Brooklyn College
Helen E. Richardson, Associate Professor of Theater History, Undergraduate Deputy Chair helenr@brooklyn.cuny.edu Dr. Richardson holds a PhD in Dramatic Art from the University of California at Berkeley’s Director/Scholar program. Her work has focused on methods of collaboration and creation within multicultural theatre companies and, in particular, on the work of the Paris-based international theater, the Théâtre du Soleil, under the artistic direction of Ariane Mnouchkine. While researching the Théâtre du Soleil, she trained in maskwork with Mnouchkine. She is currently completing a chapter on the theater practices of the Théâtre du Soleil, to be included in a book on Mnouchkine for Routledge. She has written for various publications such as Theatre Journal, ACResolution, and the Antioch Review. Dr. Richardson has worked internationally as a stage director. Besides Mnouchkine, she has trained with Sotigui Kouyaté of the Peter Brook Company. From 1991-1994, she served as Artistic Director of the Stalhouderij Theatre Company, Amsterdam’s resident English-language theater, an international ensemble of actors creating new works and performing a diverse repertoire of classic and modern plays. Her production of A Midsummer Night's Dream was listed among the best productions of the year by Amsterdam newspapers. The Stalhouderij's production of The Game, by Venezuelan playwright Mariella Romero, was cited by Amsterdam's cultural magazine City Life, now Time Out, as the best production in the Netherlands in 1992. She has developed many performance pieces in collaboration, including Confessions . . . , a postmodern look at fairy tales, performed at the Grahamstown Theatre Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Los Alamos and After, about the atomic bomb, performed at Trinity Site, White Sands Missile Base, where the first atomic bomb was detonated. Her ensemble production of Aeschylus’ The Libation Bearers, for the University of Utah Greek Festival, received Best of Festival Award for Ensemble Work from the Western Regional American College Theatre Festival/Kennedy Center College of Fellows of the American Theatre at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. mailto:helenr@brooklyn.cuny.edushapeimage_2_link_0
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