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 “A
fiendish terror is loose in the city, courtesy of Russell
Blackwood...”
-- The S.F. Bay Guardian
Russell
Blackwood usually directs Thrillpeddlers’ plays,
but giddily hits the boards when the right role comes along.
He also enjoys fostering the company’s collaborations with
such notables as playwrights Clive Barker and Eric Bentley,
Grand Guignol historians Mel Gordon and Agnes Pierron as
well as pop culture icons like topless pioneer Carol Doda,
Warhol Superstar Holly Woodlawn, and queer Marlboro Man
Christian Herron. As a freelance director of theatre and
opera, his productions have played South Africa, Taiwan,
London and throughout the U.S. from New York City to Alaska.
West Coast credits include the premičres of Scott O’Hara’s
Ex-Lovers and Kate Bornstein’s Strangers in Paradox for
Theatre Rhinoceros, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and The
Taming of the Shrew for the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival,
Medea for Shotgun Players, and Starship Shakespeare for
Shakespeare Festival/L.A.
In addition to directing, during his decade-long affiliation
with San Francisco Shakespeare Festival he also produced
Free Shakespeare in the Park, the Gershwins’ Oh, Kay! (winner
of 6 Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards) and the Lake
Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. As a visiting guest artist for
academic theatre and opera programs, he directed productions
at University of San Francisco, American Conservatory Theatre,
U.C. Berkeley, Avila College, and Technikon Pretoria in
South Africa. From 1996 2000 he was a resident stage director
for both San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Bay
Area Summer Opera Theatre Institute. Russell is a graduate
of Boston University School for the Arts BFA Acting program.
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