T.N.B. (typical nigga behavior) / Dead White Zombies

writer/director/producer

Holy Bone / Dead White Zombies

writer/director/producer

DP92 / Dead White Zombies

writer/director/producer

Though there are scenic elements, they occur in concert with their environment like art installations taking advantage of the buildings, the neighborhood and even the time of day. The dusk night sky lends itself to stunning visuals of downtown in particular. The immersive environments allow for more varied sensory input than traditional theatre. Soundscapes are employed in many of the locations with an emphasis on blurring boundaries of the noise of the environs, be they physical or mental.

—Theatre Jones

If there's a common thread in the Zombies shows, it's in the way Riccio uses language and performance to remind us of the confusion, complications and frustrations implicit in humanity. In DP92, Riccio attempts to unite the origins of life — the mollusk — with the controlled chaos of modern humanity. But really, what he's reminding us is that we're all in this life together. We all come from the same place and return to it, as life folds in on itself over and over again.

—Dallas Observer

There is Never a Reference Point / StoryLab

writer/director/producer

A performance immersion inspired by the journal writings and art work of a woman diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder. Audiences enter a sphere of live and media performances to experience the multiple personalities of a fractured being as they share, conflict, comfort, negotiate, and accommodate one another. A portrayal of the daily life of living with an incurable psychological trauma. Presented to the general public and also used for group therapy sessions.

(w)hole / Dead White Zombies

writer/director/producer

Scenes ebb and flow as the audience floats, adrift, overwhelmed by images and sound. Sensate, intemperate immersion. W(hole) weaves together with satisfying symphonic grace. The audience emerges refreshed, cleansed, and jubilant. The level of dedication in the performance is beyond what most people will have seen. The performers deliver emotionally striking material and infuse their personal experiences into the performances in a scripted, sometimes improvisational confessional. It’s cathartic.

—Dallas Examiner

About Face / Dead White Zombies

writer/director/producer

About Face interprets racial issues with an approach that emphasizes the psychological. It explores why people think of themselves as better than others, whether that’s race or another idea, and how the system we live in creates and nurtures those feelings. As The Traveler finds himself in a new time and place, his mindset is called to change. About Face was written and directed by Thomas Riccio.”

— KERA TV, PBS Dallas / Aired October 2021, KERA TV, PBS Dallas

Departures / Dead White Zombies

Shot in the Czech Republic and China. A narrative short about the coming of COVID

Ragina

writer/director/producer

This is a Reality Show, true life confessional. That’s why somebody is walking with me filming. Or maybe it is a documentary, you know, after the fact. I am alone for so many of these scenes, so I need to tell you what is happening so you can get involved in my life. Now you have to follow me, how about an over-the-shoulder shot? Okay? Let’s start. Over here I’m the star of this show. This shot should be a close-up of my face.

Being Sophia / Hanson Robotics

Video Short / Director / Producer

Good Morning, Sophia / Hanson Robotics

From a series of short social media videos for Hanson Robotics. Fo Tan Lab, Hong Kong, Fall 2018

Factory Girl

A video meditation on growing up in the rust belt

In the City

director/editor

Part of a series of preliminary videos made in preparation for Blue Jelly, a performance project by the Dead White Zombies

Everything Nothing

director/editor

Ambient video experiment.

God Be The Glory

director/editor

Ambient video experiment.

Glow Coat

director/editor

Ambient video: consumerism.

Mommy

director/editor

Ambient video.

20 to 70%

director/editor

Ambient video.

Dragon Eye / Miao Life, Hunan, China

A video short. 2024

The Dragon Eye was first presented as a muitimedia installation. Like the installation, this film offers a unique and impressionistic glimpse of contemporary Miao life. Drawing upon hundreds of hours of video and audio and thousands of photos from the last two decades of field research in the Wuling Mountain region and Jishou City in Hunan. Riccio presents an atmosphere, feel, insight, and essence, with the sounds and images bespeaking a culture ancient and modern as it transitions and vanishes into history.

Huan Nuoyuan / Wuling Mountains, Hunan, China

Miao exocism ritual. A documentation of the Huan Nuo Yuan ritual of the Miao people of Western Hunan, China.

Miao Healer Bowl Eating Demonstration / Wuling Mountain region, Hunan, China

Performed by Shi Bang Wu, a Badai (shaman-like faith healer), a Miao (ethnic minority) in Western Hunan, China. From and interview..."When I eat the bowl I begin to have a sixth sense and to see sickness. but this sensation not always. Riccio: Do you go into trance? Shi: No, I do not use trance—I eat the bowl and am connected with the gods and a vision comes." 

Theru Koothu Funeral Ritual / Tamil Nadu, India

Theru Koothu is a 2000-year-old dance/theatre folk tradition. It is sacred and profane, ritual and entertainment. The Koothu troupe performs sections of the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, to console a family and end their 15-day mourning period.

Miao Badai Initiation Ritual / Wuling Mountains, Hunan, China

An excerpt from a three-day shamanic initiation ritual performed by master Badai, Sh Jing He, deep in the Wu Ling Mountains, Huan China. 

Today We Sing / !Xuu and Khwe Bushmen, Kalahari

Excerpts from a research and workshop project with the !Xuu and Khwe Bushmen conducted by Thomas Riccio. The project included eight traditional healers and their assistants. Includes scenes from healing rituals and an oral history project.

N’cwala Ritual / N’goni Tribe, Zambia

Documentation of a ritual presented by the Ngoni people of Zambia. Chipata, Zambia on the Zambia-Malawi border, April, 1994. A three-day presentation of a formerly banned ritual. During the ritual, any debts, antagonisms or affronts from the previous year could be settled without consequences, often leading to death or injury. In the modern version, a young bull was endowed with the year's ill will and feelings of the community and sacrificed.

Urban Folk Performance / Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

When rural performers from varied ethnic backgrounds migrate to Ouagadougou they form performance groups and create dances drawn from their traditions to create a new, urban traditional dance form.

Ethiopian Market Place Prayer / Addis Ababa

Traditional healers offer a prayer in song form.

Athabaskan Memorial Potlach / Minto, Alaska

Memorial potlach for Perry "Sam" Charlie, an Athabaskan Indian.

Andegna (The First) / Lul Theatre, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

devised/directed

A devised performance developed and performed during the fall and winter of 2009–10 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This production examined the complex social, political, and cultural contexts that informed the training, workshops, and process of creating an ensemble and performance in a time of national transformation. Urbanization and the crossing currents of Africa, Islam, Christian Orthodoxy, capitalism, the West, and technology prompted the re-conceptualization of performance, its function, and expression. Thomas Riccio's work highlights the methodologies of reinventing an indigenous performance that is respectful of local traditions yet contemporary and accessible, demonstrating how performance provides a forum for revealing social, political, and cultural trauma, and itself becomes an act of affirmation – an assertion of protest and healing that makes visible, immediate, and tactile the histories and unresolved issues haunting modern Ethiopia. 

Imipashi (The Spirits) /Center for the Arts, National Tour, Zambia

devised/directed

Our performance of Imipashi, which means “the spirits” in Bemba, had evolved from the Litooma Project, a three month program of workshops, performance development, and touring. The idea and ambition of the Litooma Project was unlike anything Zambia had seen before. It was a first-ever national theatre project, bringing together performers from tribes (who were sometimes rival) all over Zambia. What evolved was Imipashi, an allegory inspired by a well-known Lozi myth, tracing the journey of the Zambian people from creation to the corruption of present day nationhood. Never had such a “national” theatre project ever been attempted.  

an excerpt from Performing Africa

Qayaq: The Magical Man / Tuma Theatre, Alaska

A devised performance by Tuma Theatre, Fairbanks, Alaska 1991. Directed and Choreographed by Thomas Riccio. Inspired by traditional Yup'ik Eskimo stories and applying Alaska Native performance expressions.

Shadows from the Planet Fire / Metamorphosis Theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia

A ritual devised in collaboration with the Metamorphosis Theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia., 1992. A group dedicated to creating pre-Christian, Slavic rituals. Directed by Thomas Riccio. Created though improvisation and trance techniques. This clip is of the ending sequence. Presented in here in the Baltic House Theatre lobby, later presented on Russian national television and toured the Ural Mountain region. 

Makanda Mahlanu / Kwasa Group, kwaZulu Natal, South Africa

A street performance commissioned by the Natal Performing Arts Council, Durban, South Africa, in 1993. With the end of white rule and in anticipation of South Africa's first open and non-racial democratic elections, Thomas Riccio devised and directed a performance that toured throughout Natal and kwaZulu (Zululand) to educate and celebrate the coming elections. Based on a Zulu myth and applying folk, popular, and traditional forms of Zulu performance, song and dance, Makanda Mahlanu (the snake with five heads) educated its audiences to the voting and democracy. Makanda Mahlanu was performed in urban and rural areas, in front of clinics, at bus stations, in open fields, union halls, school yards and squatter camps, educating its often semi-literate audience who had never known democracy or the process of voting.

Cadmus Remediation / Holy Bone

writer/director/performer

Wide Screen Scenic / Bull Game

writer/director/editor