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Helen E. Richardson, Director, Playwright, Educator, Interdisciplinary Artist
Having directed over fifty productions and overseen many others in my career, I offer here only some few examples of my work, specifically those works which I feel represent some of my more unique explorations on the art of making theatre. I began as a visual artist and so my work is as much about the scenic elements as it is about the work of the actor on the stage and the interpretation of the script. Growing up in a musical household the use of music as a way of underscoring mood, emotions, and environment has also been important. Though I am drawn to experimental theatre I am essentially a populist, a synthesis of my bohemian and working-class upbringing, and am interested in engaging a diverse audience, and providing an entertaining experience, often expressed through a strong physicality on the part of the actors. Though I can appreciate the power of high drama and its potential to move, my talents tend to express themselves through comedic elements and so my playwrighting is essentially comedy with a strong use of irony often commenting on social issues. My strongest influences are Bertolt Brecht, and two theatre makers I had the privilege to study with: Ariane Mnouchkine of the Théâtre du Soleil and Sotigui Kouyaté of the Peter Brook Company. In the last decade as a professor in and sometimes director of the Performance and Interactive Media Arts Program at CUNY-Brooklyn College, I have also become quite interested in the incorporation of media into performance and am currently engaged in exploring how performance can work effectively through online formats.
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
1492 and After, Malinche, The Game, Tambu, Confessions..., Statements..., The Fever
Twelfth Night, Stalhouderij and Steppin' Productions
Other works...
Tartuffe and Los Alamos
B$LL, Ground Zero, Cherry Orchard, Libation Bearers
War Lost in Time, Big Love, As You Like It
The Disappearance, MIKA, UBUR, Iphigenia
MISCELLANEOUS WORKS
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