Alexandra Friedman

set & production design | costume design | fabrication

Alex Friedman creates environments for performance - on screen, on stage, and on the body. She is especially excited about new work and having an open collaborative process. Alex aims to engage diverse audiences, exploding their preconceived notions of what film and theatre can be, and is interested in media that embrace the tactile craft of design and the beauty of the handmade.

Born in St Petersburg, Russia, Alex is a native of New York City and an alumna of Brandeis University and CalArts. Her design work for theatre has been presented at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and throughout the SF Bay Area and LA.

Alex recently completed jobs as a set designer on a new series for Bix Pix and on Guillermo del Toro’s new stop-motion Pinocchio film, produced by Shadowmachine and Netflix. Her first feature as a set designer, LAIKA’s stop-motion Missing Link, won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature in 2020. She is currently open to new opportunities.

SET Design CONCEPT

Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz

In 1929 Tampa, a cigar factory stands on the cusp of massive change, as new technology and bubbling passions threaten the life its owners and workers have always known. The arrival of a handsome new lector and his reading of Anna Karenina ignites the desires of the owner’s daughters and the ire of his half-brother, leading to a series of confrontations from which there is no turning back.

This minimalist design is centered around the tension between the tradition of the cigar-making process and the advent of new technology. Their work at the factory is central to these people's lives, and has been part of their culture for generations. What are the consequences of strangers and progress intruding into this insular world?

Designed for the Goodman Theatre's Albert space in Chicago, IL.