Rinde Eckert is a writer, composer, performer, director and teacher. Internationally celebrated for his remarkably flexible and inventive singing voice combined with a virtuosic command of gesture, language, and song and an electric physical presence, he conceives, creates, composes, writes and performs in Opera / New Music Theatre productions which have toured throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. The total theatre artist moves beyond the boundaries of what a 'play,' a 'dance piece,' an 'opera' or 'musical' might be, in the service of grappling with complex issues.
RESIDENCY OFFERINGS
ADVANCED HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
PROFESSIONAL ARTISTS
INTERVIEWS
MASTER CLASSES in voice and vocal improvisation
LECTURE-DEMONSTRATIONS / PANEL DISCUSSIONS
focus on the creation of new work, theatrical collaboration and movement.
STORY TELLING WORKSHOPS: What changes or happens the second time a story is told?
Possible Short Residency Structures
1. A Three-hour Workshop suitable for any class size, and open to students of all disciplines, using a vocabulary involving music, movement and theater. Students tell their own, true stories, and then analyze perceptive change as the story is repeated. Rinde questions and suggests. The students react to feelings and what happens to the mind as the reality of personal experience changes. An open room with chairs is needed.
An open room with chairs is needed.
2. Weeklong Workshop in the manipulation of stories – 5, 3-hour working sessions followed by a short student performance.
3. Two-Week Workshops in the manipulation of stories
Daily participation followed by a 60-70 minute student performance.
A class size of 15-20 is ideal, requiring an open room with chairs. Two sessions a day may be scheduled. Student participants must be open and enthusiastic about learning a new practice and not bound by a tradition. If a student pays attention, the type of discipline he/she comes from should not matter.
This workshop deals with questions and the process of change - it is theoretical, not analytical. If a final performance is planned, use of the stage for class workshop rehearsal is desired. Lighting and sound technicians are needed for the performance.
SOLO CONCERT – Becoming….Unusual. The Education of an Eclectic
A casual evening of instrumental and vocal music, stories, parables and monologues, A casual musical event including instrumental & vocal music, stories and parables. Piano required.
** NOTE: Activities should NOT be scheduled on tech-in or opening performance days.
EXTENDED RESIDENCIES – a sampling.
University of Southern Maine in Gorham, ME with Paul Dresher. (2016-2017)
MOLDED BY THE FLOW, a collaborative work by students and faculty
Barnard College in New York City, NY (spring 2013)
Four-week residency to direct Barnard theater students in the remount of EYE PIECE.
Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT (2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons)
A three-month residency to conceive, create, write and direct The Last Days of the Old Wild Boy for theater students, with three performances in November 2012.
William and Mary College in Williamsburg, VA (2010-11 season)
Three, one-week residencies in 2011 centered on the subject of creativity. Activities included lecture-demonstrations, a student performance, and Rinde’s performance of AN IDIOT DIVINE.
University of Iowa- Creative Campus Fund(2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons)
Rinde was in residence for 12-weeks extending over a 2-year period, working with Hancher Auditorium in collaboration with the Center for Macular Degeneration (CMD) in the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, the Writing Program of the Carver College of Medicine, and the Department of Theatre Arts. He created and wrote EYE PIECE, a play exploring the experience of visual impairment and loss. Performed by Rinde and theater students, EYE PIECE ran for 10 performances in February 2010.
Princeton University (2009 - present)
Invited back twice to teach courses in Creativity, in January 2009 Rinde Eckert began teaching one semester a year, working with graduate students from the English Department and the School of Music.
University of California at Davis: Granada Artist-in-Residence, Visiting Professor – Winter 2008
Rinde conceived, wrote and directed the play FATE & SPINOZA for graduate students in the Department of Theatre and Dance, culminating in a 10 performance run.
For more information: http://theatredance.ucdavis.edu/season/pressroom_detail.aspx?p=55
University of Nebraska, Lincoln (2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons)
Rinde was in residence at UNL for a period of 12 weeks extending over a 2-year period, working with professors and classes from several university departments and churches to create, research and workshop the play HORIZON which debuted in May 2006. UNL was the lead commissioner in a consortium of 4 university presenters. The play with its original cast ran off-Broadway in 2008.
* Rinde Eckert was the 2007 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, received the 2009 Alpert Award in the Arts for his contributions to Theatre, and in 2012 became one of the inaugural Doris Duke Artists by the The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation