About

Based in Melbourne and Sydney, Robert Johnson is an award-winning educator, producer, dramaturg, actor trainer and director of theatre and opera.

He is the Artistic Director of theatre company Burning House. Under Robert’s direction, Burning House has partnered with some of Australia’s leading independent theatre venues in the seven years since its inception, including Theatre Works and Darebin Town Hall in Melbourne and the Old505 Theatre in Sydney. Robert’s directing and producing credits for Burning House include The Tragedy of Coriolanus, Ajax (Melbourne 2016, Sydney 2019), Summerfolk, The Most Lamentable Roman Tragedy of Titus Andronicus, The Persians, The Suppliants, Caligula, Little Eyolf, Cymbeline and is currently in pre-production for The Breath of Kings, Robert’s own adaption of Shakespeare and Marlowe’s history cycle.

Before Burning House, Robert ran Loose Canon Theatre Company, for which he directed and produced When Nietzsche Wept, The Woman in Black, Closer and the Australian premiere of Mark Ravenhill’s Ten Plagues. Other directing highlights include Boy Overboard (CGS), The Bear, The Proposal, Medea, Herakles (all for Acting Performance Studio), Echoes of Villers-Bretonneux (Melbourne Fringe 2018, Edinburgh Fringe 2019), The Doll Hospital (MKA: Theatre of New Writing), The Lover (Victorian College of the Arts), Sunday in the Park with George (UMMTA) Jesus Christ Superstar (MPAG) Julius Caesar, Oedipus Rex and Antigone (JMC Academy) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (CollArts). Robert’s opera credits as director include Die Dreigroshenoper (Monash University) and Winterreise (Post-Opera Company). He also directing the world premiere and Australian national tour of Rick Springfield’s Late, Late at Night for Type Faster Productions, which toured Australia from 2022 to 2024 and will tour internationally in 2025.

As an assistant director and on secondment Robert has worked with Melbourne Theatre Company and Opera Australia on repeat occasions, as well as Belvoir St Theatre, Bell Shakespeare Company, Watch This, Lyric Opera Melbourne, Red Stitch Actors Theatre, Lemony S Puppet Theatre, Chamber Made and MKA: Theatre of New Writing. In 2015 he was Artist in Residence for independent company Post-Opera Company, and in 2016 served as MKA: Theatre of New Writing's Artistic Associate (Directing / Literary). Robert completed an internship in Melbourne Theatre Company's literary department in 2017, and has written two plays, When Nietzsche Wept and The Age of Reason.

Robert's practice covers new adaptions of classic texts, new writing and contemporary opera, with a focus on themes of violence, legacy, cultural conflict, the concept of the individual and the idea of transcendence. His work explores the human spirit at the very edge of extremity and endurance, creating powerful new works from old texts or new, working across several languages to make bold, contemporary performances. He is interested in the connection theatre makes with our dead and its debt to the palaeolithic shamans who first led us down into the caves to transcend ourselves communally.

He works regularly as a dramaturg, assisting both writers and theatre-makers in the creation of ambitious new work, as well as frequently working as an acting tutor. He has also directed three short films, Shang High, Doll’s House (Best Film, Moorabbin Short Film Festival, 2019) and Behind Her Eyes.

Robert holds a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Honours, First Class) from Monash University, a Masters of Directing for Performance from the Victorian College of the Arts, and currently lectures on Theatre Studies at CollArts.

To explore his company Burning House please visit www.burninghousetheatre.com.