Lloyd Richards

Infobox actor
name = Lloyd Richards


imagesize = 180px
birthname = Lloyd George Richards
birthdate = birth date|1919|6|29
birthplace = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
deathdate = death date and age|2006|6|29|1919|6|29
deathplace = New York City, New York
occupation = Theatre director, actor
spouse = Barbara Davenport (1958-2006)
yearsactive =
tonyawards = Best Direction of a Play
1987 "Fences"
Regional Theatre Award
1991 Yale Repertory Theatre
awards = Drama Desk Outstanding New Play
1987 "Fences"
1990 "The Piano Lesson"
National Medal of Arts
1993 Lifetime Achievement

Lloyd George Richards (June 29 1919 – June 29 2006) was a Canadian-American theatre director, actor, and dean of the Yale School of Drama from 1979 to 1991, and Yale University professor emeritus.

Biography

Richards was born in Toronto, Ontario, but was raised in Detroit Michigan. His father, a Jamaican carpenter turned auto-industry worker, died when Richards was nine years old. Soon after, his mother lost her eyesight, he and his brother Allan to keep the family together. He later went on to study law at Wayne University where instead he found his way in theatrical arts after a brief break during World War II while giving service in the U.S. Army Air Force.

Among Richards' accomplishments, include his staging the original production of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun", debuting on Broadway to standing ovations on 11 March 1959, and in 1984 he introduced August Wilson to Broadway in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", and in .

As head of the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, he helped develop the careers of Wendy Wasserstein, Christopher Durang, Lee Blessing and David Henry Hwang.

Richards died of heart failure on his eighty-seventh birthday in New York City.

Awards and nominations

;Awards
* 1987: Drama Desk Award Outstanding New Play - "Fences"
* 1987: Tony Award Best Direction of a Play - "Fences"
* 1987: Tony Award Best Play - "Fences"
* 1990: Drama Desk Award Outstanding New Play - "The Piano Lesson"
* 1991: Regional Theatre Tony Award - Yale Repertory Theatre
* 1993: National Medal of Arts
* 2002: Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize

;Nominations
* 1960: Tony Award Best Direction of a Play - "A Raisin in the Sun"
* 1981: Tony Award Best Play - "A Lesson From Aloes"
* 1987: Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Play - "Fences"
* 1988: Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Play - "Joe Turner's Come and Gone"
* 1988: Drama Desk Award Outstanding New Play - "Joe Turner's Come and Gone"
* 1988: Tony Award Best Direction of a Play - "Joe Turner's Come and Gone"
* 1988: Tony Award Best Play - "A Walk in the Woods"
* 1988: Tony Award Best Play - "Joe Turner's Come and Gone"
* 1989: Drama Desk Award Outstanding Revival - "Long Day's Journey Into Night"
* 1989: Tony Award Best Revival - "Ah, Wilderness!"
* 1990: Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Play - "The Piano Lesson"
* 1990: Tony Award Best Direction of a Play - "The Piano Lesson"
* 1990: Tony Award Best Play - "The Piano Lesson"
* 1996: Drama Desk Award Outstanding Director of a Play - "Seven Guitars"
* 1996: Tony Award Best Direction of a Play - "Seven Guitars"

References

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External links

*ibdb|15979
*imdb|0724219
* [http://www.visionaryproject.com/richardslloyd Lloyd Richards' oral history video excerpts] at The National Visionary Leadership Project