Michael Baxter

Baxter is a designer, fabricator and maker of sets and props for circus, theatre, dance, film and television. After training first as crayon maker, removalist, town planner and yacht rigger, Baxter was initiated into the performing arts in 1988 producing and performing in a trapeze dance show in the Melbourne Fringe. 

He then became a manager of a nursery and organic market garden in Tasmania, working extensively in bushland and water conservation and management.  This led to an honours degree in environmental design followed by three years teaching in the University of Tasmania’s architecture department and working on a masters degree in design.  Over this period Baxter became closely linked to the National Circus Festival based in Tasmania, and returned to the circus, co-founding Raradada Physical Theatre, once again producing and performing. 

In 2001 Baxter returned to Melbourne and worked with Circus Oz as a designer/maker. Over the past decade, Baxter has developed into a creator of unusual and specialised equipment, props and sets for a host of companies including Dislocate, Strange Fruit, Strut n Fret, Circa, the Candy Butchers, the Melbourne Fringe and arts festivals, film and television productions, and a myriad of fabulous individuals.  

In June-July 2009 and 2010 Baxter has been the artist in residence and associate designer with Invisible Circus in New York.

Tangled Web is his first collaboration with Polyglot.