Rebecca Holderness

Associate Professor, Acting
MFA Directing, Columbia University, New York City

(414) 229-3398
Art 242
rph2@uwm.edu

Rebecca Holderness is a director, choreographer and teacher. She is founder and artistic director of Holderness Theatre Company\The Battery Factory Milwaukee. Current Projects include, LEAR at Shakespeare and Company, RUINED at Burning Coal, and THE AVANT-GARDE a new musical about Milwaukee's famous venue. Most recently, Holderness directed EISNTEIN'S DREAMS at Spooky Action in Washington, DC and choreographed AS YOU LIKE IT for Shakespeare and Company, Lenox MA, as well Lori-Parks 365 PLAYS/DAYS at Joe's Pub and The Public Theatre/NYC with the Director's Project at the Drama League as well as acclaimed EINSTEIN'S DREAMS and CROWNS at Burning Coal and Temple Theater in North Carolina.

Ms. Holderness conducts research on new plays, physical and text based pedagogy for classical text performance and the nature of mediation as expressed in theater and other visual arts. In addition The Battery Factory serves as a locus for jump-starting new arts in Milwaukee. Ms. Holderness and her work as received critical acclaim in the Washington Post, The New York Times, The New Yorker, as well as multiple regional theater critiques and awards.

At UW-M, she has developed and directed HAYFEVER, 1001 by Jason Grote, OF MICE AND MEN, and GHOST by Zakiyyah Alexander, MR. MELANCHOLY by Matt Cameron, EINSTEINS DREAMS, and FROM THESE GREEN HEIGHTS.

Holderness Credits for New York City/Off Broadway: THE LIFE OF SPIDERS, premier, Kelly Stuart, HTC/The Culture Project; THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, tour for Lincoln Center Institute; Holderness and her company have created shows for Lincoln Center Theatre Institute: and LCT Lab and with award winning writers Kipp Erente Cheng. Additional directing credits include Steve Belber at Julliard, Shakespeare and Company, and Yale University. Numerous other professional contracts include American Place Theater, La Mama, Workhouse Theater, New Dramatists, and The Mint Theater, all in NYC as well as The Spoleto Festival, South Carolina, Centennial Theater, Connecticut, Perseverance Theater, Alaska, The Boulder Fringe Festival, Colorado and Choregies D'Orange, France. She is an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voice Work, a member of ATHE, a Lincoln Center Lab and Drama League Directing Alumni.