Emeritus Professor of Theatre

About

  • Role:

    Emeritus
  • Position:

    • Emeritus Professor of Theatre
    • Center for Studies in Beckett and Performance
  • Concentration:

    • Directing
  • Department:

    • Theatre

Biography

Dr. Eric Prince, Professor, Colorado State University, is a director, playwright and educator, whose doctoral thesis, The Stagecraft of Samuel Beckett, for the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, was the outcome of a lifelong interest in the great Irish writer Samuel Beckett. Dr. Prince has written and published extensively on Beckett, giving papers and performance/research projects at many international venues and conferences, in St. Petersburg (Russia), Sydney, Brisbane, (Australia), Krakow (Poland), London, Edinburgh, Leeds, Berlin, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Italy, and Barcelona. Dr. Prince’s publications include in depth interviews with acclaimed artists such as Billie Whitelaw, Sir Peter Hall, Prunella Scales David Warrilow, Barry McGovern, and artistic direction of many of Beckett’s plays – including   Endgame, Waiting For Godot, Footfalls, Embers, Play, Not I, Catastrophe, All That Fall, Eh Joe, Come And Go, and What Where. From 1981 to 1999 he enjoyed a close professional association with British knight of the theatre, Sir Alan Ayckbourn and The Stephen Joseph Theatre, with two plays, Love Is In The Air and Red Roses also given professional productions by Alan Ayckbourn. Prince worked for a number of years also as writer/director with the British National Student Theatre Company (the NSTC) with two plays, Kafka's Last Request and Wildsea Wildsea, receiving the London Sunday Times Playwriting Award and Outstanding Production Awards. He also produced and directed six original plays for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest arts and theatre event of its kind.  In 2002 Dr. Prince founded CSU’s innovative Center for Studies in Beckett and Performance. The Center has an outstanding record of Beckett related projects, events, and scholarly outcomes, and has also sustained a special creative partnership with Bas Bleu Theatre, Fort Collins, and Wendy Ishii, the theatre’s highly acclaimed founding actor/artistic director. In the summer of 2015, Prince and Ishii both featured as invited guest performers, alongside distinguished companies such as the Berliner Ensemble, in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, for the Happy Days International Beckett Festival. Dr. Prince served for four years as the regional chair of playwriting for the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival. University productions directed by Dr. Prince include: Noises Off, Waiting For Godot, The Winter’s Tale, Alice In Wonderland, Much Ado About Nothing, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Hamlet, The Birthday Party, The Pirates of Penzance, Private Lives, The Importance of Being Earnest, Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, Comic Potential, Oh What A Lovely War, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Endgame.