Artistic Leadership
Rick Dildine is a director and producer. He became the fourth Artistic Director of Alabama Shakespeare Festival in August 2017. He oversees all artistic programming and sets the creative vision for the ASF, one of the largest Shakespeare festivals in the country. For ASF he has directed Cabaret, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, The Tempest, Romeo & Juliet, The Sound of Music, Little Shop of Horrors, Every Brilliant Thing, Steel Magnolias, and Alabama Story. In 2018, he launched ASF’s largest commissioning project to date with the “State of the South” tour and New Southern Canon to produce 22 new plays about transformative moments in the South. He created a partnership with the Montgomery Public Schools that has led to the students performing at the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, DC, and recognition from Society of Directors & Choreographers as a “stand out” moment for diversity and inclusion in American theatre. A longtime advocate for mentorship, Dildine is an alumnus of and heavily involved with the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival and has served consistently as one of the national judges for the Irene Ryan Acting Award. In 2019 Dildine was recognized by the Society of Directors & Choreographers as a finalist for the Zelda Fichandler Award given to a director who has made a profound impact on regional theater.
He served as the Artistic Director of Shakespeare Festival St. Louis from 2009-17. Under his leadership, Festival attendance grew 55% and revenue grew 38% and the organization received numerous awards including the Arts Organization of the Year from the Missouri Arts Council, Exemplary Community Achievement Award from the Missouri Humanities Council and the prestigious Excellence in the Arts Award from the Arts & Education Council of Greater St. Louis. The Festival audience is consistently recognized as one of the most diverse audiences in the region with over two-thirds of annual attendance ages 21-49. He consolidated Festival operations into one centrally located 8,000 square foot headquarters in the historic Hill neighborhood and reinvigorated the Festival's volunteer arm that has grown to over 300+ volunteers annually.
Dildine was named 2014 “Theatre Artist of the Year” by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “40 Under 40” by the St. Louis Business Journal and recognized on the city’s Power List of “100 People Who Are Reshaping the City.” He won the 2016 St. Louis Theatre Award for Best Director for his production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch named him "Best Director" for 2016-17. Recognized as a leader in community engagement, Dildine began the company’s public arts programs, which led to the creation of the highly innovative “Shakespeare in the Streets” and nationally-replicated “SHAKE 38,” both of which have been featured in American Theatre Magazine as national models in community development using the performing arts. He initiated the Festival’s new works commissioning process which has premiered works with the Grammy Award-winning Saint Louis Symphony and the Pulitzer Arts Foundation; in 2018, the Festival will premiere an expanded season of new works. Dildine was a keynote speaker at the first National Innovation Summit for the Arts in Denver, CO, in 2013.
He has held leadership positions at Shakespeare & Company, Chicago’s About Face Theatre, Stephen Foster Theatre, and Brown University/Trinity Rep New Plays Festival under the direction of Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel. Dildine has traveled on TCG delegations to Cuba and China and served on numerous grant panels including the National Endowment for the Arts.
He has taught or served on staff for Brown University, Clark University, and Webster University, where he served as Director of the MFA Arts Management & Leadership program and Adjunct Professor within its BFA Performance program.
Dildine is a graduate of Ouachita Baptist University and Brown University/Trinity Rep with an MFA in Acting and is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and the Society of Directors and Choreographers. Rick grew up in Wynne, Arkansas.