The Anne Fraser Collection, with over 1,500 set and costume designs spanning Fraser’s career from the 1950s to the 1990s, is indicative of a number of personal design collections of which the Arts Centre is now custodian.

Fraser initially trained as a graphic artist in the 1940s, and the translation of these skills into her early stage designs is evident in boldly coloured medieval costumes and sets conceived for Saint Joan (1952).

In 1955 Fraser joined the Union Theatre Repertory Company (UTRC), now Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC), as its first ‘resident’ designer. In her initial season she designed the set for the premiere of Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll.

Productions such as the Borovansky Ballet’s Swan Lake (1957) and the UTRC’s Richard II (1963) illustrate the increasing technical virtuosity of Fraser’s work at this time, and in 1961 she was the inaugural recipient of the Irene Mitchell Award for Stage Setting.

After two decades as a principally Melbourne-based designer, Fraser was lured to Sydney to join the Old Tote Theatre Company (1972-77). Her ‘finished’ designs for Richard II (1973) exemplify her approach at this time.

Near the end of her tenure with the Old Tote, Fraser re-established her ties with MTC, designing for Lawler’s The Doll Trilogy in 1977. On her return to Melbourne, Fraser also worked with Victoria State Opera on The Return of Ulysses (1980) and Die Fledermaus (1981). The swathe of chorus figures for Die Fledermaus shows how she could create a sumptuous visual spectacle by employing her signature motifs.

Anne Fraser was made a member of the Order of Australia for her services to theatre in 1993, and in 1995 received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Fraser passed away in 2005, and the Anne Fraser Collection a fitting legacy to one of Australia’s foremost stage designer.