About me

David Berthold is one of Australia's most prominent theatre directors and cultural leaders. He has directed for most of Australia's major theatres companies, as well as internationally. He was most recently Artistic Director of Brisbane Festival, one of Australia's major international arts festivals, directing five record-breaking festivals, 2015-19.

He is currently Director in Residence at NIDA.

He has led transformational change in many organisations. He was the Artistic Director of La Boite Theatre Company (2008-14), rebuilding audiences, repertoire, and government and private support; Artistic Director of Sydney's Griffin Theatre Company (2003-2006), transforming it into Australia's leading new writing theatre and one of the nation's most visible and successful arts companies; Artistic Director of the Australian Theatre for Young People (1999-2003), building the company into Australia's flagship theatre for young people - and the world's largest - with many national and international collaborations; Associate Director of Sydney Theatre Company (1994-99), Australia's premier theatre company; and Artistic Associate of the Queensland Theatre Company (1991-94). He was the Festival Director of World Interplay 2007, the world's largest festival of young playwrights. In 2013 and 2014, he curated a stream of independent theatre for the Brisbane Festival.

He is a board member of Australian Plays Transform, a Trustee of the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award,
a member of the Helpmann Awards Theatre Panel, a member of the NSW Government's Theatre and Musical Theatre Arts Advisory Board, sits on the Judging Panel of the Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting (NSW Premier’s Literary Awards), and formerly a member of the QUT Creative Industries Faculty Advisory Committee.

He has directed major productions of Australian plays by Elaine Acworth, Vanessa Bates, Adam J A Cass, Brendan Cowell, Nick Enright, Daniel Keene, Caleb Lewis, Tony McNamara, Tommy Murphy, Louis Nowra, Debra Oswald, Hannie Rayson, Stephen Sewell, Alan Seymour, Katherine Thomson, Karin Mainwaring, Ian Wilding, Tennessee Williams and David Williamson as well as plays by Aristophanes, Jim Cartwright, William Congreve, Brad Fraser, Neil LaBute, Christopher Marlowe, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter, Philip Ridley, Shakespeare, Sam Shepard, Leo Tolstoy and Tennessee Williams for companies including Griffin, ATYP, STC, Melbourne Theatre Company, Belvoir, 2000 Olympic Arts Festival, Sydney Festival, Sydney Opera House, Playbox Theatre, Black Swan, NIDA, QUT, Opera Queensland, Auckland Theatre Company, the Royal National Theatre London, and Theater an der Parkaue Berlin.

His recent productions for La Boite include Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Ruben Guthrie, As You Like It, Tender Napalm, The Glass Menagerie, Cosi, I Love You, Bro, and Tommy Murphy's multi-award winning adaptation of Timothy Conigrave's memoir Holding the Man, which also had seasons for Griffin Theatre Company, Sydney Opera House, Belvoir, Melbourne Theatre Company, Brisbane Powerhouse, and a 2010 season in London's West End. He also recently directed the premiere of Louis Nowra's Boyce Trilogy for Griffin Theatre Company; Tommy Murphy's Saturn's Return for Sydney Theatre Company (in two versions); Mozart's Così fan tutte for Opera Queensland, Marlowe's Edward II for QUT, Louis Nowra's Cosi and Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing for NIDA, and a national tour of the concert drama Rolling Thunder Vietnam.
His production of Tommy Murphy's play, Mark Colvin's Kidney, opened at Sydney's Belvoir in March 2017.

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