Thomas P. Riccio

Thomas P. Riccio (born 1955) is an American multimedia artist and academic.

He received his BA from Cleveland State University in English Literature in 1978, his MFA from Boston University in 1982, and studied in the PhD program in Performance Studies at New York University from 1983 to 1984.

Riccio has directed over one hundred plays at American regional theatres, off-off and off Broadway and has worked extensively in the area of indigenous and ritual performance conducting research and/or creating performances in: South Africa, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Europe, Russia, Siberia, Korea, India, Nepal, China, and Alaska.

In 1980 Riccio was appointed Assistant Literary Director at the American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge, MA and Research Assistant to Robert Brustein.

In 1984 he was appointed Dramaturg and Resident Director of the Cleveland Play House.

1985 he served as Artistic Director of the Organic Theatre, Chicago.

In 1988 Riccio was appointed as Professor of Theatre at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Artistic Director of Tuma Theater, an Inuit theatre group.

In 1993 the People's Republic of Sakha (central Siberia) declared him a “Cultural Hero”.

He continued in both of these positions until 2003.

From 2003 until present he has been the Professor of Performance Studies and Aesthetic Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Since 2006 Riccio has worked with David Hanson at Hanson Robotics as a lead narrative engineer.

He has also served as a Visiting Professor at the Korean National University for the Arts, California Institute of Integral Studies and the University of Dar es Salaam.

He is a producing artist with Project X a Dallas-based performance collective.

He was created two media installations with Frank DuFour, The Invention of Memory (2010) and Not So Indifferent (2012) both at Central Trak Gallery, Dallas.

In 2011 with Lori McCarty he formed Dead White Zombies, a Dallas-based experimental, post-disciplinary performance and media group that utilizes ritual and indigenous expressions.

Riccio serves as Poo Pa Doo (artistic director) of the group and has written, directed, and created installations for four works since its founding.

Blah Blah (2011); Flesh World (2012), (w)hole (2012), and T.N.B. (2013), Bull Game (2013),, Karaoke Motel (2014) , DP92 (2015) , and Holy Bone (2017) Was an artist in residence at the Watermill Arts Center (2016) and is collaborating on 12 Shouts, a performance project with Sibyl Kempson for the Whitney Museum.

Visiting Professor in Ethnography and Anthropology, Jisou University, Hunan, China.

Principal actor, Wedding Dresses.