Richard D. Risso

RICHARD D. RISSO, Riverside, California, returns for his twelfth Festival season and his eighth year as a Festival Director. During five seasons with the acting company, he has appeared in such roles as Julius Caesar, King Henry V, Aufidius in Coriol-anus, Richard III. Festival audiences also remember him for his roles as Richard of Gloucester in Henry VI, Part Three, and as last season's Hamlet, which he also performed in 1961. Dr. Risso has directed Festival productions of King John, Richard II, Henry IV, Part One;\Macbeth, Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, and Henry VIII. He received his M.F.A. degree from Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he held the RCA Fellowships ' his Ph. D. from Stanford. As a Fulbright sci^lar in 1959, he studied for a year at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique in Paris. Dr. Risso was actor-director for two years with the Erie Playhouse and has appeared in stock at the William Penn Playhouse in Pennsylvania, and the Lake Whalom and Red Barn Playhouses in Massachusetts. This past season he directed Ann Jelli-coe's The Knack at the University of California at Riverside, where he is Assistant Professor of Drama.

contributor information not available — Added 2008-11-14

RICHARD D. RISSO, Director of King John, returns to the Festival in his first staff position. A three-season veteran of the acting company here, he has created such roles as Henry V, Ferdinand in The Tempest, Tullus Aufidius in Coriolanus, Master Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Fortinbras in Hamlet. He has just completed his graduate work for an M.F.A. at Carnegie Institute of Technology where he held the RCA Fellowship. Mr. Risso spent two years as actor-director with the Erie Playhouse in Pennsylvania and has also performed in stock with the William Penn Playhouse, Pa., the Lake Whalom Playhouse, Mass., and the Red Barn Playhouse, Mass. On KPIX television in San Francisco he played the title role in The Life of Percy Shelley, This September he leaves for Paris to study at the National Academy of Dramatic Arts on a Fulbright scholarship.

contributor information not available — Added 2008-11-14

Credited as cast

1. Romeo and Juliet (1969, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, USA) .... Mercutio
2. Richard III (1967, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, USA) .... Richard
3. King Henry VI, Part 2 (1965, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, USA) .... Cardinal Beauford
4. Antony and Cleopatra (1959, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, USA) .... Scarus
5. Twelfth Night (1959, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, USA) .... Sir Andrew Aguecheek

Credited as production or crew

1. The Tempest (1969, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, USA) .... Director

: Film production
: Performance