Dr Michelle Pretorius
Senior Lecturer
Biography
Michelle is a lecturer, theatre creator and performer of musical theatre. Her focus is musical theatre within the realm of popular culture. She has directed and performed original works such as Fred the Musical at the Liverpool Theatre festival in 2023. She has performed in community theatre, as Modestina in Rossini’s opera, Il Viaggio A Reims at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town in 2010, Hetaira in the musical, Lysistrata Jones at the Ivy Theatre in Guildford in 2014, as ensemble in Sister Act at the Joburg Theatre in 2015, Ursula in The Little Mermaid at The Peoples Theatre in Johannesburg in 2015 for which I was nominated for a South African Naledi Award for best actress in a musical. She has also performed in the Afrikaans Pantomime, Sneeuwitjie at the Theatre Marcellus, Emperors Palace, Johannesburg in 2016. Michelle holds a BMus degree in Opera from the University of Pretoria, a MMus from the University of Cape Town, a MA Musical Theatre from GSA, and a PhD in Musicology from the University of the Witwatersrand. She is currently the programme leader for the BA(Hons) Musical Theatre programme at the University of Chester.
Teaching and Supervision
Michelle’s experience in teaching has mostly been within the fields of opera and musical theatre. Her expertise lie within contextual studies, vocal technique, repertoire studies and acting through song. The modules which are delivered by Michelle include: Musical theatre productions for level 4, 5 and 6 Vocal technique Solo skills Ensemble work Acting through song Contextual studies of Musical Theatre Negotiated Studies Developing Professional Practice Music Theory
Research and Knowledge Exchange
Michelle’s research focuses on musical theatre and popular studies as well as celebrity culture and its effect on musical theatre. She also has a great interest on the study of music and emotion. Her PhD thesis is entitled, A critique of celebrity culture in the field of contemporary musical theatre, and deals with the affects celebrities may have on the musical theatre industry in terms of audience reception and economic success. In 2019, Michelle presented her research from her masters degree at the SEMPRE Graduate Conference at Cambridge University, with a poster presentation entitled: Understanding music reception through Samuel Pepys' emotional experience of vocal music in seventeenth-century England.