ABOUT DIRECTOR/DESIGNER

NATE BERTONE

Nate Bertone is a NYC-based theatrical storyteller who has worked internationally as a director, designer, playwright, and producer. Recently, he co-produced the new Broadway musical How to Dance in Ohio and Directed/Designed the Australian tour of Alice in Wonderland. Working often on World Premieres, he has designed May We All, Chicken and Biscuits, Mystic Pizza, Dracula, Punk Rock Girl!, The Nutcracker, and more. Nate’s design work has also appeared with Disney's D23 Expo, Google, Broadway Sacramento, Ballet Memphis, Ogunquit Playhouse, Bucks County, North Shore Music Theatre, The Rev, and more.  As the Associate to Beowulf Boritt: Be More Chill (West End/Japan), Crazy for You (LCT), Superhero (2ST). Assistant to: New York, New York, Freestyle Love Supreme, A Bronx Tale (Broadway). His plays Letters From War and The SeaView Nursing Home for the Newly Deceased are currently in development. His children's book "Nana, Nana" will be published nationwide in September 2024 by Susan Schadt Press and is currently available for pre-order. 

He is a Carnegie Mellon Alumnus and a Dean's Scholar of Central Saint Martins, London.

He is represented by The Gersh Agency.

Proud member of USA829 and The Dramatists Guild.

The Pillbox

"Exhibit displays vulnerability like never before. "

LiveDesign Online

"Bertone Flies Solo Out From Under Tony-Winner Beowulf Boritt's Wing"

Hooligan Magazine

An interview with Nate Bertone.

Underground Sparks Magazine

"The sheer force of a singular word could not be felt more than with this evocative photo series."

Carnegie Mellon Today Magazine

"We Wore The Masks" Feature

The Goodmen Project

An interview with Nate Bertone, creator of 'We Wore The Masks' Project. 

Reviews & Related Press

LETTERS FROM WAR Marblehead Little Theatre

"Nate Bertone may be young chronologically, but theatrically, he is a phenomenon and a seer, whose vision is well beyond his twenty-something years." - Sheila Barth THEATRE MIRROR BOSTON

ENTANGLED Salem Theatre Company

"Theatre wunderkind Nate Bertone, 22, directs the play and designed the set... From the time he was 16 years old, he has created eye-opening sets for North Shore Music Theatre and other professional venues.

Tension mounts. The wind and snow swirl outside, but the real storm rages within." - Sheila Barth THEATRE MIRROR BOSTON

"Nate Bertone directs, and created the marvelous set...The set, which sprawls throughout STC's malleable space, blends the believable with the surreal. It seems comfy and country-cabin-like, but birch trees intrude into the cabin walls. What should be outside, might also be inside - a telling notion in this interior drama. The set intimately embraces the audience, who finds themselves sitting in the living room, the bedroom and near the kitchen. But it also cleverly maintains the fourth wall." - Keith Powers, WICKEDLOCAL

"STC’s relatively new space has been transformed in to a cabin in the woods, decorated with a balance of childhood knick-knacks and cubist birch trees that multiply in to the darkness. The set is truly spectacular and as you enter you are encouraged to explore, ensconce and set yourself up in seats that are within the kitchen, living room and bedroom of the house." - Sarah Mann, CREATIVESALEM

SISTER ACT North Shore Music Theatre

"The fantastic and gorgeous sets are by up and coming scenic designer Nate Bertone, also, throw in fabulous costumes by Paula Ninestein and you have the makings of this musical masterpiece that had the crowd on its feet cheering at the close of the night."  - THEATRE MIRROR BOSTON

"The colorful costumes, stunning light and scenic designs are marvels to watch." - Scott C. Forrest-Allen, BROADWAY FROM THE BALCONY

THE NORMAL HEART Salem Theatre Company

 "At Salem Theatre Company’s gut-wrenching production of Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart,” Nathan Bertone, (North Shore Music Theatre and Theatre By the Sea’s set designer), creates a sterile atmosphere on the centrally-located stage, with its stark, white floor, hospital bed and few chairs. The atmosphere is punctuated by a full-length blackboard wall, inscribed with chalk-scrawled memorials of people’s loved ones who succumbed from AIDS. Theatergoers are invited to write messages, adding their own loved ones‘ names.   

The audience is not only seated nearby, abutting three sides of the stage, in the 50-seat, small theater, but some theatergoers are actually on stage, with the actors.  That proximity, especially during traumatic, tragic scenes, had several in the audience weeping openly." - Sheila Barth THEATRE MIRROR BOSTON

 SHREK THE MUSICAL North Shore Music Theatre 

"Director Michael Heitzman - thanks to scenic designer Nate Bertone's greenery hanging down above the audience as well as on stage - is effectively including theatergoers in a you-are-there evocation of the ogre's Rancid Swamp." - Jules Becker, WORCESTER TELEGRAM

"The fantastic sets are by 21 year old Nate Bertone, the youngest scenic designer ever at NSMT." -Tony Annicone THEATRE MIRROR

"Clever costumes, choreography that brings the swamp to life with set designs that are amazing and creative provide the perfect backdrop for this delightful musical..." - Myrna Fearer DANVERS HERALD

"Strolling down the aisle at North Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) in-the-round,theatergoers are thrust into a moss-hanging, cricket-frog chirping swamp. The atmosphere is mysterious, yet magical (kudos, set designer Nathan Bertone)." -Sheila Barth INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

LETTERS FROM WAR Salem Theatre Company

"Nate Bertone Merges Sentimental Past with Heart-Rending Present in Stirring New Play."

"It is a testament to Nate Bertone’s dual writing and staging prowess that the scenes of past and present successfully merge during the performance.  For the World Premiere of Letters from War at Salem Theatre Company, the audience was transported back in time to 1960s Mississippi, flown overseas to the swamps and battlegrounds of wartime Vietnam, and carried to the modern deep south, many times all at once." - Joey Phoenix, CREATIVESALEM

LETTERS FROM WAR Featured Article Creative Salem

"Nate Bertone’s disillusionment with the stereotypes of his generation provided is not only vocal, but surprisingly accurate. “As I have grown older, it has occurred to me that we are currently living in a generation where human contact and emotional connection is hard to come by,” he said. “Many people today prefer to sit at home behind a computer screen, or watch a movie on Netflix, rather than to leave the house and actually interact with one another.” Nate knows the cause of this, and thinks that there’s a simple solution. “This is obviously a product of the technology in today's society, but I strongly believe that Theatre and Art can act as a catalyst for human interaction, and for that reason, I write and design theatre pieces in hopes of bringing a group of people together in an experience that can never be recreated.”" - Chris Ricci, CREATIVESALEM

THE LITTLE MERMAID Theatre By The Sea

"Scenic designer Nate Bertone creates solid transitions that move easily from an enchanted underwater reef to a storm-tossed ship's deck to the glittering human palace." - BROADWAY WORLD

”A multitude of impeccably changing scenes designed by Nate Bertone and Bailey Costa’s dynamic lighting, provide a beautiful aquatic backdrop for the story of Ariel and her prince to unfold.” - Dave Christner MERCURY MAGAZINE RI

”The scenic designer, Nate Bertone, designed a beautiful set that makes you feel part of Ariel’s world.” - Shannon McLoud MOTIF MAGAZINE RI

THE BOSTON GLOBE Featured Article - "The Stage Is Set for Fast-Rising Scenic Designer" by Kelly Gifford

"His in-class and extracurricular theater experience helped him secure an internship with the off-Broadway company Second Stage Theatre in New York City, where he worked under Boritt and Mark Wendland. Bertone built the shadow puppetry for Boritt’s set in “Murder for Two” and participated in research to help with the designs for “Little Miss Sunshine.”

“Nate is a hard-working and very ambitious guy. He did some great work for me last summer,” Boritt said. Bertone attended the Tony Awards last month, where Boritt won for “Act One.”' - Kelly Gifford, BOSTON GLOBE FEATURE

CARNEGIE MELLON TODAY Magazine Feature

"Now, Bertone is standing outside of his comfort zone. And he decides that's good...Three years later, he continues to embrace the idea of stepping outside his comfort zone. Bertone advocates students challenging themselves to "walk to the sky," but to do so without feeling alone or isolated - without wearing a mask all of the time."  - Sasha Kerbel, CARNEGIE MELLON TODAY

GREASE  Theatre By The Sea

"Nate Bertone's scenic design is an example of theatrical ingenuity at its best, morphing from bedroom to ballroom without missing a beat."  - NEWPORT MERCURY MAGAZINE

THE ELEPHANT MAN Salem Theatre Company

"St. Pierre and Goetz alone are worth the price of admission, but they are supported by some very smart staging and technical designs. Of particular note was...Nate Bertone’s scenic design which was remarkably simple, but clever and well used by Fogle." - MY ENTERTAINMENT WORLD (Boston)

MURDER FOR TWO Scenic Intern

"I  want to mention the invaluable work by my props supervisor Susan Barras, and our intern Nate Bertone who built the pile of junk that makes a shadow of the house where the murder occurs. This sounds like an awards acceptance speech or something, but it takes so many people to make a show happen, I like to recognize them." - Beowulf Boritt, Scenic Designer

UNDERGROUND SPARKS We Wore The Masks Feature

"Every once in a while, you come across something that is so honest, so brutally itself that you can't help but take a moment and appreciate it. "We Wore The Masks" is a project started by Nathan Bertone, and takes what we fear most and bares it to the world. The sheer force of a singular word could not be felt more than with this evocative photo series." - Andrey Lyle Patino, UNDERGROUND SPARKS MAGAZINE #3