ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
james@richmondshakespeare.org

James Ricks has worked for the last 25 years as an actor, director and educator in New York City, Washington DC, West Virginia and Richmond. He has worked regionally and internationally as an actor, performing in such venues as: The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington DC, The Kennedy Center, The Folger Shakespeare Library, The Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, VA, the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, The Clemson Shakespeare Festival and the  Globe Theatre in Neuss, Germany.

He has also appeared in dozens of national and regional commercials, as well as several short films and industrials. In Richmond, James has directed at Richmond Shakespeare, Firehouse Theatre, TheatreLab, SPARC, VCU, and Sycamore Rouge Theatre. He was also the artistic director of Henley Street Theatre from 2009-2013. For Richmond Shakespeare, James has directed Love’s Labor’s Lost, Lysistrata, As You Like It, The Tempest, Red Velvet, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, The Bottom Show, An Iliad, She Stoops To Conquer, Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well, School For Lies and Doctor Faustus.

James has been nominated numerous times by the Richmond Theatre Critics Circle for his work as a director in Richmond and was the recipient of the award for Best Direction for his 2013 production of Julius Caesar. He was also named one of Style Weekly Magazine’s ‘Top 40 Under 40’ People Who Are Changing Richmond, VA in 2010. He is a member of Actor’s Equity Association, The Actor’s Fund and is certified with the Society of American Fight Directors. James received his BFA from the University of Oklahoma and his MFA from The Shakespeare Theatre’s Academy of Classical Acting in Washington, DC.