Alex Burger

Alex Burger is an award-winning screenwriter and playwright whose works spans the US, England, and South Africa. His theatre work includes: an adaption of Njabulo Ndebele’s beloved novel The Cry of Winnie Mandela (The Market Theatre, 2024, The Market Theater, the Baxter Theatre, the Durban Playhouse 2025), Fees Must Fall (Wits University, 2016), The Inkanyamba (The Market Theatre Laboratory, 2015) and Whose Blood: A Tale of Desire and Despair Set in 19th Century Operating Theatre (London’s Old Operating Theatre, 2011) which ran for a completely sold-out three week run.

Mr. Burger is now based in Los Angeles and his television work includes: co-writing a revolutionary feminist drama Here She Comes (Infinite Eyes), co-creating and co-writing a satirical African-American web-series The...

Alex Burger is an award-winning screenwriter and playwright whose works spans the US, England, and South Africa. His theatre work includes: an adaption of Njabulo Ndebele’s beloved novel The Cry of Winnie Mandela (The Market Theatre, 2024, The Market Theater, the Baxter Theatre, the Durban Playhouse 2025), Fees Must Fall (Wits University, 2016), The Inkanyamba (The Market Theatre Laboratory, 2015) and Whose Blood: A Tale of Desire and Despair Set in 19th Century Operating Theatre (London’s Old Operating Theatre, 2011) which ran for a completely sold-out three week run.

Mr. Burger is now based in Los Angeles and his television work includes: co-writing a revolutionary feminist drama Here She Comes (Infinite Eyes), co-creating and co-writing a satirical African-American web-series The Campaign (Mundo Loco Films) and co-creating and co-writing with award winning author Carolyn Cooke a multi-season fantastical survival show Fire City based on 80,000 people trapped at Burning Man. Previous projects include head writing the first ever mobile South African series Die Testament (2021 and 2019), head writing seasons 3 and 4 of the SAFTA award-wining Umlilo (2016-2017) and writing for 90 Plein Street Season 5 (2017), Isithembiso (2016-2017), Doubt (2016), and Hard Copy Season 4 (2016).

Mr. Burger hails from Massachusetts, grew up performing in 1,200 performances of a resident magic troupe, volunteered with Mother Teresa in Calcutta India, and spent seven years fighting for racial justice in Alabama where he won the Spirit of Dr. King award (2002). Mr. Burger then spent 12 years living in parts of Africa: Chad, Ghana, Senegal, and South Africa, during which he served as a Vice President at AngloGold Ashanti, Africa’s largest mining company (2011-2013). Mr. Burger also has a 15-year plus affiliation as an international development expert with the World Bank where he has advised government and companies in over thirty countries. He has taught writing at the California Institute of Integral Studies MFA program (2017-present), Wits University (2015-2016) and the Market Theatre Laboratory (2014-2016). He holds an MBA from INSEAD and a BA in the Comparative Study of Religion from Harvard University

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Scripts

The Magi and His Devotees

by Alex Burger

Cast Size
8
Genre
dark comedy,
drama,
experimental,
farce,
movement/physical,
mystery/thriller,
period,
political,
satire

The Magi and His Devotees is the story of a 7-year-old boy, born into a cult, who watches his parents and other devotees desperately try to please a charismatic Magi. Throughout the play the devotees respond to a series of tests, until they eventually disappear into a reality of the Magi’s own creation. The boy, abandoned, must decide to join them or free himself from this madness.

The play is based on my own...

The Magi and His Devotees is the story of a 7-year-old boy, born into a cult, who watches his parents and other devotees desperately try to please a charismatic Magi. Throughout the play the devotees respond to a series of tests, until they eventually disappear into a reality of the Magi’s own creation. The boy, abandoned, must decide to join them or free himself from this madness.

The play is based on my own real-life experience of growing up in Le Grand David and His Own Spectacular Magic Company in Beverly, Massachusetts in the 1970s and 80s. We were a 60-person resident stage magic troupe and hold the record as the longest running magic show in the world. We performed at the White House seven times and won the Magician of the Year Award in Hollywood in 1980.

The play is set in the late 1970s, but has deep resonances with our current moment. The story reveals the consequences of devoting one’s life to an ideal, controlled by a charismatic leader. The play is a meditation on the blurry lines between reality and fiction, charisma and narcissism, and the self-sacrifice demanded by membership in a group or nation.

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