Whilst living in the UK, Michelle had varied experience working in the fields of both theatre and education. She worked as an actor/teacher for several theatre-in-education companies, both devising and performing programmes in primary, secondary and special schools. She also worked as a director with both professional actors and youth theatres and an arts worker with a number of community groups. Michelle has worked as a youth worker and also taught drama at secondary and tertiary level and English at secondary level. She was a committee member of the Standing Conference on Young People’s Theatre (SCYPT), a national organisation committed to the development of the theory and practice of drama and theatre in education. In New Zealand Michelle has taught English, Drama and Social Studies at secondary level. She has been working with pre-service drama teachers at The University of Auckland since 2001.

Michelle is currently a committee member of the Auckland branch of Drama New Zealand, and a former member of the national committee of NZADIE, now known as Drama New Zealand. She was Convenor for the national drama conference in 1999 to explore the draft arts curriculum.

Michelle is currently studying for a Master of Education, while being committed to improving her craft as a teacher. She has an interest in using metaphor as a vehicle for diverse groups of students exploring sensitive material - how drama can be used as a way of finding out about the world, and how drama can be used as a focus for bringing together other areas of the curriculum.

Research and creative outputs
Michelle has published articles in the Journal of the Standing Conference on Young People’s Theatre and the journal of NZADIE.