I perform in plays and musicals on stages all over Southern California as an actor, a singer, and a cellist.
I teach college students to find truthful life on stage (and off).
I direct musicals and plays with the hope of improving the lives of both players and audience.
I advocate for the voices of my diverse students, for LGBTQ+ humans and for our environment.
Actor
In December 2021, I performed in the folk-rock band musical Striking 12 at Chance Theatre in Anaheim as the cellist and several characters and I also sang in BOTH: A Hard Day’s Silent Night at Open Fist Theatre. Other recent roles include Helen Bechdel in Chance’s Ovation Best Musical award-winning production of Fun Home (directed by Marya Mazor) and Fräulein Schneider in CalRep’s production of Cabaret (directed by Kari Hayter.) I have performed in over 50 productions in theaters from Texas to Los Angeles. Favorite roles include Maria in The Sound of Music, Eliza in My Fair Lady, Grace in Annie, Rosie in Cabaret, and Linda in Blood Brothers. Actor Gallery
In addition to singing and dancing, I am an accomplished cellist, playing on stages all over Los Angeles for singers, in bands, in musicals and with my chamber music trio, The Three Graces, at events in the Los Angeles area. Musician Gallery
Teacher
Since 2016 I have been pursuing my passion for teaching at California State University Long Beach. I specialize in actor training with Uta Hagen, Stanislavski’s Active Analysis (Maria Knebel), Musical Theatre Scene Study, Text Analysis, Writing, Professional Skills for the Theatre Artist and more. I teach culturally and ethnically diverse students from beginning Freshman Acting to Performance Pedagogy Masters students. My students come from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds.
I trained extensively with Gary Imhoff in his Musical Artists’ Workshops in Los Angeles and received my MFA in Acting and Performance Pedagogy from California State University Long Beach. I am also a graduate of the HB Studio Teacher Training Lab with Carol Rosenfeld.
Director
Directed by Jennifer Richardson
Recent director credits include The Rocky Horror Show Fall 2022 at CSULB Theatre Arts Department, The Rona Tango: a mini-musical medley video production at CSULB (the only Spring 2021 production during COVID 19 lockdown at Theatre Arts Department), Cabaret assisting Kari Hayter for CalRep, Little Women: The Broadway Musical at Westchester Playhouse, Our Lady of the Tortilla assisting Dona Roman at Sul Ross State University and Ugly Duckling: A Musical Fable at CSULB Affinity Series. Director Gallery
Advocate
I was 9 years old and living in a small, conservative, wind-swept, football-steeped town in West Texas when I got cast in my first musical, a local production of Carousel. I watched every scene that I wasn’t in from the wings, caught up in this story of a strong woman dealing with the reality of a broken relationship in a place with few options. Theatre opened me up to a world beyond the life I was living. It was more than reading a book to actually engage in active believing that I was: an Austrian child escaping the Nazis with her singing family, a Jewish child whose life is being torn apart by pogroms in Russia in 1905, a Siamese princess watching her father die, a poor, yet fierce, woman barely surviving selling flowers in London in 1912. Doing theatre gave me the gift of stepping into OTHER’S shoes and stories so different from mine and sometimes so like mine. Theatre cultivated compassion, empathy and a desire to help humans whose voices are being stifled and beings who have no voice, like our earth and our fellow inhabitants.
I have put my passion to advocate for a better world into my work throughout my life, first as an environmental attorney fighting for our planet and its endangered species, then as a teacher of underprivileged children in east Los Angeles; as an ally and activist for the LGBTQIA+ community (of which I am a part), as a trainer for non-profit organizations and government agencies that provide services for the homeless and unemployed, as a theatre maker, and now as a college teacher who thrives to give my diverse students opportunities to both represent and transform their voices and as a performer still being fed by this art of make believe.
Together let’s use the TRANSFORMATIVE and the REPRESENTATIVE nature of theatre to change the world.
What do you say?
Follow my journey …
It’s all about the experience.
Jennifer Lee Richardson 