Conceptualist/writer/director.
Kim Carpenter's career in theatre has encompassed many roles, most often as devisor, designer and director for individual productions. Although Carpenter has undertaken this demanding triple-role for numerous organisations he is best known for his highly distinctive visual productions, notably as Artistic Director for Theatre of Image, the company he founded in the late 1980s. A graduate of NIDA Carpenter's career has included being resident designer at the Old Tote Theatre (London), the Melbourne Theatre Company, Nimrod Theatre (also as co-artistic director), the Victorian State Opera, London Opera Centre, NIDA and ABC television.
In 1979 Carpenter was appointed resident lecturer at NIDA, later becoming a board member. During the next decade he established himself as one of Australia's leading designers through productions such as An Imaginary Life (David Malouf's novel staged by the Australian Elizabethan Trust at Belvoir Street, Sydney). Carpenter also directed Anne Boyd and Robin Lee's children's opera The Little Mermaid, staged by the Australian Opera in 1985. Other notable productions include Rapunzel In Suburbia (Marionette Theatre of Australia) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Nimrod). In 1988 Carpenter designed and directed Darryl Emerson's The Pathfinder, which was staged in Brisbane as part the World Expo before touring nationally. Carpenter's own work, The Sky Wizard was also presented as part of Expo 88. With a score by composer David Chesworth, the work incorporates a variety of theatrical elements such as movement, mime, puppetry and film. The following year Theatre of Image presented Hello, which was followed in 1990 by Swimming In Light, a sensual reaction to the life and art of painter Lloyd Rees. Theatre of Image, as the name suggests, was founded in order to allow Carpenter's fascination with theatrical images - primarily visual effects, lighting and choreography.
In 1991 Carpenter collaborated with acclaimed children's dramatist, Richard Tulloch, to present Hansel and Gretal (incidental music by Stephen Rae). Grandma's Shoes, a children's opera adapted from the novel by Libby Hathorn and commissioned in 1994, was Theatre in Image's production for 2000.
