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- Detailed Information
Helen Richardson
Associate Professor and PIMA Director
Theater
Location: 312 Whitehead Hall
Phone: 718.951.5000 x1994
Fax: 718.951.4606
Email:
Research on theater in the age of globalization, the Théâtre du Soleil and collaborative creation. Published various chapters on the Théâtre du Soleil. Working on an online Global Theatre History book for Routledge. Adaptation of Jarry's Ubu Trilogy, UBU ®, a satire on contemporary US politics, published by Samuel French, 2015. Trained with Mnouchkine and Sotigui Kouyaté of the Peter Brook Company. Served as Artistic Director of the Stalhouderij Theatre Company, Amsterdam, an international ensemble of actors. Her production of A Midsummer Night's Dream was listed among the best productions of the year by Amsterdam newspapers, and The Game, by Venezuelan playwright Mariella Romero, was cited by Amsterdam's City Life, now Time Out, as the best production in the Netherlands, 1992. Artistic director of Global Theatre Ensemble, commissioned by the UN to create a play for International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, 2008.
Education:
Ph.D., University of California - Berkeley - 1990 (Dramatic Arts & Directing)
M.A., San Francisco State University - 1978 (Creative Arts Interdisciplinary)
B.A., Beloit College - 1973 (Art & International Relations)
Areas of Expertise:
Helen Richardson is an award-winning director specializing in the ensemble creation of new works, and research in international theater. She trained in maskwork at the Paris-based Théâtre du Soleil and is knowledgeable in various approaches to acting, including those developed by Bertold Brecht, Stanislavsky, Peter Brook, Ariane Mnouchkine, Jerzy Grotowski, Augusto Boal and Anne Bogart. She is a playwright and has also worked as a dramaturg on productions in Europe and the United States.
Books and Publications
"Ariane Mnouchkine and the Théâtre du Soleil: Towards a Utopian Vision," chapter in The Great
European Stage Directors Series: Barrault, Mnouchkine, and Stein, Ed. by Felicia Londré, Methuen Publishers, pp.81-112.
(Books and Publications: Chapter) 2019
Chapter on "Jacques Lecoq, Ariane Mnouchkine and the Théâtre du Soleil." in The Routledge Companion to Jacques Lecoq, Eds. Mark Evans and Rick Kemp, London and New York: Routledge. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2016
A play: UBU ®, a contemporary adaptation of the UBU trilogy by Alfred Jarry
http://www.samuelfrench.com/p/59412/ubu-jarryrichardson (Books and Publications: Book) 2015
TCG online publication of essay: "What History teaches us: Crossing Borders and the Survival of the Arts in the 21st Century", http://www.tcgcircle.org/2014/06/what-history-teaches-us-crossing-borders-and-the-survival-of-the-arts-in-the-21st-century/
(Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2014
Chapter on the actor training methods of Ariane Mnouchkine. Actor Training: An Introduction. Ed. Alison Hodge. Routledge Publishers. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2010
Chapter on the theater practices of Ariane Mnouchkine. Ariane Mnouchkine, by Judith Miller. Routledge Perfomance Practitioners series. May. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2007
"Kommer and Big 2nd Episode/Business, Under the Radar Festival, The Public Theatre, New York City, performance review. Theatre Journal December. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2006
Creative Work
Playwright and director, After Medea. Workshopped at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, and Theaterlab, NYC. 2011
Playwright and director, "The Disappearance." TheatreLab (March) and Galapagos (April), New York. 2010
"Mika," a play by Erin Courtney and Scott Adkins, developed for the United Nations meeting of world leaders on Eliminating Violence Against Women, performed for U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon, November 2008, and Women's Day, March 2009. United Nations. New York. Co-curator, producer and dramaturg, Tiyatroglobal. 2008
Director and adaptor, Iphigenia, by Euripides. Co-production between New York City College of Technology, the Theater Department and the Performing and Interactive Media Arts Program of Brooklyn College, and Tiyatro Global. Vorhees Theatre. Brooklyn, N.Y. 2008
Playwright and director, Ubu. Brooklyn College, fall. 2006
Director, On the Verge, by Eric Overmyer. Brooklyn College. 2005
Awards, Honors and Fellowships
PSC-CUNY Research Award 2017 for travel and research for text A Global History of Theatre, the first online history of world theatre to be published by Routledge Publisher. (Grants and Fellowships) 2017
Tow Travel Grant for Theatre Research and to attend theatre performances, London, in support of first online Global Performance History text for Routledge, Publisher.
(Grants and Fellowships) 2017
PSC-CUNY Research Award 2014 to work on digital photography projects including jitter software.
(Grants and Fellowships) 2014
PSC-CUNY Research Award 2012 to work Global Theatre History Book and on an on-line international theater publication, signals: a contemporary performance journal.
(Grants and Fellowships) 2012
PSC-CUNY Research Award, to create an original play, After Medea, to be workshopped at the Oregon Shakesepare Festival. (Grants and Fellowships) 2011
PSC-CUNY Research Award, to work on book, Theatre in a Global Context: A History. Brooklyn College. (Grants and Fellowships) 2010
New Faculty Fund Award, for research at Paris' Théâtre du Soleil toward a chapter on the theater practices of Ariane Mnouchkine for the new edition of Twentieth-Century Actor Training, edited by Alison Hodge (London and New York: Routledge), to be published in 2009. (Grants and Fellowships) 2008
New Faculty Fund Award, Brooklyn College, to attend International Theatre Festival in Istanbul for research toward developing a course and book on theater in the Age of Globalization. (Grants and Fellowships) 2006
PSC-CUNY Research Award, to attend International Theatre Festival in Singapore for research toward developing a course and book on theater in the Age of Globalization. (Grants and Fellowships) 2006
Tow Faculty Travel Fellowship, Brooklyn College, to attend the International Theatre Festival of Bogota, Colombia, for research toward a course and book on theater in the Age of Globalization. (Grants and Fellowships) 2005
Research Activities
Participant, XI Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro de Bogota, as researcher and programming advisor to TeatroStageFest, the annual Latino Theatre Festival of New York City. 2008
Attended the Singapore International Arts Festival and interviewed administrative and artistic participants for book on theater in the Age of Globalization. 2007
Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums
Changing Futures Week, Northampton University, UK, conducted workshop in devising socially engaged theatre based on the dramaturgical model of the Ancient Greek comic playwright Aristophanes. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Contributed Talk) 2019
Guest Speaker and advisor for consortium of European National Theatre Schools, including the
National Theatres of Tuscany, Romania, Croatia, Greece, Liege, Belgium, Scotland, and the University of Galway among others, speaking on: "Epic in Motion. Transforming a diversifying Europe through radical theatre practice." Meeting in Florence, Italy, March 2017 & Rome, Italy, May 2017
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2017
IFTR (International Federation of Theatre Research) conference on Presenting the Theatrical Past in Performance: The Theatre History Text as Rhizome," Stockholm U.
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2016
Keynote speaker, the U. of Vigo, Spain, meeting on Interdisciplinarity: Collaboration through interdisciplinarity: The PIMA Graduate Programme as a Model. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2016
Columbia University Summit on Dramaturgy panelist on Mapping Career, NYC.
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2014
IFTR (International Federation of Theatre Research) conference on Towards Non-
stratification in Performance: "PIMA, a Utopian Pedagogy," U. of Warwick.
Participant in the working group Performance as Research.
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2014
IFTR (International Federation of Theatre Research) presentation on RE-ROUTING PERFORMANCE: Ancient Mediterranean empires and their influence on classical Greek drama, Barcelona, Spain. Panel Chair: Social And Digital Platforms as Performative Tools
(Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2014
"After Medea, the Play: Reconsidering Medea's Motivations and Actions." Comparative Drama Conference. Baltimore. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2012
"Going Back to School: Traditional Theatre as a Source of Innovationin the Work of the Théâtre du Soleil, from Commedia dell'arte to Kathakali, Topeng, and Bunraku." International Federation of Theatre Research Conference. Osaka, Japan. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2011
"Théâtre du Soleil and Ariane Mnouchkine: A Cosmopolitan Vision in the Age of Globalization." CUNY Graduate Center. New York. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2011
"The Avant-Garde in the Age of Globalization." International Federation of Theatre Research Conference. Munich. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010
"Ubu, a Look at Contemporary Power Politics." Zicklin Conference on Governmentality and Globalization. Brooklyn College. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2007
"Local Subjectivities and Global Visions. Heteroglossia at an International Theatre in Amsterdam" paper and film presentation. International Federation of Theatre Research Conference. Helsinki. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2006
"Made in China: Collaborating Across Divides." Comparative Drama Conference. Los Angeles. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2006
Professional Leadership
Appointed Director of Performance and Interactive Media Arts MFA Program, Brooklyn
College, administration of students, faculty, and curriculum in the PIMA MFA
program.
(Professional Leadership: Organizational Leadership Position) 2014
Faculty Leadership Fellow to the Dean of School of Visual, Media, and Performing Arts, appointment to assist Dean in developing international programming for the School of Visual, Media and Performing Arts (Professional Leadership: Organizational Leadership Position) 2013
Program head, M.A. in theater history and criticism, since 2006 - 2013. (Professional Leadership: Organizational Leadership Position) 2008
Chair, Dramaturgy of Cross Cultural Creation panel, Comparative Drama Conference. Los Angeles. (Professional Leadership: Organizational Leadership Position) 2006
Community Activities
Activities Organized acting workshop by Simon Sharkey of the National Theatre of Scotland, held at Brooklyn College. 2017
Activities Organized acting workshops by Duccio Bellugi-Vannuccini of the Théâtre du Soleil, held at Brooklyn College. 2017
Activities Organized acting workshop by Mario Biaginni of the Grotowski Workcenter, held at Brooklyn College. 2015
Organized acting workshops by Duccio Bellugi-Vannuccini and Maurice Durozier of the Théâtre du Soleil, held at Brooklyn College, summer. 2009
Other Professional Activities
Evaluator, Princeton University Advisory Committee on Appointments and Advancements for
the Dept. of French and Italian. 2019
Evaluator, Princeton University Advisory Committee on Appointments and Advancements for
the Dept. of French and Italian 2014
Four-week summer intensive workshop on Collaboration, presented by Performance and Interactive Media Art, at the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal. Member of the faculty, teaching theories and techniques of collaboration. Summer. 2008
