Richard studied acting at The Juilliard School where he discovered the world of clown and masks. Over the next several years he began to hone in on the style of commedia dell’arte by building his own masks, performing, teaching, and assistant directing. This led him to seek out masters of the mask making craft, taking him to study with the Sartori Family and Matteo Destro in Italy and Ida Bagus Anom Suryawan in Bali, Indonesia. While touring a commedia show in Italy, the pandemic hit and returned him to the States. The lockdown led him to a friend’s guest ranch in Wyoming to pursue his curiosity of horsemanship of all things. He found himself in the daily routine of ranch work - animal care, irrigating hay fields, chopping wood, and leading horseback rides. Most recently he left the mountains to serve as a professor of movement at Syracuse University, specializing in discovering the clown and introduction to character masks.