About

A bit about my values: I believe theatre is a kind of medicine. We produce and prescribe it to un-numb ourselves to the complex, painful and rapturous realities of being alive. Good art facilitates life by acting as an emotional and spiritual dialysis: drawing our feelings and attention out of us and working on them in a public, yet radically intimate, way. I believe good art must mirror back some truth about being alive, whether that truth comes in the form of uncanny verisimilitude (that is how I hold my tea, how mothers and daughters fight, what the banality of grief looks like!) or abstracted expressions that speak to us in some subterranean language.  I know how often our work falls shy of these standards; but I believe we should ask nothing less from art made to move us, to soften us to one another, and to salve and debride our psycho-spiritual wounds. 

As a director, my strengths include rigorous text analysis, physical and nontraditional dramaturgy, collaborating closely with writers to guide new plays through development, and helping actors and students work from a place of regulation and groundedness. My recent focus has been the development of a new method for actors based in the operations of the nervous system. 

 
 

Testimonials from collaborators

  • Erica is a dream to collaborate with. As a dramaturg, she's a sharp and generous reader who's undaunted by complexity. She can read scripts with x-ray vision and take each piece on its own terms, and she has an uncanny ability to ask the questions that draw the story closer and closer to what it wants to be. Her dramaturgical gifts are intertwined with her strengths as a director, she brings a deep dramaturgical understanding to her approach in rehearsal and with designers. I've never met a director so beloved by actors, and Erica has an incredible ability to create a safe space for her team even through challenging material. Erica is a director and dramaturg unlike any I have ever encountered before, and my work as an artist has changed for the better because of her.

    ELIANA PIPES
    Writer/Filmmaker/Performer
    Playwright, “Lorena: A Tabloid Epic”

  • Erica, through her own enormous energy, creativity, and generosity is doing extraordinary work not only as a theater maker and director, but also as a community builder.  Her community productions go well beyond conventional ideas about “community theater”. As I have experienced her productions, they are inspiring, potentially life changing events for all involved, performers, audience and actually for the whole fabric of a community, re-setting relationships, and affirming all that is positive about living in community.

    WENDELL BEAVERS
    Professor Emeritus and Master Teacher
    Naropa University, Experimental Theater Wing (ETW),
    Tisch School of The Arts, New York University

  • Erica Terpening-Romeo is not only the smartest, most visionary person in every room, but she also has a humble, skillful way of making everyone in that room feel comfortable and collaborative, yet knowing that they need to bring their best work to the project. She’s inventive, reflective, compassionate, efficient, and profound and specific in her vision. Her dramaturgical mind is like a supercomputer working in the background all the time, dropping in just the right insights when needed. Plus, she’s an absolute blast to work with.

    GARY GRUNDEI
    Musical Director, “_____, An Opera” 
    Founder, Golden Lotus Studios
    Acclaimed Composer/Educator

  • Erica is perhaps one of the most naturally gifted directors I have ever worked with. Her insight on character, dedication to the dramaturgical process, and undeniable vision of a play is astounding to witness. Erica directed my play, Incels and Other Myths. For almost two years, she served as an invaluable mentor while I put pen to paper. We met weekly to work on pages, focus on the architecture of the play and build a bond as artists. Not only does Erica have an incredibly keen eye when it comes to mapping out a play, she understands the ins and outs of new play development. She helped guide me with insight and an understanding of the “slow burn” process, allowing the play to find itself. I have seen a number of Erica’s plays and each one is its own full and enlivened universe. She makes excellent use of movement and breath, compelling visuals and connections between characters. She is a true artist, investigator and teacher. I am lucky to have worked with her and hope to continue to do so throughout my playwriting career.

    ALLY SASS
    Playwright
    Incels and Other Myths

  • It’s been my honor and privilege to have collaborated with Erica on several projects, including working as an actor under her direction, as the artistic director of a company producing a play she has directed, and as her colleague and castmate. In each of those projects, Erica has exemplified the kind of integrity, rigor, ambition and clarity that our cultural landscapes are so sorely lacking right now. She carefully assembles teams of collaborators that are uniformly intelligent, committed to one another and passionate for the work. The work that results is always strikingly compelling, generous of spirit and unflinchingly incisive. I would work with Erica again in a heartbeat, under almost any circumstances.

    PAUL SUSI
    Writer, educator, theatre artist, activist
    Former Artistic Director, Portland Actors Ensemble

  • As a director, Erica dedicates so much care and attention to the rehearsal process, creating the most creatively and emotionally safe room I have ever been a part of as an actor. Erica brought various tools into the space to help us grapple with difficult material while maintaining our own safety, many of which I’ve taken into other productions since then. She is also incredibly generous with her time and collaboration — one of the most impactful parts of working with Erica was being able to meet with her one-on-one to dive deep into the details of characters, relationships, and specific moments in the play. I worked with Erica again, this time assisting her on a production of Hamlet. To see Erica seamlessly adapt to each performer’s individual needs, checking in with each of the actors in a cast of more than 40 and adjusting the rehearsal from there, was astounding. As a young theatre artist, the impact of working with someone who cares so deeply about both the process and the end result is incredible; any student would be endlessly lucky to work with Erica.

    RORY O’NEILL
    Actor, Student
    Northeastern University

  • I have been fortunate to work with Erica Terpening-Romeo on several occasions. As a director, Erica is a great partner. She seems as excited as the actor to play the game of discovery of the character. She is able to hold the needs of the production in her mind with the expansive possibilities of the creative work of the actor. She can do this in a way which never feels coercive or oppressive and that reconciles the actor’s discoveries toward the story and world of the project. This has been some of the most satisfying creative work I have ever done. As a deviser, Erica possesses a rare collection of gifts: flexibility of means, and clarity of purpose. I am always enthusiastic about any opportunity to work with her.

    GLENN McCUMBER
    Portland Actor
    The Fifth