A.A. Bakhrushin Central State Theatre Museum

Anna French received her Diploma of Art before beginning work with The Melbourne Theatre Company in 1974. She was then Resident Designer with The State Theatre Company of South Australia and later with The National Theatre, Perth. During her time in Perth she received The National Theatre Critics Award for Best Designer and The Loudon Sainthill Design Scholarship, which allowed her to study in Europe.

Her design work is extensive and includes costumes for Major Barbara, Old Times, the set and costumes for Blithe Spirit, The Last of The Knucklemen (State theatre of South Australia), costume and set for The Man From Muckinupin and Hothouse, costume for The Heidi Chronicles and This Old Man Comes Rolling Home (The Melbourne Theatre Company), No Names No Pack Drill (co-designed with Kristian Fredrikson) for The Sydney Theatre Company, costume and set for Twelfth Night (Q Theatre Company). She has designed for The Playbox Theatre Company. A life In The Theatre, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Not about Heroes, and The Garden of Grandaughters.

For dance, Anna has designed over thirty productions, collaborating with major contemporary choreographers including, Barry Moreland, Stephen Baynes, Ashley Page, Gideon Obarzanek, Chrissie Parrott, Timothy Gordon, Sandra Parker, Jaqui Carroll, Edmund Stripe, and Simon Dow. Play Dead (Gideon Obarzanek for The West Australian Ballet Company) was also presented by The Nederlands Dance Theatre. Beyond Bach (Stephen Baynes for The Australian Ballet) won a Green Room Award for costume design, and was later staged at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Molto Vivace (Stephen Baynes For The Australian Ballet Company) received a Helpmann Award nomination and a Green Room award for best costume design.

Anna's costume credits for film and television include Weekly's War, The Shiralee, Short Changed, Princess Kate, The Battlers, and Place On The Coast which earned her an AFI nomination.

Exhibition design includes Memories of Melba and The Art of Stage Design: Costumes by Kristian Fredrikson, both at The Performing Arts Museum, Arts Centre Melbourne.

Further work includes costumes for Woman In The Window, The Doll's House, and Man The Balloon for The Melbourne Theatre Company, Requiem and Raymonda (also nominated for both a Green Room Award and a Helpmann Award) choreographed by Stephen Baynes for The State Opera Company of South Australia and The Australian Ballet Company. She also designed Seven Deadly Sins, Lady of The Camellias, Don Quuixote Variations, Lollapalooza, La Boheme, Lacrimosa, Cinderella and Fractal Joy for The West Australian ballet Company. Her costume designs for Victorian Opera's The Coronation of Poppea was also nominated for a Green Room Award.

She established and co-ordinates The Kristian Fredrikson Scholarship For Design In The Performing Arts as an ongoing memorial to her friend and collaborator the late Kristian Fredrikson.

Anna was awarded the Kenneth Myer Medallion for outstanding and Distinguished Services to The Performing Arts.

Designer Gallery

Click on the photograph to start the gallery