Ralf Remshardt, professor of theatre, is a graduate of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (Munich, Germany), the Freie Universität Berlin, where he received an MA in German Literature and Theatre Studies, and the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he was awarded a PhD in Dramatic Art. He is a native of Berlin and first came to the U.S. on a Fulbright Scholarship. He has previously taught theatre at Denison University in Ohio.
Dr. Remshardt is an experienced director, translator, and dramaturg whose scholarly interests range over a wide variety of topics in theatre and drama. He has lectured and delivered papers nationally and internationally at conferences in Canada, Germany, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, China, Russia, Chile, and Greece. His publications in both English and German have appeared in Comparative Drama, Theatre Survey, Theatre Journal, Essays in Theatre, Theater der Zeit, Western European Stages, Victorian Studies, Monatshefte, Communications, Choice, and other journals, as well as in several edited collections. Recent or forthcoming publications:
"The Postdramatic Paradox: Theatre as Interventionist Medium in Falk Richter's Das System," Envisioning Social Justice in Twenty-First Century German Culture, ed. Axel Hildebrand and Jill Twark. Columbia: Camden House, forthcoming 2014.
“Posthumanism and Digital Performance” [in French translation], Theatre et l'intermedialite, ed. Jean-Marc Larrue. Rennes (France): Presses Universitaires de Rennes, forthcoming 2014.
Review of Great Lengths, by Joathan Kalb, Theatre Journal 66.1 (2014): 176-7.
"Theatertreffen at 50," Communications 42 (2013): 112-125.
His book, Staging the Savage God: The Grotesque in Performance, was published in 2004. Dr. Remshardt is now working on a new book manuscript about theatre and early film. This project has been supported by a UF Arts and Humanities Scholarship Grant and a research grant from the Friends of the Princeton University Library.
A documentary film, Theatre of Rice and Beans: A Retrospective Look at New York Latino Theatre, co-produced with Prof. Tony Mata, premiered at UF in January 2014 and was shown at TriBeCa Cinemas in New York in May and at the FIRT/IFTR World Congress in Warwick (UK) in July 2014.
He has served as a translator and adaptor on plays such as Manfred Karge's Conquest of the South Pole (produced at the Famous Door Theatre in Chicago and the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles) and Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening (produced at UF and at Tampa's Jobsite Theatre) as well as the widely praised Einstein's Dreams (winner of the ACTF Region VII Final in 1997; performed at the 2001 New York Fringe Festival and at Tampa's Jobsite Theatre in 2010).
Dr. Remshardt has been awarded a 2006-2008 University of Florida Research Foundation Professorship and a 2009 Faculty Enhancement Opportunity (FEO) grant. He was named the College of Fine Arts International Educator of the Year for 2010. He is co-convener of the Intermediality Working Group at IFTR. In 2014, he was co-organizer of the symposium "Media, Politics, and Performance in the Public Sphere" at the Onassis Cultural Center in Athens, Greece.
As member of the School's performance faculty, he maintains an active directing profile. Plays he has directed at UF include The Good Person of Sichuan, Fat Men in Skirts, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, The Visit, Big Love, The Bacchae, Waiting for Godot (KC/ACTF Meritorious Achievement Award for directing), The Real Thing, and Electronic City. In the summer of 2009, he was invited to stage Einstein's Dreams in Beijing, China. In 2012, he directed Roberto Zucco, by French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltes and Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. In 2013, he staged John Logan's Never the Sinner, and in 2014 he will be staging Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris at the Hippodrome Theatre.
Dr. Remshardt teaches theatre history, dramaturgy, playwriting, acting (occasionally), and seminars on special topics such as comic drama or contemporary European theatre. He is also an Affiliate Faculty member in the Center for European Studies at UF. During Spring and Summer 2012 he was the Interim Director of the School of Theatre and Dance.