Research Interests for Richard V. Riddell

Richard Riddell has had a career as a scholar, professional lighting designer, and academic administrator. A graduate of Knox College and Stanford University, he has published articles on education and the arts, design, and European theater in The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, American Theater, The Drama Review, and other publications. He has received the Tony, Drama Desk, and Maharam Awards for excellence in lighting design and has designed productions on Broadway and at resident theater and opera companies in the United States and Great Britain, including the American Repertory Theatre, the English National Opera, the New York City Opera, the La Jolla Playhouse, the Guthrie, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He designed the lighting for the premieres of three operas by Philip Glass: Satyagraha, Akhnaten (also collaborating on the libretto), and The Fall of the House of Usher. Prior to coming to Duke, he was chairman of the Department of Theater at the University of California, San Diego, and Director of the Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University. He led the Duke University Department of Theater Studies (formerly Program in Drama) from 1992 to 2003.

Representative Publications

1. Riddell, RV, Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People at the 35th Berlin Theatertreffen, Theaterforum (1999)
2. Riddell, RV, Artists and Audiences, Duke Magazine, Arts and Ideas (Fall, 1996)
3. Napoleon, D, Shedding Light on the Play, Theater Week (February, 1996) (Interview.)
4. Riddell, RV, The Training Explosion, American Theatre (October, 1990)
5. Riddell, RV, In Praise of Groups, American Theatre (April, 1990)
6. Riddell, RV, The Academy Flunks Out, American Theatre (June, 1989) (Reprint of previous article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 1989.)
7. Riddell, RV, On German Stages, a Society Explores Itself, The New York Times (March, 1989)
8. Riddell, RV, The University Once Thought It Could Develop Artists: Now We Know It Can’t, The Chronicle of Higher Education (1989) (Reprinted in American Theatre under title, "The Academy Flunks Out", June 1989.)
9. Riddell, RV, Tribute to Alan Schneider, Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers Bulletin (1985)
10. Riddell, RV, Achim Freyer, Karl-Ernst Herrman, Wilfried Minks, in Contemporary Designers (1984), St. James Press
11. Riddell, RV, The German Raum, The Drama Review (March, 1980)
12. Riddell, RV, The Schaubuehne. Spatial Experimentation in Berlin, Theatre Crafts (1979)
13. Riddell, RV, Wilfried Minks, Theatre Crafts (1978)