Kenneth Rowell (1922-1999) was born in Melbourne, Australia. His original ambition was to be a dancer, but realising his physical limitations, he turned to theatre design. His third design, for the Walter Gore ballet Winter Night given by Ballet Rambert during their Australian tour in 1949, brought him to Marie Rambert's attention, and she and Laurence Olivier recommended him for a British Council scholarship, which enabled him to come to England in 1950 to study scenic design. He came under the influence of John Gielgud and, only two years later, the commission to design Macbeth for Gielgud's production at Stratford established him as a major theatre designer. Throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, he designed a wide range of plays, operas and, especially, ballets, both in England and Australia, and also established himself as a distinguished painter before returning to live in Australia in the 1980s.

His designs trod the line between paintings and working designs, building up textures in paint, collage or wood relief to indicate the fabrics and look that he required, evocations of the design and mood of the work rather than finished working drawings, but, translated into fabric, canvas and paint, the results were truly theatrical and magical.