“No one ever accused Nicole Ricciardi of being a timid theatre director.”
- The Berkshire Edge
Christopher Lloyd as KING LEAR, directed by Nicole Ricciardi, Shakespeare and Company, July 2021
photo by joe mazza - brave lux
Nicole Ricciardi is a theatre director, actor, producer, and instructor. She has directed, developed, and assisted with productions at Primary Stages, Youngblood/Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Flea Theater, the Drama Book Shop, Chelsea Repertory Lab, Two River Theater Company, Shadow Lawn Stage, Circle East Theatre Company, Bushwick Arts, Irish Repertory Theater, Central Square Theatre (Boston), New Century Theatre, and Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, MA. In the summer of 2021, she directed KING LEAR, starring Christopher Lloyd, in Shakespeare and Company’s outdoor New Spruce Theatre.
Additionally, Nicole has worked with a company of NYC artists to create: The Juliet and Romeo Project, a cross-gender adaptation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece; Roasting Alice, a modern, new musical based on Lewis Carroll’s classic story; We Eat Chekhov, a new play with music adapted from the vaudevilles of Anton Chekhov; Article 140, a stage adaptation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Les Jeux Sont Faits"; and The Comedie of Errors (As Presented by the Miners of Hell's Half Acre), an all-male production of Shakespeare's play performed by California gold miners in 1852 (and two actual sets of identical twins).
Nicole has taught acting and directing for Drew, Monmouth, and Syracuse University, as well as the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. For two years, she coordinated Syracuse Drama's program at Shakespeare's Globe, London. She has led classes and workshops for Keene College, Shakespeare and Company, Eastern Connecticut State University, Hartford Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, The New York Film Academy, Two River Theatre Company, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and the Acting Studio, New York. She is currently on the faculty of The Theatre School at DePaul University, Chicago.
Nicole received BA degrees in Theatre Arts and Psychology from Drew University and an MFA in Acting from Carnegie Mellon University.