John Kristian Alsaker

John Kristian Alsaker (born 9th April 1949) is a Norwegian stage designer.

Information

(Objekt ID 18787)
Object type Person
Born April 9, 1949
Functions Stage designer, Costume designer
Nationality Norwegian
Gender Male
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John-Kristian Alsaker was active at several British stages during the 1970es, including National Theatre and Old Vic. He was a stage designer at The National Venue of Theatre 1976-82, followed by a period at The Torshov Theatre.

From 1984 he was a stage designer at Los Angeles Theater Center, where he won several awards for best stage design and costumes, among other things for productions based on Ibsen and Beckett, and he was also responsible for the stage design for Stein Winge's visiting production King Lear. Alsaker has been a stage designer for one or more productions at most of Norway's theatres. One may mention Falstaff, Enigma Variations, Tater!, 40, Woyzeck and A Doll's House, Fiddler on the Roof, Tørres Snørtevold, Faust and Boer Boerson jr.

At The National Theatre he has contributed to more than 50 productions.

He has also worked with movies and TV, repeatedly with the movie director Tony Richardson, including at the TV miniseries Phantom of the Opera 1990, directed by Richardson. Further one can mention Gåten Knut Hamsun* (The Mystery of Knut Hamsun) and Peer Gynt.

He has been nominated for The Hedda Award in the category of best visual design four times, in 1999 for the stage design for Pinocchio and in 2006 for Alice in Wonderland.

In 2002 he won The Hedda Award for the stage design for Antons villfaring* (Anton's Deviation) and in 2011 he shared The Hedda Award with Torbjørn Ljunggren and Øyvind Wangensteen for the stage design, video and lighting for Ti liv* (Ten lives), script and direction by Kjetil Bang-Hansen, The National Theatre.

In 2011 the Hedda jury gave the following reason:

"The award winners in this category show the amazing possibilities there lie in innovative collaboration between stage design, video projection and lighting design. Thanks to their magical creative abilities the Dovre Express thunders across one of the smallest stages in the country, motorbikes and lorries rage up narrow mountain roads, and we experience rose-painted mansion interiors and Norwegian train coupes while the actors elegantly wanders in and out of historically correct film projections. It is impossible to separate one winner's efforts from the other's – or the third's: They are intrinsically linked to one another.

Thus the award goes to John-Kristian Alsaker, Torbjørn Ljunggren and Øyvind Wangensteen for stage design, video and lighting design respectively, for Ti liv* (Ten lives), at The Torshov Theatre."

*Not yet translated into English. The title within parentheses is the Norwegian title's literal meaning.