Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Michael first studied speech and drama at Auckland University, where he received a Diploma in Drama in 1977; he also has a B.A. in English Literature from Waikato University. He met Anthroposophy while working on a newspaper at the age of 21. This led to him doing an Anthroposophical speech training that he completed in Hawaii under Virginia Brett in 1988. Since that time he has practised artistic speech and drama in various ways - as a writer, speech performer, actor, speech therapist and voice teacher.He has recently moved from Sydney back to his hometown of Auckland, New Zealand, where he will be joined by Ryan Kouroukis to launch this new play in commemoration of the centenary of the Threefold Social Organism.