HEATHER FAIRBAIRN

​Director

Heather is an award-winning director for opera, theatre and live performance.  She has worked with companies including Schaubühne Berlin, Royal Opera House (Covent Garden), Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Royal Danish Opera, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Finnish National Opera, Opera Queensland, Opera Australia, Victorian Opera, West Australian Opera, Queensland Theatre, La Boite Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare and Sydney Theatre Company. 

Heather’s upcoming productions include DO NOT GO GENTLE with Queensland Theatre Company, SERSE with Lyric Opera of Melbourne, and Gasworks Creative Precinct), CAESAR | CAESAR with Theatre Works, and a new stage adaptation of the Miles Franklin Award-winning novel TIRRA LIRRA BY THE RIVER with Byron Theatre.

Heather’s recent work includes: a “world-class production” of Suzie Miller’s PRIMA FACIE with NORPA (Northern Rivers Performing Arts); an “ingenious and daring” live-cinema production of Janáček’s KATYA KABANOVA with Victorian Opera which was nominated for multiple national and State theatre awards; THE BARBER OF SEVILLE revival with Opera Australia; BIOGRAPHICA, nominated for five Green Room Awards with Lyric Opera of Melbourne and Theatre Works; and TWELFTH NIGHT with Bell Shakespeare which had a highly successful national tour & performed at Sydney Opera House.

Directing credits include: KATYA KABANOVA (Victorian Opera); TWELFTH NIGHT (Bell Shakespeare); BIOGRAPHICA (Lyric Opera); AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE (Queensland Theatre); THE WOLVES (QUT); ELEKTRA/ORESTES (Metro Arts); THE ALCHEMIST, WOMEN BEWARE WOMEN directed reading (Bell Shakespeare); PRIMA FACIE (NORPA); SILK MOTH by Bushra El Turk at Arcola Theatre London for Grimeborn Festival (Ruthless Jabiru); REVOLT. SHE SAID. REVOLT AGAIN, THE RIVER, DIE WINTERREISE (National Institute of Dramatic Art); DIE LUSTIGEN WEIBER VON WINDSOR, and ARIADNE AUF NAXOS conducted by Simone Young (Queensland Conservatorium); THE MUTANT MAN (The Space Arts Centre, London); SNAPPY OPERAS (Mahogany Opera Group); SUNNYTOWN (La Boite Theatre Company), LITTLE NEMO AND THE ICE CREAM WITCH (Bayerische Theaterakademie).  

Heather’s popular staging of Mozart’s THE MAGIC FLUTE is regularly revived in concert halls around Europe, including Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel (Belgium), Grande Théâtre de la Ville (Luxembourg), Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), and Escuela de Música Reina Sofía (Madrid). 

Heather regularly collaborates with director Katie Mitchell working on acclaimed international productions including ARIADNE AUF NAXOS at Royal Danish Opera, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, and Finnish National Opera, ALCINA at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR at Royal Opera House, and OPHELIAS ZIMMER at Royal Court Theatre & Schaubühne Berlin. 

For Opera Australia, Heather was revival director for Kasper Holten’s EUGENE ONEGIN, and associate director for IDOMENEO directed by Lindy Hume. For Opera Queensland, she was associate director for LE NOZZE DI FIGARO directed by Patrick Nolan (also for West Australian Opera), and ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE directed by Yaron Lifschitz. For Sydney Theatre Company, Heather was assistant director for LORD OF THE FLIES directed by Kip Williams, and ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST directed by Sarah Giles.  She was assistant director for IL TROVATORE directed by David Bösch (Royal Opera House), and associate director for AS YOU LIKE IT directed by David Berthold (La Boite Theatre Company). 

Among other projects in development, Heather is co-writing a new opera called O SEGREDO DO RIO with the support of ENOA and Gulbenkian Foundation and adapting an iconic Australian novel for the stage.

Heather is Artistic Director of Fairbairn + Wild Productions alongside Kate Wild. Previously, she was the Artistic Associate at NORPA where she lead the development of new work in regional contexts, was the Associate Director - New Work of CIRCA, and was Co-Artistic Director of experimental theatre company The Hive Collective.

Heather holds a Master of Fine Arts (Directing) from the National Institute of Dramatic Art and a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Drama & Creative Writing) from the University of Queensland, and regularly lectures on the NIDA post-graduate directing 
course.

View Heather’s work at heatherfairbairn.com​.