MICAELA BOTTARI is a stage and production designer working predominantly in film, theatre, and opera. Arriving at set design through music and over a decade of performing, her approach to design is nuanced, intuitive, and audience driven.

Passionate about developing new works, Micaela is the Lead Designer and Associate Producer for The Why Collective where she collaborates with dear friends and fellow hands-in-the-mud artists to create multi-disciplinary theatre and performance art that challenges the canon.

Micaela is a 2024-25 Colt Coeur Resident, and resident artist at the Flying Carpet Festival in Mardin, Turkey. She holds a B.M. in Vocal Performance from Westminster Choir College, and is an MFA candidate in Theatre Design at Brooklyn College.

Experience

Props and Assistant Scenic on Arsenic and Old Lace, play

Concepts and Development for Matrescence, new play (work in progress, unproduced)

Production Design for Frankie Forever, short film

Production Design for SeaVees ad spec

Production Design for Half Horse Half Man, music video

Costume design, stage concepts and development for She Breathes Fire, new opera

Prop design and fabrication, scenic assistant for Macbeth, play

Set Dresser on Original Sound, feature film

Production Design for SHITHEAD, short film

Stage design concepts for Transport: Heggie/Handel, chamber opera (unproduced)

Art Director on Howl, short film

On Set Scenic Assistant on A Surrealist Dream Editorial, fashion editorial for Lady Gunn magazine

Production Design for Smoker’s Cough, music video

Event and Graphic Design for “What Do YOU Have To Say?,” multidisciplinary, arts centered creative workshop

Stage Design for Dust Bowl, fully staged cantata produced and performed by Verdigris Ensemble

Set Design for Words of the Prophets, new play