PAUL JACKSON 

​Lighting Designer

Paul Jackson APDG is a multi-award-winning lighting and set designer, dramaturg and theatre maker whose practice encompasses theatre, opera, dance, music theatre, concerts, and live events. He is a graduate of the University of Melbourne and RMIT.

​Paul has designed lighting for The Australian Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Berlin Staatsballett, West Australian Ballet, Queensland Ballet, Victorian Opera, West Australian Opera, Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Black Swan Theatre Company, Gordon Frost Organization, TML, The Production Company, Bell Shakespeare, Playbox, Malthouse, Belvoir, Queensland Theatre, Circa, Ballet Lab, Circus Oz, Chunky Move, World of Wearable Art New Zealand, Opera Australia, Arena, Kage, Australian Art Orchestra, La Mama, Taylor/Keene, not yet it’s difficult performance group, Chamber Made and many others.

Paul has designed and co-designed sets and performance environments for companies and organizations including Belvoir, Malthouse, Berlin Staatsballett, Chamber Made, La Mama, Stephanie Lake Company, Melbourne Workers' Theatre, Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin, Ranters, not yet it's difficult, Melbourne Museum, Melbourne Festival, and Griffin. He has worked as a dramaturg on a range of projects and has extensive experience in technical and production management.

Paul has collaborated with a diverse range of directors and choreographers including Barrie Kosky, Benedict Andrews, Neil Armfield, Michael Kantor, Marion Potts, Lee Lewis, Sarah Goodes, Matt Lutton, Anne-Louise Sarks, Paige Rattray, Simon Phillips, Andrew Upton, Adena Jacobs, Kip Williams, Anouk van Dijk, Philip Adams, Sarah Giles, Lucas Jervis, Jorma Uotinen, Renato Cuoccolo, Simon Stone, Peter Evans, Javier de Frutos, Yaron Lifschitz, Stephanie Lake, Cathy Marston, Natalie Weir, Remi Wörtmeyer, Sam Strong, Lucy Guerin, Moira Finucane, Susie Dee, Samara Hersch, Julian Meyrick, David Pledger, Gale Edwards, Tom Wright, Kate Champion and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

A key creative on several seminal Australian performance pieces, his work has featured in festivals and programmes in the United States, Asia, Europe and the United Kingdom. Listed in The Bulletin’s Smart 100, he was the Gilbert Spottiswood Churchill Fellow for 2007. Paul was an Artistic Associate and Resident Artist at Malthouse Theatre from 2007-2013, and an Artistic Associate at Melbourne Theatre Company from 2022-2024. In 2017, he received an Australia Council for the Arts Fellowship.

Paul has won a Helpmann Award, two Sydney Theatre Awards, seven Green Room Awards, a Critics' Award for Theatre in Scotland, and six Australian Production Design Guild Awards. In addition, he has received four Helpmann Award nominations, thirty-three Green Room Award nominations, six APDG nominations and four Sydney Theatre nominations. Paul is accredited with the Australian Production Design Guild.

Committed to mentoring emerging designers, Paul has lectured in design at the University of Melbourne, NMIT, RMIT University and Victorian College of the Arts. He was a founding member of not yet it's difficult performance group, was a member of Melbourne Workers' Theatre Artistic Advisory Group and has been on the Board of St Martin's Youth Arts Centre. 
 
View Paul’s work at Pauljacksondesign.com.au