About
Richard Kenyon
- Richard Kenyon is a theatre and film director, producer, and educator with more than three decades of experience working across North America. Known for his imaginative approach to both classical and contemporary work, he has founded and led several arts organizations, including The Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare in the Mountains in Canada, and Soul In Bliss Theater in Los Angeles, where he currently serves as Artistic Director.
- Over the years Richard has directed more than 75 Shakespeare productions, developed new play festivals, and created outreach programs that helped bring theatre to wider audiences. He has worked in many styles of theatre, with a particular love for theatre in the round and other actor-audience immersive staging. He has also directed for the 14/48 Festival, where he led the creation of two brand-new plays written, rehearsed, and performed in just 48 hours. Alongside his deep connection to Shakespeare, he has a particular love for playwrights such as Bernard Shaw and Granville Barker, and is especially drawn to plays from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
- Alongside his directing work, Richard has spent many years as a private acting coach, working with actors at all stages of their careers, with a particular focus on Shakespeare and classical text. Several of his students have gone on to be accepted into respected theatre programs, including Long Island University Post, Adelphi University, Loyola Marymount University (LMU), and Seton Hill University.
- One of his proudest achievements is having acted, directed, and produced every play in Shakespeare’s First Folio of 1623, a lifelong goal he completed on September 27, 2025. That same year he created and directed a Wars of the Roses marathon—a single-day presentation of all eight of Shakespeare’s history plays, each adapted into 60-minute reader’s theatre versions.
- Richard’s work also extends into film. He directed and co-produced the short film A Girl’s Guide to Drowning with his longtime partner LuAnne Morrow, which placed fourth at the Stratford Birthplace Trust Film Festival. His first short film, Insomniac (2001), received three Alberta Rosie Award nominations and won Best Overall Music for composers Michael Shields and Russell Broom. Over the years he has also produced numerous corporate and commercial films, several of which were nominated for Alberta Rosie Awards.
- Richard remains dedicated to nurturing artists, fostering creative communities, and guiding actors as they discover their own voice in Shakespeare and the theatre.