Indigenous Theatre: Integration of Arts, Culture and Ritual – Thomas Riccio

The exploration of the shamanic origins and power of live theatre continues with a slideshow of rituals around the world. Thomas shares his work with indigenous cultures in Alaska, Africa, Russia, China, exploring their ritual traditions through theatre and performance.

The language of theatre crosses all barriers, and reaches deep into our collective past, while speaking to us today. From generation to generation, indigenous performance of stories, songs, dances, acting, props, costumes and mask traditions were passed on, evolving over time. Thomas finds his way to the roots of myth revealing the origins of a culture’s expression, adapted for today.

Thomas Riccio, is a performance and media artist, writer, and creator. He is from Cleveland, Ohio, where he grew up in a working-class Italian-American neighborhood. He received his BA in English Literature from Cleveland State University, his MFA from Boston University, and studied in the Ph.D. program in Performance Studies at New York University.

He is a Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Texas at Dallas. Prior to Dallas, he was a Professor of Theatre at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and director of Tuma Theater, an Alaska Native performance group where he devised and directed several performances.