Network

Thomas Richards

Founder of Theatre No Theatre Association
Artistic Director of Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards (1999 – 2022)

Thomas Richards is an internationally recognised artist and pedagogue, with more than 40 years of experience. He holds a BA from Yale University, an MA from the University of Bologna, and a PhD from the University of Paris VIII. After graduating Yale University, Richards began his apprenticeship with legendary theatre director Jerzy Grotowski in 1985, and their work together developed until Grotowski's passing in 1999. Richards arrived in Italy in 1986 with Grotowski, from the University of California, Irvine, where he had participated in Grotowski's “Focused Research Programme in Objective Drama”. When Grotowski founded the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski in Pontedera, Italy, in 1986, at first, Richards worked as Grotowski's assistant, but soon he became the leader of one of the work teams, and then Grotowski's “essential collaborator”. Eventually, Richards became Director of the Research Programme on Performing Arts developed at the Workcenter. Richards was a fundamental driving force in the research developed at the Workcenter that has come to be known as “Art as vehicle”, and in 1996, Grotowski decided to change the name of the Workcenter to include that of Richards, because, as he specified, the direction of the practical work already concentrated itself in the hands of Richards.
Richards is the author of “At Work with Grotowski on Physical Actions”, published in Italian, French, English, German, Greek, Spanish, and Polish; “The Edge-Point of Performance”, published in English, Italian, German, Polish, and Greek; and “Heart of Practice: Within the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards”, published in English and French. In January 2022, Richards closed the Workcenter, of which he was Artistic Director for 23 years. In February 2022, together with Jessica Losilla-Hébrail and Hyun Ju Baek, long-term colleagues of Richards at the Workcenter, he founded the Cultural Association Theatre No Theatre.

Harold David

Co-Chairman
Festival Off Avignon

Harold David is one of France’s most active cultural programmers in the field of performing arts. After a series of Advanced Studies in Performing Arts, David worked for 10 years for the Maison des écrivains et de la littérature as a Programme Manager for school and university writers (1997 – 2007). He then took over the direction of the Théâtre de Die (Drôme) in 2008, and the “scène conventionnée” Art en Territoire in 2014. From 2018 until 2022, he led the Association Prix du Jeune Ecrivain (Haute-Garonne). At the same time, he built a successful career as an independent show entrepreneur (production, distribution and coordination of theatre programmes in Avignon, where he was co-director of the Rouge Gorge, the Archipelago and the Atypik Theatre – permanent theatres with an all-year-round programme). He also conducted Eclats, Festival de la Voix au Pays de Dieulefit, from 2002 to 2017, and Une Saison de Lecture in Paris, from 2003 to 2017.
Since 2022, he has been co-chair of AF&C, the cultural organisation that coordinates the Festival Off Avignon, one of the world’s most dynamic and important performing arts events.

Anna Rochowska

Director
TR Warsaw

Anna Rochowska is the Director of TR Warsaw and a renowned theatre educator. She is a graduate of the Theatre Studies Department at the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw, and of the Postgraduate Studies Programme for Managers of Culture at the Faculty of Management of the University of Warsaw. Currently a PhD candidate at IS PAN, she lectures at Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art. She is a member of the Programme Council of the Culture Without Barriers Foundation. She is a laureate of the Halina Machulska Award 2021 and a member of the Theatre Pedagogues Association.
Rochowska has been associated with TR Warsaw since 1996, where she has established herself as a theatre educator, accessibility leader, and coordinator of the Education Team. Over the years of her work at this major cultural institution, she has led and initiated several projects in the field of theatre pedagogy for different audience groups: children, students, and seniors, as well as people with sensory disabilities. She was honoured with a special award at the 1st WPEK (Warsaw Cultural Education Programme) Exchange for implementing the “Education in TR” programme in 2009.
She created the TR WITHOUT BARRIERS programme, for which the theatre company was awarded the 2022 GRAND PRIX for being an accessible institution of culture in Warsaw. In the 2022/2023 season, she headed the Department of Theatre Pedagogy at the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute in Warsaw.

John Freeman

Professor and Academic Consultant
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Higher Education Academy

John Freeman has held professorships in theatre studies at various universities in the world. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Higher Education Academy, Adjunct Professor in Theatre at the University of Notre Dame, Western Australia, Senior Lecturer in Drama at the University of Huddersfield and Director of a UK community arts organisation. Freeman has taught, examined, led residencies and directed productions in many countries. He has published extensively in US, Australian and European scholarly journals, and was the founding editor of Performance Practice. He has written and edited seven books, including “Approaches to Actor Training” (2019). Freeman’s areas of research include immersive theatre, new writing, solo performance, autoethnography, identity and memory. He is currently developing a long-term project exploring notions of national and indigenous theatre in Australia, linked to the University of Bologna’s book series “Antropologia, Teatro e Tradizioni Popolari”.

Robert Shaughnessy

Professor of Theatre and Director of Research
Guildford School of Acting

Robert Shaughnessy is Professor of Theatre and Director of Research at Guildford School of Acting, University of Surrey, and has previously held chairs at the University of Kent and Roehampton University. He has published extensively on theatre and performance from the early modern period to the present, including seven monographs, seven edited volumes and numerous essays and book chapters, stretching from “Representing Shakespeare: England. History and the RSC” in 1994 to “About Shakespeare: Bodies, Spaces and Texts” in 2020. His current research sits at the intersection between Shakespeare studies, dramaturgy and applied and socially engaged performance, as represented by the collection “Shakespeare and Social Engagement” (2023), co-edited with Rowan Mackenzie, and a series of essays on performance, inclusion and neurodiversity. He collaborates with Flute Theatre, a company making Shakespeare with and for neurodiverse performers and audiences and is working with Synergy Theatre Project on their playwriting programme for prisoners and ex-offenders. His “Arden Performance Edition of The Winter’s Tale” will be published in 2025, and he is completing the volume on “The Comedy of Errors” for the Manchester University Press Shakespeare in Performance series, in which he revisits a play whose comic currency consists of sex work, slavery and the death penalty.

Zhu Ning

Professor, Department of Dramatic Literature
Central Academy of Drama, Beijing

Zhu Ning has a Ph.D. in Theatre Studies from the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, where she has been a professor in the Department of Dramatic Literature. She is also an active critic and columnist, writing regularly for major publications such as “New Theatre” and “Theatre Jury”. She has been active in cultural diplomacy, as a constant liaison between Chinese theatre and various global organisations. A playwright with extensive experience, Zhu Ning has been involved – as dramaturg, lyricist or script writer – in the productions of “The Peach Blossom Fan”, “Romance of Western Chamber”, “Dandelion”, “I Love Fables”, and numerous others. She has published many scholarly articles, amongst which: “The Adaptation of Shakespeare on Chinese Xiqu Stage”, “The Resurgence of the Classical”, “From Peepers in the Dark to Conspirators in the Performing Space”, “The Road We Passed – A Retrospect on the 100-year Chinese Translation History on Theatre”, “From Theatre Art to Performance Art”, “Classical or Contemporary? – An Analysis of Today’s Shakespeare on the Western Stage”. She has inspired a new generation of Chinese theatre students and practitioners to explore the world of performing arts, beyond any cultural or political borders.

George Shalutashvili

Rector
Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University

George Shalutashvili (Doctor of Arts) is full Professor and Rector of the famed Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgian State University. He graduated from the Rustaveli State Theatre Institute in 1987. He served as Artistic Director of Meskheti State Drama Theatre from 1989 to 1992, and has been teaching at his Alma Mater since 1992, mentoring five generations of actors already.
Apart from his activities related to theatre teaching and mentoring, Shalutashvili has made significant contributions to documentary filmmaking, directing over 20 documentaries since 2000. He co-founded the National Dramaturgy Festival in 2006 and was Chief Director of Akhmeteli State Drama Theatre from 2008 to 2009. With more than fifty stage productions and twenty films to his name, he has earned international recognition at various prestigious cultural events. His stage and screen works have received important distinctions in such contexts: the Grand Prix at the Eurasian TV Forum (2001), multiple awards at the Venice International Film Festival (2005), and the Grand Prix at the G.Eristavi Comedy Festival (2014).

Sarah Brown

Professor
Playwright, Director, and Performer

Sarah Brown, an MFA graduate of the Yale School of Drama, is an international director/ devisor, published playwright, actor, solo performer, songwriter, three-time Fulbright scholar and professor of performance at the University of Memphis. Brown has been a member of Actors' Equity and Screen Actors Guild, appearing in New York and regional theatre, as well as in film and television, since she was seven years old. She is the author and director of numerous plays and ground-breaking site-specific shows that have performed internationally; two of her plays published by Samuel French (now called Concord Theatricals) have enjoyed productions throughout the United States and Canada. Her work has also been performed or workshopped in New York at the NY Theater Workshop, The Public Theater, the American Place Theater, the American Jewish Theater, and the Miranda Theatre Company, among others. In London, her satire about artistic censorship during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the 1st, was produced at Theatre 503 by the Practicum Theatre Company.
As a creator of solo shows, she has performed her work globally in cities such as Tel Aviv and Haifa, Israel; Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland and São Paulo, Brazil. She has also performed her solo work at regional venues such as the Alley Theater in Houston, Texas, the Matrix Theater in Los Angeles and the New Ohio Theater in New York City. She received a Fulbright Scholarship to Israel to teach Solo Performance and Commedia dell'Arte at the University of Haifa, during which she expanded her creative borders from traditional theatre-making to creating and directing groundbreaking site-specific shows for international theatre festivals. Her site-specific work has been seen in such cities as Jerusalem and Bat Yam, Israel; Sibiu, Romania and Izmir, Turkey. Brown conducts intensive and extended solo and mask performance workshops at universities, theatre companies, and arts festivals worldwide.