Robert Ross Parker
Writer, Director, Actor
Creating funny, imaginative, and deeply theatrical work in New York and beyond.
Robert is an NYC based Canadian director, writer, and actor known for comedy, physical theatre, puppetry, Shakespeare, and genre-bending new work. He is the co-founder of the Obie winning Vampire Cowboys with Qui Nguyen. He has directed all of their productions including Soul Samurai, Alice in Slasherland, Fight Girl/Battle World, The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G, and Revenge Song (Geffen Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, developed with the Orchard Project). The VC team also created the video based The Un-Princess Not-Bride (Manhattan Theater Club.) Other directing credits include Jennifer Fawcett’s Apples in Winter (Here for Now, Coal Mine) A Christmas Story, Godspell, Levi’s Relic (RedHouse Arts) Anna Moench’s Mothers (Playwrights Realm) Vietgone (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre) Disgraced (Mirvish, Citadel) Carla Ching’s Fast Company (Ensemble Studio Theatre) Erin Malon’s Branched (InViolet) the world premier of the beloved play She Kills Monsters (The Flea) and Hamlet (solo) starring Raoul Bhaneja. The production has toured internationally for twenty years with performances in 25 cities, including Toronto, New York, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, London, and Inuvik north of the Arctic Circle.. Robert has developed work extensively at New Dramatists and Ensemble Studio Theatre where he is a member. He serves on EST’s Member’s Council and the board of RedHouse Arts in Syracuse. He is an alumnus of Directors Lab North. Writing/directing credits include Vampire Cowboy Trilogy & A Beginners’ Guide to Deicide (with Qui Nguyen) Goodbye Cruel World (Roundtable Ensemble, Strange Tree) Radio Monster Theatre (Vampire Cowboys) and The Ghost of 8th Street & Zen Shadows, hyper local pop up puppetry in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
Acting credits include Constellations (The Hangar) and Frankenstein (Soho Rep/Flying Machine) and various Vampire Cowboys and Ensemble Studio Theatre projects. He spent three summers with the highly physical Odyssey Theatre and has toured his solo work Confessions of an Undead Actor extensively in Canada. Other work as playwright/performer includes Chasing Napoleon & Dunghill, Dinghill, Dunghill!
Robert is a graduate of Ottawa’s Arts Canterbury High School and its storied national championship BOFA improv team. He holds a BFA in theatre performance from Concordia University (Henry Gamer award for acting) and an MFA in directing from Ohio University. From 2007-2011 he was the editor of The Dramatist, the Journal of the Dramatists Guild of America.
