Alexander Berlage
Alexander Berlage is an award-winning director and lighting designer. He is co-artistic director of the Old Fitz Theatre. Alexander has won the Sydney Theatre Award Best Direction of a Musical for the past two years in a row – for American Psycho and Cry-Baby at Hayes Theatre Co.
His smash–hit, sold–out production of American Psycho won 9 Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Direction of a Musical, Best Production of a Musical, Best Male Actor in a Musical, Best Set Design of an Independent Production, Best Costume Design of an Independent Production and Best Lighting Design of an Independent Production and more. Alexander’s 2019 production of Gloria was nominated for two Sydney Theatre Awards.
Alexander’s production of Cry-Baby received rave reviews, sold out and won four Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Direction of a Musical, Best Production of a Musical, Best Female Actor in a Musical and Best Set Design of an Independent Production. The same year, his productions of There Will Be A Climax, Home Invasion and Cry-Baby received a combined total of 12 Sydney Theatre Award nominations. For There Will Be A Climax, Alexander was nominated for Best Direction of an Independent Production and Best Independent Production.
As a lighting designer, Alexander has worked for Sydney Theatre Company, Opera Queensland, Circa, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Sydney Chamber Opera, Sydney Dance Company, Griffin Theatre Company, Ensemble Theatre, Hayes Theatre Co., Australian Theatre for Young People, and Redline Productions, with directors such as Kip Williams, Imara Savage, Jessica Arthur, Mitchell Butel, Constantine Costi, Yaron Lifschitz, Domenic Mercer and Marion Potts.
Alexander has twice won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Lighting Design of an Independent Production – for his work on American Psycho and on 4:48 Psychosis. He received Sydney Theatre Award nominations for his lighting design on The Whale, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Count and Doubt.
In 2019, Alexander made his debut with Birmingham Royal Ballet and London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre as lighting designer with a new ballet by choreographer Jack Lister, A Brief Nostalgia, and with Opera Queensland as lighting designer in a new production of Orpheus and Eurydice directed by Yaron Lifschitz.
Alexander’s directing work includes American Psycho, Cry-Baby (Hayes Theatre Co.); Gloria (Outhouse Theatre Co); There Will Be A Climax (Redline Productions/NIDA); Home Invasion (An Assorted Few/Old 505); and The Van De Maars Papers (An Assorted Few/PACT). He was visual director for Sydney Chamber Opera’s Resonant Bodies.
Alexander’s lighting design work includes Lord of the Flies, Cloud Nine and Lethal Indifference for Sydney Theatre Company; A Brief Nostalgia for Birmingham Royal Ballet/Sadler’s Wells; Orpheus and Eurydice for Opera Queensland/Circa and State Theatre Company of South Australia; Dead Cat Bounce, Good Cook. Friendly. Clean., Nosferatu and Thomas Murray and the Upside Down River for Griffin Theatre Company; Marjorie Prime, Unqualified, Buyer and Cellar and the Kitchen Sink, La Passion De Simone, Resonant Bodies, Victory Over the Sun and An Index of Metals for Sydney Chamber Opera; New Breed, PPY19 Revealed, PPY18 Revealed and PPY15 Revealed for Sydney Dance Company; Home Invasion, The Block Universe and Hilt for Old 505 Theatre; Grounded for National Theatre of Parramatta; Moth, War Crimes, Between Us, Luke Lloyd: Alienoid for the Australian Theatre for Young People; The Effect, Stalking the Boogeyman, There Will Be a Climax, Vertical Dreaming, 4:48 Psychosis, Doubt, Crimes of the Heart, The Judas Kiss, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, The Whale, Men, Freak Winds, Howie the Rookie for the Old Fitz; Caroline or Change, American Psycho, Cry-baby, High Fidelity, Dogfight and Everybody Loves Lucy at Hayes Theatre Co; and Songs for the Fallen, 4000 Miles, Stones in His Pockets for Critical Stages.
In 2020, Alexander directed Diary of One Who Disappeared for Sydney Chamber Opera which premiered as part of Sydney Opera House digital program, the development of Peter Ford’s new opera Peter Pan with Sydney Chamber Opera and Gondwana Choirs and the smash–hit sold–out world premiere of Sydney Theatre Buses. Alexander also designed for Sydney Dance Company’s New Breed at Carriageworks. Before lockdown he was to direct Let the Right One In for Darlinghurst Theatre Company and Young Frankenstein the musical for Hayes Theatre Co – both of which we hope to see in 2021!
Alexander holds a Bachelor of Dramatic Art (Production) and a Master of Fine Art (Directing) from the National Institute for Dramatic Art, Sydney. In 2019, Alexander was awarded a Mike Walsh Fellowship.
View Alexander’s work at aberlage.com