Article July 25, 2011 Issue

A career of healing in the theatre arts

By Kim Shippey

Richard Morse has enjoyed a theatre career as an actor, mime artist, director, and teacher. In 1972 he founded the Richard Morse Mime Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio. The company has now performed in 26 countries, with a special focus on the Middle East. He has appeared in many New York productions including Fiddler on the Roof, Mother Courage, and Ulysses in Nighttown, as well as many television shows, such as Hallmark Hall of Fame. He taught in New York at several of America’s leading centers of theatre training, including the Uta Hagen-Herbert Berghof Studio and The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and for 11 years at Principia College, Elsah, Illinois. 

Morse’s book Theatre: Its Healing Role in Education details more than 40 years of working with young people. It has been described by Nigerian writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka as a “treasure trove for educationalists, sociologists, and theatre practitioners.” And Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Horton Foote remarked on Morse’s ability to demonstrate “what is possible through love and dedication, and using various theater techniques, to make a healing difference in the lives of children and young people.”

I recently chatted with Morse about his diverse (and endlessly creative) career.

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Excerpts from Theatre: Its Healing Role in Education
July 25, 2011
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