“Hi this is Jack Shalom, Last week we began our conversation with composer, professor, performer, activist Andy Teirstein. I had met Andy through our mutual immigration rights work at the NYC immigration courts for the New Sanctuary Coalition. In the process of getting to know him I learned that he had taught music and theater at a couple of upstate prisons. We left off our conversation as Andy was describing what it was like for both him and the men in prison to learn in that setting. So here’s Andy…”
Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear Part two of my interview with Andy Teirstein on the Arts Express radio program broadcast on WBAI FM NYC, WBAI.org and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
“We’re going to do something a little bit different today. My guest is someone who I just only recently met a few Fridays ago at an immigration court accompaniment, under the auspices of the New Sanctuary Coalition here in NYC. We started talking and I found him to be a fascinating guy with a really eclectic, creative, and political background including all kinds of awards and honors. So, I’m happy to be speaking today with actor, musician, composer, professor and political activist, Fellow at the Center for Ballet and the Arts, and also BMI Woody Guthrie Fellow, Andy Teirstein…”
Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear my wide ranging conversation with Andy, as heard on the Arts Express radio program broadcast on WBAI FM, WBAI.org and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
“Earlier this year we had the great Al Pacino’s memoirs published, and now we have the new memoir of another great actor available, Anthony Hopkins, who as a child had to hear his schoolmates call him “Elephant Head.” And while both Pacino and Hopkins grew up in working class circumstances with difficult upbringings, their writing voices, like their acting voices, could not be more different…”
Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above for my commentary on the new Hopkins memoir, We Did Okay, Kid, as broadcast this week on the Arts Express radio show, heard on WBAI-FM and Pacifica stations across the nation.
“It’s Shakespeare’s 461st birthday coming up April 23rd, and you might wonder, what does an author write after it seems like he’s done it all?”
For the answer to that, click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to listen to my commentary, as broadcast on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
If you are of a certain age, growing up as a high school or college kid during the late 60s or early 70s, then odds are that at least one time as you were toking up, the surrealist record LPs of the Firesign Theatre invaded your brain. As the albums brilliantly shifted in and out of tv, film and radio parody, they broke down walls of time, space and authority. Now in a new book about the Firesign Theater, called Firesign, author Jeremy Braddock provides a wonderful non-linear look at the four influential guys who turned the art of radio and recording upside down. I was happy to have as our guest on the show, the author of Firesign, Jeremy Braddock.
Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear the interview as heard on the Arts Express radio program broadcast this week on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation
“It’s said that talent is common, and that’s true. But what is much more rare than talent is longevity. How does one take talent and have it develop and last decade upon decade? I’m thinking about this, because I’ve just finished reading the new autobiography by Al Pacino called Sonny Boy, and it was totally engrossing. No one would call It a work of literature, but you can certainly hear Al’s voice loud and clear, as if he were sitting in a bar with you telling intimate stories about his life and work…”
Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear my complete review of Al Pacino’s memoir, Sonny Boy, as broadcast yesterday on the Arts Express program, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
Our radio drama of a Japanese ghost story for Halloween by Lafcadio Hearn.
Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear the story as broadcast on Arts Express yesterday on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.
If you feel like us, that our concerns in this election cycle have been stuffed into the washer and hung up to dry, and that the elections are a senseless distraction, take heart. Mary Murphy and myself have come to the rescue. We perform three short pieces by the great Caitlin Johnstone, and they’re the the last segments you’ll ever need to hear again about the the so-called elections. Halleluljah.
Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear the segment as broadcast on Arts Express this week on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica stations across the nation.
Hollywood Walk of Famer Glynn Turman, who is the last living member of the original cast of A Raisin in the Sun, speaking at the Lloyd Richards Way ceremony, tells three great funny, touching stories about Lloyd, and how director Lloyd Richards shaped his life forever.
Lloyd Richards Way. The first new street co-naming in 14 years in the Times Square area, and the first ever in the area for a person of color. More to come.
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.
This week, it’s 460 years since the birth of Shakespeare, and since we are living in what can only be termed apocalyptic times, it might be fitting to take a look at the most apocalyptic of Shakespeare’s plays, King Lear. Let’s call this episode of my continuing series,“Shakespeare Without Tears,” King Lear: Apocalypse Now.
Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear my commentary as broadcast today on WBAI-FM and Pacifica stations across the nation.
The Committee to Celebrate Lloyd Richards and friends at City Hall
As mentioned on Wednesday, the New York City Council approved the naming of West 47th Street between Broadway and 8th Ave as “Lloyd Richards Way.” Below is part of the addendum we submitted to the New York City Council minutes of that day, when the resolution was approved by a vote of 46-0 with one abstention. At a later date, I will detail more about how this finally came to pass after Julius Hollingsworth, Chet Whye, Jr., and I worked for almost three years to make this happen.
“It is thrilling that the New York City Council has the opportunity to vote today on co-naming West 47th Street between Broadway and 8th Avenue, as “Lloyd Richards Way.” This is a long overdue honor for the legendary Broadway theater director and educator, Lloyd Richards. Broadway is the beating heart of New York City, and the beating heart of Broadway is Lloyd Richards. His accomplishments and influence have been wide and deep and affected every aspect of American theater. Actress Ruby Dee has said that “Lloyd Richards was the Father of the Modern American theater”; James Earl Jones said, “Lloyd Richards was the rabbit everyone was trying to catch”; Charles S. Dutton said, “Lloyd Richards had two sons, but many children”: actors, directors, playwrights, lighting designers, scenic designers and more. Thousands of theater workers and artists have directly benefited artistically and economically from Lloyd Richards’ efforts.
It is befitting that the street to be co-named after the legendary Broadway theater director, teacher, producer, and artistic director is West 47th Street: for that is the street where Lloyd Richards’ groundbreaking production of A Raisin in the Sun in 1959 was first performed at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, smashing the color barrier on Broadway for African-American directors of drama. West 47th Street is also the location of the Theater Development Fund TKTS booth—and Lloyd was, among many other crucial positions in the American theater, at one time the Chair of the Board of Trustees at TDF. We thank New York City Council member Erik Bottcher for sponsoring this street co-naming and navigating it through the City Council.
On June 29th of this year, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine issued a proclamation proclaiming the day as “Lloyd Richards Day” in recognition of Lloyd’s many contributions to the artistic and cultural life of New York City. June 29th marked both the day of Mr. Richards’ birth and that of his passing, 87 years later, in 2006. Now the New York City Council has the opportunity to vote on making that recognition of Lloyd Richards a more permanent one. With this street co-naming, you are making sure that one of New York City’s most important cultural heroes is not forgotten. Lloyd Richards was not a man to tout his own lifetime of achievement. His way was always quiet influence. It is up to us to preserve his legacy.
Let’s take a walk through some of Lloyd Richards’ many accomplishments in more detail to understand why preserving his legacy is so important to this city and American theater.
Back in their struggling days, when Lloyd Richards and his friend, Sidney Poitier had to pool their change to split a hot dog to eat, they may not have realized that it was just a matter of time before Richards would be directing Poitier in the ground-breaking Broadway production of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. Lloyd had come to NYC shortly after a stint in the armed services during WW2, serving with a unit that would become The Tuskegee Airmen. Soon he was starring on Broadway as an actor, but became even more well known as a consummate acting teacher. Yes, the unknown Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee were among some of his early acting students. And in 1959, he directed the legendary production of A Raisin in the Sun at the Ethel Barrymore Theater on Broadway, a groundbreaking production where almost every member of that cast became stars—and in the process, Lloyd Richards became the first African-American director to direct a drama on Broadway.
That would be enough for any one man but there’s so much more to Lloyd Richards’s legacy. As artistic director for decades of the O’Neill Theater’s National Playwrights Conference, Mr. Richards brought dozens of playwrights to the attention of Broadway producers, including John Guare, Lanford Wilson, David Henry Hwang, Christopher Durang, Wendy Wasserstein, Richard Wesley, and Lee Blessing among many others, all as a direct result of Lloyd Richards’ efforts.
But perhaps the most famous playwright that Lloyd Richards mentored was August Wilson, whose work has now been brought both to Broadway and the movie screen. In 1987, the great James Earl Jones—whom Mr. Richards had earlier directed in the one man show Paul Robeson–starred in August Wilson’s play Fences, and Lloyd Richards won the Tony award for Best Director of a Play for his direction of that play. Lloyd subsequently directed five more of Wilson’s works on Broadway.
As impressive as Lloyd’s directing work was—and that included the direction of one of the episodes of the enormously popular Roots mini-series—his direction may not have been his greatest accomplishment. In addition, Mr. Richards was known as a consummate educator of actors, a teacher who was unforgettable to his students who spoke of Lloyd’s quiet way of giving them a sense of artistic purpose and independence. As Dean of the Yale Drama School, as Professor of Theater at Hunter College and New York University, as teacher at the acting school of the Negro Ensemble Company, The Actor’s Center, and his own studio, Lloyd Richards trained hundreds and hundreds of actors including Angela Bassett, Courtney Vance, Kate Burton, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Cicely Tyson. Mr. Richards often said about his actor training that his job was to “prepare birds to fly,” while he stood watching on the ground.
And then concomitant with the direction and the teaching, Mr. Richards was also an able and influential theater administrator. He was a founding member and president of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society; he served, as mentioned before, as chair of the board of directors at TDF; he served on the board of the American Theater wing; he was Artistic Director of National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center; and Artistic Director of the Yale Repertory Company.
Lloyd Richards had garnered many awards for his work, all the way up to the National Medal of the Arts, awarded by the Clinton White House. But recognition by the City of New York of the man who has given so much to the cultural and economic life of New York City with a permanent public marker in the theater district, where such a sign of recognition truly belongs, is particularly gratifying.”
We are happy to announce that our campaign to get a street in the theater district named after the legendary theater director and acting teacher Lloyd Richards is coming to a successful conclusion! The New York City Council will be voting on the omnibus street co-naming bill today, and we fully expect it to be passed. Love to Julius Hollingsworth and Chet Whye Jr. for putting their all into this effort and making it happen. We couldn’t ask for more savvy and dedicated colleagues in this endeavor. Props, too, to City Council member Erik Bottcher and his crackerjack staff, especially Carl Wilson. With their help we were able to overcome a 14 year moratorium on street namings in the theater district.
Great Balls of Fire and other exultations of exclamatory joy! Hoo-roo and hoo-rah! We made it by the skin of our teeth through one more year of daily posts. I hope they’ve provided some sort of diversion and interest for you. As is my custom, on anniversary day, I post what I feel were my favorite audio pieces of the year. I’ll try to keep the list short this time, a baker’s dozen, so that you can get a chance to sample the ones you missed or re-visit posts that you enjoyed.
The SAG-AFTRA actors strike has now been going since July 14th, more than 3 months without a contract. We’ve heard a lot in the press from both sides about the seemingly intractable negotiations–when there are negotiations–but I thought it could be brought closer to home by talking with someone who our regular listeners know, having done so many wonderful readings and performances on Arts Express, the wonderful actress Mary Murphy.
Click on the triangle or the mp3 link above in order to hear my interview with Mary Murphy as as broadcast on the Arts Express radio program today on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the country.
I’m grateful to Stephanie Schubert, Operations Coordinator of the Pacifica Network, for conducting and publishing this interview she did with me about the recent Arts Express production of To The Lighthouse. At the end of the article, you’ll find a link to our podcast page, if you’d like to hear the production.
To The Lighthouse was a novel I had been intrigued with since my twenties. When I heard that it had just gone out of copyright, I thought it would be fun to write a radio adaptation and to direct and edit it.
I started writing this adaptation back in January of this year, rehearsed it and recorded it in April and May with a fine company of actors, and then edited it in June and July. I’m happy to say we’ve finally completed it.
Here’s the logline:
In this adaptation, prepared especially for radio, Virginia Woolf’s ground-breaking stream of consciousness novel, To The Lighthouse, is brought to life.
In a sort of ghost story that plays with time, memory, and recollection, a young boy, over a period of ten years, tries to journey to the lighthouse, a stormy boat ride away from his family’s summer vacation home. The life of his nurturing mother, hemmed in by social and family strictures, is contrasted with that of her artist friend who lives in artistic freedom, but alone.
Included is a brief three minute introduction to give the context of the novel and the era in which Virginia Woolf was writing.
