Meow’s Little Match Girl, the Malthouse/Belvoir production of The Government Inspector, Opera Australia’s The Mikado and various cabaret shows and concerts including Excellent Adventure, And Now for the Weather, Killing Time and Croon Tunes. He was the co-writer and co-host of the 2019 Helpmann Awards broadcast on ABC TV.

Mitchell has taught acting, musical theatre and directing at various institutions including Australian Theatre for Young People, National Institute of Dramatic Art, West Australian Academy of Performing Arts and the Australian Institute of Music. Mitchell holds a Bachelor of Arts (Theatre Studies) from the University of New South Wales. He was the Deputy President of Actors Equity and Vice President of the Media Entertainment Arts Alliance from 2009 to 2013; and was a member of the National Performers Committee from 2007 to 2018. He was a Board Member of Belvoir from 2012 to 2019. He was a Trustee of the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust from 2020 to 2024. Mitchell is also an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Institute of Music. He has been a proud member of Actors Equity since 1987.