Siobhan Richardson is an Intimacy Director, Fight Director and Instructor, and is a pioneer voice in the Canadian Theatre Industry for Intimacy in Performance. She has shared this from Vancouver to Halifax, across the States and into Europe in professional and amateur settings, and in educational institutions. At the same time, she has been Intimacy Directing: the Stratford Festival, the Shaw Festival, The Canadian Opera Company, Soulpepper, Tarragon, Factory Theatre, and in various Theatre Education programs. Siobhan is currently the resident intimacy and fight coordinator at the Canadian Opera Company.
As a Fight Director, she is the preferred FD and Instructor for a number of theatre companies, actors, directors, and schools, and is a certified Fight Director with Fight Directors Canada. Stage combat teaching has, likewise, taken her across Canada, the USA and Europe. She has taught at international events such as the Paddy Crean International Art of the Sword Workshop, Fight Directors Canada’s National Workshops, and the Nordic Stage Fight Society’s Summer Workshops. In 2009, she received a Chalmers Arts Fellowship Award which then led to four separate teaching tours of Europe which included Sweden, Norway, Estonia, England, Ireland, Scotland, Finland, Germany and France. Siobhan’s approach to teaching stage combat draws parallels to the actor’s process in order connect fight technique to the characters objectives, obstacles and tactics. From a physical perspective, her classes examine structure and biomechanics to prevent injury, while expanding physical vocabulary.
Meanwhile, she continues with her work in her first love as an actor/fighter/singer/dancer, most recently in the webseries You’re Never Alone (Thought for Food Productions), in the site-specific production of The Christie Pits Riot (The Hogtown Experience), as Clown 2 in The 39 Steps (St. Lawrence Festival, Prescott), on stage for the COC in Macbeth (and upcoming in Medea), and in Atom Egoyan’s film Seven Veils.
Always infusing Joyfulness and Curiosity into the work, Siobhan is dedicated to the growth and development of the art forms, the artists and the workplaces. She builds upon current practices, inspired by historical sources, infused with science, and drawing upon a variety of styles and approaches. She recently received an Arts Response Initiative grant (Ontario Arts Council) to bring her unique approach to stage combat to Ontario and the world, through online lessons for skills development and maintenance. https://joyfulworkspaces.teachable.com