RICHARD PETTENGILL is in his eleventh season as Director of Arts in Education at the Goodman Theater, Chicago

RICHARD PETTENGILL is a dramaturg, educator, and scholar. He recently returned to the University of Chicago to complete his PhD in English; his dissertation is on the director Peter Sellars and his production of The Merchant of Venice, which Mr. Pettengill dramaturged in 1994 at the Goodman Theatre. Before that he was for twelve years the Director of Arts in Education at the Goodman Theater, Chicago. At the Goodman, he ran the theatre's education and community programs, which include the internationally-recognized Student Subscription Series. This program provides 1400 Chicago public high school students and their teachers with free season subscriptions combined with extensive educational support. Mr. Pettengill also produced over forty educational video-documentaries on Goodman Theatre productions which are distributed as part of this program. He also created and ran summer Youth Drama Workshops in collaboration with the Chicago Housing Authority and the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum. All of these programs continue to thrive under new leadership.

At the Goodman, he served as dramaturg on The Misanthrope, Uncle Vanya, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Twelfth Night, Wings: a Musical-Theatre Piece, Two Trains Running, Black Snow, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Night of the Iguana, The Merchant of Venice, A Touch of the Poet, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. In 1998, he produced, directed, and edited a video-documentary -- Theatre - Art in Action: The Production Process -- for NTC/Contemporary Publishing.*

Mr. Pettengill was dramaturg at the Court Theatre from 1982 to 1986, where he also ran education programs while working on over twenty productions:

    1986/87
          ORESTEIA (Aeschylus)
    1985/86
          HEARTBREAK HOUSE (Shaw)
          THE RIVALS (Sheridan)
          THE MASTER BUILDER (Ibsen)
          THE LADY'S NOT FOR BURNING (Fry)
          UNCLE VANYA (Chekhov)
     1984/85
          MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Shakespeare)
          THE MISANTHROPE (Molière)
          THE PHILANTHROPIST (Hampton)
          ARMS AND THE MAN (Shaw)
          THE BIRTHDAY PARTY (Pinter)
          EVERY GOOD BOY DESERVES FAVOUR (Stoppard/Previn)
     1983/84
          HAY FEVER (Coward)
          A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (Shakespeare)
          HEDDA GABLER (Ibsen)
          MISALLIANCE (Shaw)
          LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (O'Neill)
     1982/83
          YOU NEVER CAN TELL (Shaw)
          UNDER MILK WOOD (Thomas)
          ENDGAME (Beckett)
          ANTIGONE (Sophocles)
          LOOT (Orton)

Mr. Pettengill has been a freelance dramaturg at a number of Chicago theatres, including the Body Politic, Victory Gardens, and Shakespeare Repertory (now Chicago Shakespeare Theatre). He has also written for such periodicals as Grey City Journal, Literature/Film Quarterly, Quarterly Review of Film Studies, and Yale/Theatre. His interviews with playwright August Wilson and director Lloyd Richards appeared in August Wilson: A Casebook (Garland, 1994), and his essays on dramaturgy have appeared in What is Dramaturgy? (Peter Lang, 1995), and Dramaturgy in American Theatre: A Sourcebook (Harcourt Brace, 1996). He has taught at the University of Chicago, Chicago Dramatists Workshop, Columbia College, Roosevelt University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Theatre School, DePaul University.

*For information on Theatre - Art in Action: The Production Process, go to: http://www.ntc-school.com/cgi-bin/pageEducation.cgi?isbn=0-8442-0418-8&cat=school

Alternate version:

RICHARD PETTENGILL

Dramaturg, Educator, Scholar

Mr. Pettengill served for twelve seasons as Director of Arts in Education at the Goodman Theatre. In addition to conducting Goodman adult and student education programs, he also served as production dramaturg on Goodman productions and assisted in research and writing for publications. In 1995, he addressed the British American Arts Association conference, "Responding to Contemporary Diversity: Cultural Institutions and Their Education Programs" in London, where he spoke about the Goodman Theatre’s Student Subscription Series.

As dramaturg at Court Theatre (1982-86), he researched and wrote program notes and conducted educational programs, including lectures and post-show discussions. He is a regional vice president and former treasurer of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, Inc.

Teaching experience includes: a Visiting Lectureship in the Department of English and the Committee on General Studies in the Humanities at the University of Chicago; a course in literary management/dramaturgy at Roosevelt University; a playwrighting class at Chicago Dramatists Workshop; dramaturgy and text analysis courses at Columbia College; and the Drama On Stage class and Dramaturgy I seminar at the Theatre School, DePaul University, where he is currently a faculty member.

A graduate of the University of Chicago, where he received his M.A. in English in 1977, Mr. Pettengill has recently returned there to write his PhD dissertation on the director Peter Sellars' production of The Merchant of Venice, which he dramaturged in 1994. He has also written on film and theatre for such periodicals as Literature/Film Quarterly, Quarterly Review of Film Studies, and Yale/Theatre. His interviews with playwright August Wilson and director Lloyd Richards appeared in August Wilson: A Casebook (Garland, 1994), and his essays on dramaturgy have appeared in What is Dramaturgy? (Peter Lang, 1995), and Dramaturgy in American Theatre: A Sourcebook (Harcourt Brace, 1996).