Theatre-maker | performer | teacher
Mitch Riley is a versatile artist, interpreting and devising works in opera, theatre, music, movement, clowning and puppetry. His performances have been critically acclaimed, often noting his “unique vocal timbre” and “astonishing physical abilities”. He has also been sought after as a movement coach, and as an "outside eye" in the development of new works. Mitch recently returned to Australia after more than 8 years based in France.
Recent work includes the role of Enkidu in the world premiere of Jack Symonds’ opera Gilgamesh, directed by Kip Williams, as well as a collaboration with the renowned French string quartet Le Quatuor Béla to create L’Homme est une fleur, a theatrical adaptation of music by György Kurtág combining physical theatre, pantomime burlesque and clowning. He also took part in performances by Chronology Arts, an emergent experimental multi-disciplinary collective based in Sydney.
After vocal studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Mitch began his career with the Sydney Chamber Opera, performing works by Pascal Dusapin (O Mensch!, Passion), György Kurtág (...pas à pas - nulle part...) and Peter Maxwell-Davies (The Lighthouse), and giving world premieres of operas by Jack Symonds (Notes from Underground, I've Had Enough, Climbing Toward Midnight), Elliott Gyger (Fly Away Peter), Michael Smetanin (Mayakovsky) and Huw Belling (Victory over the Sun). He also performed regularly in the Opera Australia chorus.
Mitch’s interest in the way music opens a particularly rich space for storytelling and expression through movement and gesture led him to study at the Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School in France, renowned for its work around the body of the actor and the mask. Whilst in France, Mitch also studied clowning with Vincent Rouche and Hervé Langlois, puppetry and object theatre with artists from the Compagnie Philippe Genty, La Nef and Les Anges au Plafond, and Balinese dance-theatre with Frederic Tellier.
He has since worked on a diverse range of projects, including the creation of V-I-T-R-I-O-L by choreographer Francesca Bonato and composer Aurélien Dumont; Maman. Source, Origin, Cause., a play created and directed by Marta Tkaczuk; new operas by Jack Symonds (The Shape of the Earth), Elliott Gyger (Oscar and Lucinda), Bree van Reyk (The Invisible Bird) and Josephine Macken (The Tent) with Sydney Chamber Opera; the creation of compositions by Elvio Cipollone and Gilles Schuehmacher with Ensemble Offrandes; performances of Inside Mr Enderby by Huw Belling with Manchester Collective; and the creation of various works for clown(s), including Perte, a work he directed and co-wrote with the French clown Ruthy Scetbon. In 2022, he again performed O Mensch! by Pascal Dusapin, this time with pianist Vanessa Wagner as part of the Festival Messiaen au Pays de la Meije (France) and the Louth Contemporary Music Festival (Ireland). He has collaborated with Australian artists Justene Williams (Biennale of Sydney, National Gallery of Australia) and Kirsty Kross (Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf). Mitch also rediscovered his love of musicals through his work with Compagnie Oz, a France-based music-theatre company presenting works in English to high-school students throughout the country, giving over 100 performances of the productions Frankenstein and Dracula.
Teaching is one of Mitch’s great loves, whether devising new works with amateur theatre troupes, giving workshops on movement and the interpretation of classic texts and arias for young professionals in the theatre and opera, or introducing children to the worlds of clowning and puppetry. He is currently teaching stagecraft and movement to opera and musical theatre students at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Mitch is an artistic associate of Sydney Chamber Opera.