Alan Burrett

Professor, Head of Lighting Design

Biography

Born in London, Mr. Burrett’s internationally acclaimed work for theatre, dance and opera has been seen in over 30 countries. He began his career as the resident designer with Bejart ballet in Brussels where he designed sets, costumes and lights for numerous productions, as well as for the 300th Anniversary of Moliere at the Comedie Francaise and various productions for the Paris Opera Ballet and French television. Later he was appointed Technical Director for the Ballet of the Opera of Lyon where he also designed the sets, costumes and lighting. He returned to London to become head of lighting at the English National Opera. Mr. Burrett continued his lighting career in the UK and Europe designing over fifteen memorable productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as at The Royal National Theater, Royal Opera Covent Garden, The Paris Opera, Munich Opera and the Burgtheater Vienna, He enjoyed collaborating with noted directors such as; Adrian Noble, John Caird, Keith Warner, David Thacker, Claus Peymann, Sir Peter Hall, Sam Mendes, Matthew Warchus, Trevor Nunn, David Leveaux and Francesca Zambello. He lit large-scale arena productions of the Operas Carmen and Tosca in London, Germany, Australia and Japan and the complete works of Beckett for the Gate Theatre in Dublin, New York and London. At the 1992 World’s Fair in Seville he was part of the design team for the Spanish Pavilion project and later created the lighting for the U.S tour of Duran Duran. In 1995 Alan Burrett began a 10-year collaboration with LA Opera and in 2001 was invited to become their first resident lighting designer where, to date, he has designed twenty-five productions. Mr. Burrett will bring this remarkable international experience to the Department of Theater and Dance to become the new Head of the graduate program in Lighting Design in the fall of 2008. He will lead graduate and undergraduate courses in lighting design that draws from his diverse interdisciplinary research in lighting, costume and set design for theatre, dance and opera.