Dan Potra

Dan Potra is a Australian designer across the full spectrum of the arts, designing sets, costumes, concepts and animation for opera, theatre, large scale events, dance and film. Dan has received six Helpmann Award nominations for his design work in opera and theatre in Australia of which he has won three, including Best Scenic Design in 2008 for Dead Man Walking at the State Theatre in Sydney.

International opera and theatre productions include The Portrait for Opera North and Opera de Lorraine, Idomeneo directed by Graeme Vicks at Coruna Festival in Spain, Cyrano De Bergerac for the National Theatre of Greece, Sweeney Todd at Southbank London, The Barber of Seville for Houston Grand Opera, A Streetcar Named Desire and Norma for St Gallen Opera in Switzerland, La Boheme at Staatsoper in Berlin, Hoffmans Adventure with Folkoperan in Sweden and Dracula for the Royal Swedish Opera.

Dan has designed many large scale sporting and cultural events, include designing the now famous Deep Sea Dreaming and Tin Symphony segments in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony and Clusters of Light in Egypt. He also designed the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2018 Gold Coast and 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, as well as the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. Dan also completed production design for the opening of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and the 2008 opening and closing ceremonies of the Liverpool European Capital of Culture directed by Nigel Jamieson.

Dan designed the costumes and projections for the Global Creatures / Dreamworks US stage adaptation of How To Train Your Dragon, designed a new opera by Phillip Glass called A Perfect American, Opening Ceremony for the PNG Pacific Games, Double It, directed by Shi Zheng in China.

Dan has recently completed designs for productions of The Misanthrope (Bell Shakespeare), The Adventures of Peter Pan and Scrooge, the Musical (Music Hall, Belgium). His upcoming productions include Beauty and the Beast (Malmö Opera) and Brett Whitely (Opera Australia).