ABOUT ZACHARY DUNBAR

Zachary Dunbar is an Associate Professor of Theatre and Principal Fellow in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music at the University of Melbourne. His career began as a concert pianist before expanding into theatre, writing, and performance research. He studied piano in the United States at Rollins College with Sylvia Reynolds and Thomas Brockman, participating in masterclasses with Rudolph Firkusny, Guido Agosti, Gary Graffman, and Claude Frank. During this period, he won several state and regional piano competitions and completed an Honours thesis in Philosophy and Religion alongside his music degree. He continued his studies at the Yale School of Music with Peter Frankl and Daniel Pollack, winning the Best Piano Recital Prize and training with the Tokyo String Quartet, including at the Yale Norfolk Summer Music Festival. Following Yale, he received a Fulbright Grant to study at the Royal College of Music in London with Beethoven specialist Kendall Taylor and lieder specialist Robert Sutherland. He subsequently served as Artist-in-Residence at Haileybury College (UK) and performed as a soloist and chamber musician across Sweden, the Netherlands (including Radio Netherlands), the UK (St Martin-in-the-Fields, Royal Festival Hall, Oxford University), and the United States.

Alongside his music career, Zachary developed a sustained practice in theatre and writing. He trained through workshops and masterclasses with Complicité; Voicemotions (Guy Dartnell, Battersea Arts Centre); playwriting with John Burgess (former Head of New Writing, Royal Court); and screenwriting at the National Film and Television School (UK). His original theatre work spans radio drama, Greek tragedy, musical theatre, Beijing opera, postdramatic theatre, and dance theatre. Productions he directed and produced in London and the UK were staged at venues including Pleasance Theatre Upstairs, Bloomsbury Theatre, Embassy Theatre (RCCSD), Camden People’s Theatre, Brighton Underbelly, and the Edinburgh Fringe (including Fringe First nominations), as well as the Jungehunde Festival in Aarhus, Denmark. His works include Texas Eddy, The Year of the Pig (I & II), Eight Monologues for Solo Actors, Out of Character, Delphi, Texas, Quaternary, and The Cows Come Home. He also directed Charlotte Jones’ musical The Diva in Me (Brighton Pavilion Theatre; Argus Angel Award; UK tour; BBC Radio 4).

In Australia, his original works include Florida (La Mama), AntigoneX (Theatre Works), Outback Orpheus (Malthouse Co-Lab), and Overacting (VCA; La Mama, Melbourne 2026). He completed a Mandarin translation of Sweet Charity (with Rei Poh, Singapore) and wrote the short film Pathetic (2022). As a musical theatre acting coach, he has led workshops internationally and across Australia.

Zachary completed his PhD on Greek tragedy performance at Royal Holloway, University of London, supervised by David Wiles. He previously served as Senior Lecturer at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, training actors in MA Musical Theatre and MA Classical Acting. At the University of Melbourne, he has held leadership roles including Interim Head of Theatre and Graduate Research Convenor in Performing Arts. His publications include the award-winning Greek Tragedy and the Contemporary Actor (Palgrave Macmillan) and contributions to The Oxford Handbook of the Global Stage Musical (2023).