Russell Vandenbroucke

Russell Vandenbroucke is an American theatre researcher, director, dramaturg, playwright.

Biography

Vandenbroucke earned his Doctor of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama and has worked as a director, dramaturg, playwright, and producer at regional theatres across the country including the Yale Repertory Theatre, Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Virginia Stage Company, and Chicago’s Northlight Theatre, which he served as artistic director for eleven seasons.

At various times he was a Fulbright Scholar in Australia; a Rotary Foundation World Peace Fellow in Thailand where he adapted and directed An Evening with Global Peacemakers; covered Italy’s Spoleto Festival and the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa, for American Theatre magazine; delivered talks and presentations in Finland, Romania, and (then) East Germany for the State Department; traveled to Israel and Palestine through the Palestine American Research Center); and gave a series of talks on engaged art, American culture, and critical thinking in Vietnam and Japan, where he also made pilgrimages to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

As a professor at the University of Louisville in the USA, he He teaches courses in script analysis, applied theatre, the enjoyment of theatre, and playwriting. He is Founding Director of the university’s Peace, Justice & Conflict Transformation Program.

Contribution to South African theatre, film, media and performance

He published three books, the most relevant to South Africa being Truths the Hand Can Touch: The Theatre of Athol Fugard (Theatre Communications Group)