Biography:

Michael Mills has written, directed, produced and appeared in over forty shows as a variety of characters, as well as himself, during the Come Out Festival, the Adelaide Fringe Festival, at Adelaide and Melbourne Zoos, the Adelaide Botanic Garden, the S.A. Museum, the SA Maritime Museum, the Royal Sydney Botanic Gardens, and at hundreds of schools and kindergartens. In recent years, Michael has increasingly utilised the talents of performers selected via the Australian Classical Youth Ballet, and Adelaide Youth Theatre. Michael has performed to thousands of school students through his performances at both a range of cultural institutions, and in schools. Through a range of in-school performances, such as “The Storyteller”, and “Dinosaurs Down Under”, Michael is developing, and enhancing theatrical experiences for schools that are able to bring both cultural and scientific artifacts, and their stories, to life. Michael is recognised as a world innovator in Museum Theatre, and in the use of music and theatre to enhance the stories of museum collections and scientific concepts. With a focus on audiences aged 4 to 9 his perfromances have included shows about Australia’s pre-history, plant evolution the complex emotional lives of animals, urban ecology, sustainability, the making of the universe, and Australian wildlife. As a result of his standing within the industry, Michael was recently appointed to the posution of Adjunct Research Associate at the Barbara Hardy Institute at the University of South Australia. The focus of this role is to particulary explore and develop the use of performance in citizen science projects, and in linking people to their local environments.

Presentations:

• The Art of Science: the role of theatre and perfromance in getting the message across