What I’ve learned: Mitchell Butel

Mitchell Butel believes the best way to learn about being an Artistic Director is to become an Artistic Director.
Mitchell Butel in the rehearsal room for STCSA's 2024 production 'The Questions'. Butel is a fair-skinned man aged 54, clean shaven and with neatly styled short brown hair. He wears a brightly-patterned jumper and is sitting at a table, leaning forward to smile for the camera.

Last month, Mitchell Butel finished up as Artistic Director of State Theatre Company South Australia (STCSA) and returned to his home town of Sydney, to become Artistic Director of Sydney Theatre Company (STC).

“I was very, very lucky early on when I started [at STCSA] that I had many fantastic mentors and friends who had been artistic directors, to whom I came with many questions. What would you do in this situation? What would you do here? So Kip Williams and Brett Sheehy and Marion Potts and Yaron Lifschitz were all incredibly supportive and helpful.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's former National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the 2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in early 2020. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association in 2021, and a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Photo: Fiona Hamilton. Follow Richard on Bluesky @richardthewatts.bsky.social and Instagram @richard.l.watts