Rick Lombardo


Member, NAST Commission on Accreditation
Reelected March 2023, term ends March 2026

Rick Lombardo is the Director of the School of Theatre at Pennsylvania State University, as well as the Producing Artistic Director of Penn State Centre Stage. He was most recently the Chair of the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at Kennesaw State University.

Professor Lombardo is a three-time winner of the Elliot Norton Award from the Boston Theatre Critics Association for Outstanding Director, as well as the recipient of the Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence for his thirteen-year tenure as Producing Artistic Director at New Repertory Theatre. He was also the Artistic Director at the San Jose Repertory Theatre (LORT B) for seven seasons, where he was a three-time nominee for Outstanding Director—Large Theatre by Theatre Bay Area. His Off-Broadway productions include the premieres of Bill W. and Dr. Bob at New World Stages, Albatross at 59E59, Ring Twice for Miranda at City Center, and his own co-written rock musical adaptation of The Snow Queen at the Signature Center. He has directed more than 100 plays and musicals on stages across the country including the Arizona Theatre Company, The Kennedy Center, Opera Boston, WHAT, Actors Shakespeare Project, Porthouse Theater, Actors Express, Atlanta Lyric Theatre, The Gloucester Stage Company, New York’s Town Hall, and The Berkshire Theatre Festival, among others. He has served on the executive boards of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, the National New Play Network, StageSource, and the Association of New England Area Theatres.

Professor Lombardo was first elected to the Commission in 2020.

Professor Lombardo holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Stage Direction from Boston University (School for the Arts) and a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Georgetown University. He completed an Executive Certificate Program in not-for-profit program evaluation at the Harvard Business School and Kennedy School of Government.

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Updated March 2023