Thomas Riccio

Thomas Riccio is an educator, writer, performer and director. Currently a Professor of Performance and Aesthetic Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas, previous positions include: Professor of Theatre at the University of Alaska Fairbanks; Artistic Director of Chicago's Organic Theater Company; Resident Director and Dramaturg for the Cleveland Play House; Visiting Professor at the University of Der es Salaam and the Korean National University for the Arts; and Artistic Director of Tuma Theatre, an Alaskan Native performance group.

He has directed over one hundred plays at American regional theatres, off-off and off Broadway, and at the National Theatre of Italy. He has worked extensively in the area of indigenous performance, ritual, and shamanism, conducting research and developing performances in Africa, Russia, Siberia, Korea, China, Vietnam, and Alaska. He has presented workshops and lectures internationally and his academic writings have appeared in TDR, TheatreForum, Theatre Topics, Theatre Research International,

Performing Arts Journal, and Shamans Drum. Recent activity includes the publication of Performing Africa: Remixing Tradition, Theater and Culture, Peter Lang (2007);

an International Distinction Prize in Playwrighting, from the Alexander Onassis Foundation, and work as Lead Narrative Engineer for Hanson Robotics, Inc. co-authoring several robot personalities including the Einstein, featured at the Cooper-

Hewitt Museum, NYC (2006-07), and Zeno, featured at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry (2008-09). He is the writer-director of So There and Orange Oranges (2008), and Some People (2009), performance works produced by Project X, Dallas.  March 2009. He is a Producing Artist for Project X and director of Story Lab, a post-disciplinary initiative based in Dallas.  

Statement 

I am delighted by the opportunity of working with Lul Teatr, and Anatoly and Esther, in Addis Ababa this fall. Modern Ethiopia is the keeper of one of the world’s great and oldest cultural traditions. So little is known of Ethiopia’s riches and what it has to offer the world. I come to listen and learn, with an open heart, to discover a glimpse of Ethiopia’s history, wealth and people. And I come to share what I know.  Ethiopia is now in two cultures, their own and the global culture that is rapidly transforming its social and cultural ways into something very new.  

The research, workshops and performance work I anticipate for my time in Addis Ababa will engage the modern as it identifies and appreciates the cultural traditions of Ethiopia. The goal is to reveal and articulate the performance language unique and indigenous, and from that starting point express the moment we are all sharing. The Work will be about expressing who and where we are, and what we think about it, in a way that is uniquely shaped by the cultural worldview of Ethiopians. The Work will be a process of rediscovery, transformation, and dialogue.

  Rafaela Stacheter

Rafaela Stacheter, born in Munich, Bavaria, has been in love with film, theatre, and music, since she watched her first Ernst Lubitsch and Erich von Stroheim classic movies on a crummy TV set and listened to her dad play Jazz music at local clubs.  She has worked as a stage manager, director, and sometimes playwright in US based professional and academic theatre settings. Her theatre production credits, as stage manager and camera performer, with the director Anatoly Antohin include Twelfth Night, Three Sisters, Hamlet Dreams, and The Island. Most recently, she was dramaturge for Caligary: Alaska, a new original show by A. Antohin.  Apart from her theatrical work she has worked as a deejay (house & lounge music), and as assistant director and set decorator in a few independent US film productions. As the incoming production manager for the newly founded LUL Theatre Company she is very excited about the prospect of working creatively with the diverse Artistic Community of Addis Ababa.

Tara Maginnis

Tara Maginnis, Ph.D. is best known for her creation of The Costumer's Manifesto, (costumes.org ) one of the World Wide Web's largest, and most eclectic, costume sites. She was a professor and costume designer in the Theatre Department of the University of Alaska Fairbanks from 1990-2007 and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she is an instructor and costume design specialist at Diablo Valley College.

Tara has written numerous articles for Theatre Design and Technology, the Journal of The United States Institute of Theatre Technology and was the computer columnist for The Costume Research Journal, the former quarterly publication of the USITT Costume Commission. Tara has published articles in Costume, Theatre Crafts, and the Ladies' Gallery as well as other magazines. She is also a member of The Costume Society of America, The Costume Society (UK), the Greater Bay Area Costumer's Guild and Costumer's Guild West.