Skip to content
Lodge, Alex
Author photo: Philip Merry
Writer's File

Alex Lodge

Waikato
Lodge, Alex
Author photo: Philip Merry
In brief
Alex Lodge is a playwright performer and educator. She teaches inclusive theatre workshops and classes in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty area for children and adults, with a focus on physical storytelling, and is a co-founder and co-writer for full.stop.theatre. Lodge has co-written several acclaimed works such as ‘Tea for Toot’, a “magical and menacing must-see!” (Keziah Warner, 2011). Her adaptation of the Pania of the Reef legend, Sing to Me, was shortlisted for the 2017 Playmarket Adam Play Award.
  • Primary publisher
    Playmarket
  • Rights enquiries
    info@playmarket.co.nz
  • Publicity enquiries
    info@playmarket.co.nz
Bio

Alex Lodge (1986-) is a Te Whanganui-a-Tara born writer of plays, performer and educator.

For over ten years, she has worked as a performer with companies such as A Slightly Isolated Dog and Site Specific Theatre NZ. She toured with Equal Voices Arts with a collection of stories about Deaf culture in Aotearoa, At the End of My Hands. The award-winning original theatre production was performed in both New Zealand Sign Language and spoken English.

Lodge obtained her BA and Master with Merit in Scriptwriting in 2011. Since then she has worked as a tertiary teaching assistant and guest lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington English department and the Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato Theatre and English departments. From 2019 to the present, she has been working as the Access and Inclusion Programme Coordinator for Auckland Arts Festival.

Her play script publications include: ‘Tea for Toot’ (co-written with Cherie Jacobson and Ed Watson) (2010), 'Nucking Futs' (co-written with Cherie Jacobson) (2013), 'Modern Girls in Bed' (co-written with Cherie Jacobson) (2019), ‘Robin Hoodlum’ (2019) and ‘Sing to Me’ (2021).

Both 'Modern Girls in Bed' and ‘Sing to Me’ were shortlisted for the Adam NZ Play Award.

Her essay 'A River Runs Through It' was published on The Spinoff in 2021. She has also contributed to the Playmarket Annual of 2019 and 2021 as a non-fiction contributor.

In 2011 she was awarded the Michael Hirschfeld Project Scholarship—a scholarship awarded to a script or screenwriting student. In 2015, she was awarded a University of Waikato Doctoral Scholarship.

Her doctor of philosophy thesis 'Takitoru - Towards the development of a trilingual dramaturgical kaupapa' is available through University of Waikato Academic Commons.

According to Lodge, the thesis explores “what story-telling modes, devices or styles seem particularly apt for conveying an inclusive and engaging trilingual narrative on stage. This specifically involves developing a dramaturgical set of insights for others who may want to do cross-language performance in Aotearoa” (Lodge, 2020).

LINKS

Playmarket profile

Interview with NZ Festival