In 1985 Rumi Matsui completed her BA in graphic design at Tama Art University and joined Shiki Theatre Company. This led her into further education in theatre design at Central School of Art and Design in London.
After her return to Japan in 1990, Matsui began her career as a set designer and scenographer establishing Centreline Associates Inc. in 1991. She has designed over four hundred theatrical productions and won numerous awards including Yomiuri Drama Grand Prix for the best set designer and the Kinokuniya Drama Award. In 2004, her Broadway debut Pacific Overtures at Studio 54 was nominated for the Tony Award's Best Scenic Design of a Musical.[1]The Fantasticks was taken to London's West End in 2010.
She has also designed a number of opera sets such as Junior Butterfly for the 52nd Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago Puccini in Italy and Tea: A Mirror of Soul at Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico.
In recent years, she has been expanding her practice to concert set design, notably including Japanese pop group AKB48 at the National Athletic Stadium in 2014. Matsui also contributed the scenic design to Korin; a play inspired by ancient mythology about the origin of Japan, which was given as an offering to and performed at Kyoto's oldest Shinto shrine Kamigamo Jinja.
Matsui was a member of the jurors for Prague Quadrennial '07 and she was listed as one of the Honorable Scenographers by OISTAT (International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians) in 2007.[2]
Matsui is currently a guest instructor of set design at Tokyo University of the Arts, and remains the president of Centreline Associates Inc., one of the major theatre set design companies in Japan.
