So excited to announce this. After a three year campaign by Julius Hollingsworth, Chet Whye Jr., and myself to get a street co-named in the Broadway district for legendary director, theater educator, and arts administrator Lloyd Richards, our plans are finally coming to fruition.

And in a wonderful turn of events, the ceremony will be taking place under the marquee of the Ethel Barrymore Theater on West 47th Street, which is where Lloyd Richards directed the ground breaking 1959 production of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, starring Sidney Poitier–with Lloyd becoming the first African-American director of a drama on Broadway.

Lloyd went on to become Artistic Director of the Yale Repertory Theater, head of the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, director of many plays of playwright August Wilson on Broadway, and a master educator at Yale, Hunter College, NYU and the NEC, among many, many other accomplishments.

So join us 11am on June 29th 2024 under the marquee of the Ethel Barrymore Theater 243 West 47th Street for the ceremony, and after that we’ll walk down the block to the corner of Broadway and West 47th Street to unveil the sign with Lloyd Richards’ name on it, a permanent tribute to a great theater artist.