Robert Duffley

is a theater artist, editor, and teacher based in New York City. As a dramaturg, Robert partners with writers, directors, composers, collectives, and institutions to develop new plays and original stagings of classic work. He is particularly committed to international and interdisciplinary projects—recent collaborators include biologists, poets, climate activists, magicians, and the archive. He serves as Dramaturg for LubDub Theatre Co and We Hear You—A Climate Archive. Currently an Adjunct Lecturer at Georgetown University, Robert has taught previously at Harvard University and Emerson College.

Header: 77 Messages to the Future (Dramaten). Above: To Tell a Story About the Earth (LubDub/Concord Theatricals); Photo: Jati Lindsey.

Productions

Robert has contributed to performances staged internationally and across the US. Current/Upcoming: We Hear You—A Climate Archive (performances at the Hirshhorn Museum, COP27, COP28, the Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden, et al.), The Magic Bullet (LubDub/Pangea/Arab American National Museum/Noor), To Tell a Story About the Earth (LubDub/Concord Theatricals), and A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction (by Miranda Rose Hall, currently touring internationally with original direction by Katie Mitchell). 

Other recent projects: Ferry Tales (The Kennedy Center), 1776 (A.R.T., Broadway, National Tour), Claudia Rankine’s HELP (The Shed), The Uncle Geoff Magic Show (LubDub/Target Margin Labs), Celine Song’s Endlings, and The Lazours’ We Live in Cairo (A.R.T.). 

Workshops/Development: SPACE on Ryder Farm, Dmitry Krymov, Arab American Theatre Museum, Manhattan Theatre Club, 59E59, Park Ave Armory, Theatre Row, New York Theatre Workshop, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and The Orchard Project.

Publications & Teaching

Currently an Adjunct Lecturer at Georgetown University, Robert has taught previously at Harvard University (Teaching Fellow) and Emerson College (Affiliated Faculty). He is the recipient of a Certificate of Distinction in Teaching from Harvard's Office of Undergraduate Education.

Robert’s writing and editorial work includes pieces for the American Modern Opera CompanyHowlRound, The A.R.T. Guide, Breaking Character, SixByEight Press, The Theatre Times, and Contemporary Theatre Review. For the first three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, he served as editor for The Roadmap for Recovery and Resilience for Theater (A.R.T./T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard).

He has been an invited presenter at conferences including Surya: A Convening of Earthly Storytellers (Georgetown), The Hemispheric Institute of Performance & Politics (NYU/Mexico City), TCG, The Lab for Global Performance & Politics (Georgetown), The Mellon School of Theatre & Performance Research (Harvard), and Theater in the Age of Climate Change (HowlRound). 

Recent/Upcoming Productions

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Selected Publications

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