Dr Michelle Pretorius

Michelle is a lecturer, researcher and a performer in musical theatre.

As a lecturer, she specialises in the academic study of musical theatre or contextual studies as well as vocal technique and coaching.

Michelle’s research in musical theatre and popular culture as well as her performance experience informs her teaching. She was nominated for a South African Naledi Award for best actress in a musical for her role as Ursula the Sea Witch in The Little Mermaid in Johannesburg in 2015. Her research focuses on musical theatre within the realm of popular culture and celebrity culture’s affect on the field of musical theatre.

Michelle was born and raised in Pretoria, South Africa, but lived in Cape Town for four years whilst completing her Master at the University of Cape Town. She has worked as both an opera and musical theatre performer and lectured in both fields in South Africa and the United Kingdom.

She holds a BMus degree in Opera from the University of Pretoria, a MMus from the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town, and a MA Musical Theatre from the Guildford School of Acting, University of Surrey, United Kingdom. She also holds a PhD in musicology from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, where she was a singing performance tutor from 2015 until relocating to Leeds, when she became a part time lecturer in singing and performing arts at Leeds Beckett University whilst also freelancing as a proofreader and editor.

Her vocational experience outside of higher education was owning and managing her own business called 'Rhythm Rascals' whilst living in Cape Town. This was a music development programme that utilised African drumming as a medium for both holistic and musical development in children between the ages of 3 and 10 years.

She has performed the role of Modestina in Rossini’s opera, Il Viaggio A Reims at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town in 2010, Hetaira in the Broadway hit musical, Lysistrata Jones at the Ivy Theatre in Guildford in 2014, she was part of the ensemble in the hit musical, Sister Act at the Joburg Theatre in 2015, she played the role of Ursula in The Little Mermaid at The Peoples Theatre in Johannesburg in 2015, and filled the role of Dina Dienstig in the Afrikaans Pantomime, Sneeuwitjie at the Theatre Marcellus, Emperors Palace, Johannesburg in 2016. In 2014 she was involved in devising a completely original Musical called Mrs. Reggie Kray, performed at the Waterloo East theatre in London.