Biography

Ralf Remshardt is Professor Emeritus of Theatre. He was born and raised in Berlin, Germany. He first came to the U.S. as recipient of a Fulbright grant. Dr. Remshardt is an experienced scholar, director, translator, and dramaturg.

Education:

• Ph.D., University of California at Santa Barbara
• M.A., Freie Universität Berlin
• B.A. (equiv.), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich

His areas of expertise and research are:

• Contemporary European, especially German, theatre
• Epic theatre and political theatre; performance in the public sphere
• Genre theory, with an emphasis on the grotesque
• Early motion pictures and visual culture
• Liveness and mediation; posthumanism; performance capture

He has lectured and delivered papers nationally and internationally at conferences in Canada, Germany, UK, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Sweden, Serbia, Russia, China, Brazil, Chile, India, and Ghana. 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, Critical Stages, and other journals, as well as in several edited collections. He recently edited a special issue on performance and translation for Delos (35.1 Spring 2020). He is on the advisory board for the Bloomsbury Methuen series Critical Shorts in Performance and Post-Internet Cultures.

Books:

• Muse of Fire, Muse of Light: Theatre and Early Fim, in development.
• Routledge Companion to Contemporary European Theatre and Performance (co-editor), London and New York: Routledge, 2023.
• Intermedial Performance and Politics in the Public Sphere (co-editor), London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
• Staging the Savage God: The Grotesque in Performance. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2016 [2004].

Articles and chapters:

• "Lucky," Art's Visionary Moment: Personal Essays on Works That Last a Lifetime. Ed. Sid Homan. London: Anthem Press, 2024.
• "Rimini Protokoll" and "She She Pop," The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stage Directors and Directing. Ed. Maria Delgado and Simon Williams. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2024.
• "She She Pop: the collective as content," Routledge Companion to Contemporary European Theatre and Performance. Ed. Ralf Remshardt and Aneta Mancewicz. London and New York: Routledge, 2023. 622-629.
• “Introduction: From euphoria to disillusionment. A European dramaturgy” (with Aneta Mancewicz), Routledge Companion to Contemporary European Theatre and Performance, ed. Ralf Remshardt and Aneta Mancewicz. London: Routledge, 2023. 1-10.
• "Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children on Stage and Screen," essay commissioned for the U.S. DVD/streaming release of the 1961 DEFA film of Mutter Courage. 2022.
• “Avatars, Apes, and the ‘Testing Ground’ of Performance Capture,” Avatars, Activism and Postdigital Performance: Precarious Intermedial Identities. Ed. Liam Jarvis and Karen Savage. London: Bloomsbury, 2021. 17-38.
• "The Cruelty Tourist and the Emancipated Spectator: Looking for an Essential Theatre," Why the Theatre. Ed. Sidney Homan. New York: Routledge, 2020. 149-57.
• “Refugee Theatre in the (Inter)medial Matrix: Die Schutzbefohlenen and the Limits of Theatre as Public Sphere. Intermedial Performance and Politics in the Public Sphere. Ed. Katia Arfara, Aneta Mancewicz, and Ralf Remshardt. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. 73-90.
•  “In and Out: Intermedial Practices in the new Public Sphere (Introduction),” Intermedial Performance and Politics in the Public Sphere. Ed. Katia Arfara, Aneta Mancewicz, and Ralf Remshardt. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. 1-14.
• "Fugitive Performance: Nikolas Stemann’s Die Schutzbefohlenen and the Medial Matrix of Refugee Theatre,” Critical Stages 14, December 2016.
• “Seneca Our Contemporary,” The Reception of Senecan Tragedy in Scholarship, Literature, and Performance: A Brill Companion. Ed. Eric Dodson-Robinson. Leiden: Brill, 2016. 282-302.
• "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, 2015, 227-250.
• “La performance médiatisée, un défi aux études théâtrales,” Théâtre et intermédialité. Ed. Jean-Marc Larrue. Lille (France): Presses Universitaires Septentrion, 2015, 37-51.
• “Posthumanism,” Mapping Intermediality. Ed. Sarah Bay-Cheng, Andy Lavender, Robin Nelson. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2010. 135-39.
• “Beyond Performance Studies: Mediated Performance and the Posthuman,” Culture, Language & Representation 6 (2008): 47-65.
• “The Actor as Intermedialist: Remediation, Appropriation, Adaptation,” Intermediality in Theatre and Performance. Ed. Freda Chapple and Chiel Kattenbelt. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006. 43-55.
• “‘The Story and the Screen’: Alexander Black’s Picture Plays and the Pre-History of Cinema,” Princeton University Library Chronicle 65.3 (2004): 452-478.
• “Conquering the South Pole and Other Places in Germany; Manfred Karge’s Plays,” Essays in Twentieth Century German Drama and Theater: An American Reception 1979 -1999, ed. Hal Rennert. New York: Peter Lang, 2004. 312-21.
• “Dionysos in Deutschland: Nietzsche, Grüber, and The Bacchae,” Theatre Survey 40.1 (1999): 31-49.
• “‘History is about to crack wide open’: Kushner, Parks und die Geschichte im amerikanischen Theater der neunziger Jahre,” Transformationen: Theater der Neunziger Jahre, ed. Erika Fischer-Lichte et al. (Theater der Zeit Special Issue Recherchen 2, 1999): 163-174.
• “Als die Bilder laufen lernten: Dion Boucicault und das ‘vorfilmische’ Theater des 19. Jahrhunderts,” Grenzgänge: Theater und die anderen Künste, ed. Gabriele Brandstetter et al. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 1998: 77-89.
• “Reinhardt Becomes Director of the Deutsches Theater,” Great Events from History II: Arts and Culture, ed. Frank N. Magill. Pasadena: Salem Press, 1993: 145-150.
• “‘The Ghost Sonata’ Influences Modern Theater and Drama,” Great Events from History II: Arts and Culture, ed. Frank N. Magill. Pasadena: Salem Press, 1993: 199-203.
• “The Birth of Reason from the Spirit of Carnival: Hans Sachs and ‘Das Narren-Schneyden’,”  Drama in the Middle Ages: Comparative and Critical Essays: Second Series. Ed. Clifford Davidson and John H. Stroupe. New York: AMS Press, 1991. 331-355. [First published in Comparative Drama]
• “Masks and Permutations: The Construction of Character in O’Neill’s Earlier Plays,” Essays in Theatre 8.2 (1990): 127-136.
• “Witkiewicz’s ‘The Madman and the Nun’,” Masterplots II: Drama Series. Pasadena: Salem Press, 1990. 1017-1022.

Reviews published:

• Review of Bertolt Brecht in Context, ed. Stephen Brockmann, and "einfach zerschmeißen": Brecht material, by Florian Vaßen, Monatshefte 114.4 (2022): 713-19.
• Review of Performing Unification, by Matt Cornish, Monatshefte 110.4 (2018): 707-9.
• "Theater der Welt 2017 in Hamburg" (review essay), Theatre Journal 70.2 (2018): 229-32.
• Review of The Grotesque in Contemporary Anglophone Drama, by Ondřej Pilný, Journal of Contemporary Drama in English, 6.2. (2018): 424-28.
• “Foreign Affairs Festival, Berlin 2016” (review essay), Theatre Journal 69.1 (2017): 88-91.
• Review of Jägerstätter, by Felix Mitterer, Delos: A Journal of Translation and World Literature 31 (2016): 128-30.
• Review of Brecht in Practice, by David Barnett, Monatshefte 108 (March 2016): 143-45.
• "Foreign Affairs Festival, Berlin 2014" (review esssay) Theatre Journal 67.2 (2015): 311-14.
• Review of Great Lengths, by Jonathan Kalb, Theatre Journal 66.1 (2014): 176-77.
• "Theatertreffen Berlin, May 3-20, 2013” (review essay), Communications 42 (2013): 112-25.
•  Review of "Einführung in die Dramen-Analyse,” by Stefan Scherer, Monatshefte 104.1 (2012): 104-6.
•  “So Over It: Theatertreffen Berlin 2011” (review essay), Communications 40 (2011): 31-8.
• “Theatertreffen Berlin 2011” (review essay) Theatre Journal 63.4 (December 2011): 630-34.
•  “Homo Homini Lupus: Theatertreffen Berlin 2010” (review essay), Communications 39 (2010): 26-34.
• War Horse and Stovepipe (two reviews from London), Theatre Journal 62.2 (May 2010): 271-75.
• “Past Performance: American Theatre & The Historical Imagination,” by Roger Bechtel, Brecht Yearbook 33 (2009).
• “Theatertreffen Berlin 2008” (review essay), Communications 37 (2008): 59-65.
•  “Threepenny Opera and The Masque of the Red Death,” Theatre Journal 60.4 (2008): 639-642.
• “Peter Palitzsch: Theater muss die Welt verändern,” by Peter Iden, Brecht Yearbook 32 (2007): 426-428.
• “Touring the Insulted and the Injured: Theater der Welt 2002,” Western European Stages 14.3 (Fall 2002): 25-32.
• “Woyzeck and POEtry [Two Robert Wilson reviews],” Theatre Journal 54.3 (2002): 471-475.
• “After Dickens: Reading, Adaptation, and Performance,” by John Glavin, Victorian Studies 43.4 (2001): 671-3.
• “Onkel Wanja, Christoph Kolumbus, and Die schmutzigen Hände [Three reviews from Berlin],” Theatre Journal 51 (1999): 196-200.
• “Theater der Welt 99,” Western European Stages 11.3 (Fall 1999): 83-94.
• “Kurt Weill,” by J. Schebera and “Speak Low (When You Speak Love): The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya,” Theatre Journal 49 (1997): 551-553.
• “The Skriker. By Caryl Churchill. Royal National Theatre. March 1994.” Theatre Journal 47 (1995): 121-123.
• “Theater der Welt '93,” Theatre Journal 46 (1994): 262-267.
• “Symbolist Theater: The Formation of an Avant-Garde,” by Frantisek Deak, Essays in Theatre 12.4 (1994): 93-95.
• “Peer Gynt. By Henrik Ibsen. Brooklyn Academy of Music, 14 May 1993,” Theatre Journal 45 (1993): 541-542.
• “Re-Interpreting Brecht: His Influence on Contemporary Drama and Film,” ed. Pia Kleber and Colin Visser, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, 7.2 (1992): 203-206.
• “Kafka and the Yiddish Theater,” by Evelyn Torton Beck, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 6.1 (1991): 135-137.
• “Shakespeare's Soliloquies,” by Wolfgang Clemen, Theatre Studies 36 (1991): 82-83.
• “Strindberg's Dramaturgy,” ed. Göran Stockenström, Theatre Studies 36 (1991): 106-107.
• Many book reviews for Choice, 2005-2024.

Recent conference presentations:

• “Carl Mayer and Cinematic Narrative,” IFTR Conference, University of Ghana, Accra (Ghana), July 2023.
• "Plays in Light": Weimar Theatre and the Kammerspielfilm," Comparative Drama Conference, Orlando, FL, April 2019.
• "Intermedial Borderlines: Performance Capture and Its (Pre)History," FIRT/IFTR Conference University of Arts, Belgrade (Serbia), July 2018.
• "Unstable Geographies and Uncertain Epistemologies: William Kentridge's Intermedial Bastardy," FIRT/IFTR Conference Universidade de Sao Paulo (Brazil), July 2017.
• “Fugitive Performance: Nikolas Stemann’s Die Schutzbefohlenen and the Medial Matrix of Refugee Theatre,” FIRT/IFTR Conference University of Stockholm (Sweden), June 2016.
• “Viewing Brenda Laurel Through Snowden’s PRISM: Drama, Augmented Reality, and the Challenge to Democracy,” FIRT/IFTR Conference, University of Hyderabad (India), July 2015.
• “Drama as Virtual Reality: Reading Brenda Laurel Backwards,” International Society for Intermedial Studies (ISIS) 2nd Biennial Conference, Universiteit Utrecht (Holland), April 2015.
• "Directing Clybourne Park,” Santa Fe College, Gainesville, FL, September 2014.
• “’Daring to Play’ - The Place of Play in Brecht's Theory and Practice,” Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Annual Conference, Orlando, August 2013.
• “The Fevered Dreams of Acid Monks,” FIRT/IFTR Conference, Disputació Barcelona (Spain), July 2013.
• ““Not Life”: Mediation and Mediatization in Koltès’ Plays,” FIRT/IFTR Conference, Pontifica Universidad Catolica, Santiago (Chile), July 2012.

His book, Staging the Savage God: The Grotesque in Performance, was published in 2004 and was reissued as a paperback in 2016 by SIU Press. With Katia Arfara (NYU Abu Dhabi) and Aneta Mancewicz (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK), he has co-edited Intermedial Performance and Politics in the Public Sphere, (Palgrave Macmillan 2018), and with Aneta Mancewicz, he co-edited The Routledge Companion to Contemporary European Theatre and Performance(Routledge 2023).

A documentary film, Theatre of Rice and Beans: A Retrospective Look at New York Latino Theatre, which he co-produced with Prof. Tony Mata, premiered at UF in January 2014 and was shown at TriBeCa Cinemas in New York in May 2014, at the FIRT/IFTR World Congress in Warwick (UK) in July 2014, at the Jacksonville Red Moon Theatre Festival in Jacksonville, FL, in February 2015, and at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. in October 2015. It has been shown at the United Latino Film Festival (Cleveland) and the Seattle Film Festival.

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 Fulbright Grant, a Humanities Dissertation Year Fellowship, a UC Regents Fellowship, a Princeton University Friends of the Library Grant, a University of Florida Research Foundation Professorship, a Faculty Enhancement Opportunity (FEO) Grant, a Center for World Arts fellowship, a Provost's University Term Professorship, and multiple Scholarship Enhancement Grants. He was named the College of Fine Arts International Educator of the Year and the College's Teacher/Scholar of the Year. He is past Focus Group Chair of the International Brecht Society at ATHE and 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 maintained an active directing practice. Productions he has directed at UF include Spring Awakening, The Good Person of Sichuan, Fat Men in Skirts, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, The Visit, Big Love, The Bacchae, Waiting for Godot, The Real Thing, Electronic City, Roberto Zucco, Measure for Measure, Never the Sinner, The Golden Dragon, and Pity for the Wild. In the summer of 2009, he was invited to stage Einstein's Dreams in Beijing, China. At the Weathervane Playhouse (Ohio) he directed The Woman in Black and at the Hippodrome Theatre, he staged Clybourne Park, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and Fahrenheit 451. He has repeatedly received the Kennedy Center/ACTF Meritorious Achievement Award for directing.

Dr. Remshardt directed the graduate program in acting performance for several years and taught theatre history, dramaturgy, playwriting, acting, and seminars on special topics such as comic drama or contemporary European theatre. He was also an Affiliate Faculty member in the Center for European Studies at UF and led multiple study trips to Berlin and London. He served as interim Director of the School in 2012 and 2018-19. He now lives in Gainesville and Wiesbaden, Germany.