Professor
Head of Acting and Directing
Office: Waller 206F
Email: rkemp@iup.edu
Phone: 724-357-4474
Rick Kemp (aka Rick Zoltowski)
Rick's professional experience as an actor and director in the UK, Europe, the USA, and Canada stretches over 30 years. He has worked at theaters such as London's Riverside Studios, Tricycle Theatre, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Almeida Theatre, Warsaw's Polski Teatr, Toronto's Harborfront Theatre, and the Bouffes du Nord in Paris.
He was the founder and co-artistic director of Commotion, creating original devised shows that were selected as Critics Choices by Time Out London and the Guardian, and received the British Telecom Innovations Award.
His work ranges from the classical, such as directing Hamlet at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, or playing Falstaff, to the experimental, such as the multidisciplinary performance pieces he has directed for Squonk Opera, or the works he's created and performed with Quantum Theatre and 404 Strand. One of his specialties is devised theatre; in 2004, he received the Heinz Endowments Creative Heights Award for his clown show e-lectricity, and in 2009 the IUP Academic Excellence and Innovation Award for 404 Strand's faustUS.
His research interests focus on applying discoveries from cognitive neuroscience to theater and performance. His book Embodied Acting: WhatNeuroscience Tells Us About Performance was published by Routledge in 2012.