Ryder Thornton

Ryder Thornton is a director, playwright, and scholar whose work includes translations, adaptations, and original plays. His translation of Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid was recently produced by the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival and nominated for a Critic's Choice Gay Appreciation Award. He has directed over 50 productions at venues throughout the US and abroad, including devised and site-specific theatre. His recent New Orleans directing credits include The Squirrels, Two Elizas, Mr. Burns—A Post-Electric Play, Antigone (translated by Anne Carson), Melancholy Play, and Machinal, which received A Big Easy Award for Best University Production. He has directed and assisted directors at New City Stage Company, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, The Wilma Theater, EgoPo Productions, Pennsylvania Academy of Vocal Arts, Temple Theaters, NYU, AMDA, UCSB, The Pearl Theatre Company, Classic Stage Company, The Merlin International Theatre, White Heron Theatre Company, Luna Stage, and many others. His research interests include philosophy in modern tragedy and ritual theories of drama. He is the author of Transfiguring Tragedy: Schopenhauer, Stirner, and Nietzsche in Eugene O’Neill’s Early Plays (Routledge Press, 2024). His articles and reviews have been published in the Eugene O’Neill Review, and he regularly attends national and international conferences. He holds an MFA from Temple University, a Ph.D. from UCSB, and has received additional training at the American Conservatory Theatre and the SITI Company. He is a member of The Stage Directors and Choreographers’ Society, the Dramatist Guild, and an alumnus of Directors Lab West. He teaches courses in theater studies and performance.