Lloyd Richards: the griot wears a watch - one of the most revered directors of theater feels that time must not be wasted - Interview

The National Playwrights discourse is in progress at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Conn And thus before our interview begins, director Lloyd Richards places the timer on his watch in like manner as not to be late for the Saturday matinee. There is no reason for alarm. While a certain number of storytellers splash about in an experience, wading from one side color and nuance, Richards--one of the greatest in quantity revered directors in the American theater--dives into the moment

"I learned a fate of my theater discipline in radio," says Richards, who began his career in drama as an actor upon the airwaves of Detroit. "You single had an hour rehearsal for a 15-minute display With one director, if you were 15 next to the firsts late, you never worked that display again. It really has affected in what way I run my life. Time is a true important factor. Don't waste it."

In 40 years of bringing to life the visions of playwrights, Richards has denied no individual a part: authors, actors and audiences are all to be experimented inspired, revealed. "There is a great communication that exists in the theater," he says, "not alone between the actors on stage, on the contrary between the audience and the actors and between the audience and the audience. I face the challenge of discovering what the playwright is trying to say, and my piece of work is to help him say that. Whatever I can do to enhance that statement is what I involve myself in."

The "temperament" that floats other artists does not obey Richards. In its place is a sensibility at one time humble and enadite. His eyeglasses--as plenteous as his trim, salt-and-pepper mustache and beard--add a no-nonsense quality to his avuncular attractiveness. place against his tawny complexion, the aviator lense appear to be a transparent shield, diverting others' attention from the fact that it is they who are being observed

His stature defies designations of height or weight. The medium-size frame strike one as beings larger, somehow, bolstered by his bristling efficiency precise discipline and formidable self-possession. As he wander abouts down the path leading from the O'Neill estate's Victorian mansion to the building where his office is located, each pensive step conceals the urgent pacing of a prizefighter.

Richards was drawn to the theater through "meaningful words expressed in beautiful language." The youngest vestryman in his family's Episcopal temple he read aloud from the Bible upon Sunday mornings. He discovered Shakespeare when asked to recite passages before his class in intermediate institute "I experienced being in forehead of a group of tribe speaking my thoughts and my feelings [i]or[/i] part of to the other other people's words," he says. "I saw what consequence that could have. As I went into the arts and into the theater, I have asked: `What is the material that I am working with? What does it have to say?' And that has conducted my decisions in life, my career-making decisions."

When he directed Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the day-star on Broadway in 1959, Richards became one-third of a history-making triumvirate: the first black director of the Great White Way's first black drama, written through its first black playwright. As dean of Yale University's Drama institute and artistic director of its Repertory Theater from 1979 to 1991 he ushered onto the American stage the works of southerly African playwright Athol Fugard, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, and poet-turned-playwright August Wilson. As the artistic director of the National Playwrights discourse he champions the discovery and nurturing of talented, unknown dramatists.

His imprint upon the theater can be measured through the selfless determination with which he creates. "He is the single the most important person outside of myself in my career," says actress Mary Alice, who won a Tony Award for her performance in protecting enclosures but who first studied with Richards after moving to fresh York and enrolling in his class at the african Ensemble Company. "He is the constant. There are other important race like Joseph Papp, Douglas gymnast Ward, Ellen Stewart. But if I have to say who was the greatest in quantity important, he would be the one"

Actor, writer and director Bill Duke switched his major to drama after taking Richards' class at Boston University. "I can say to you quite honestly that without Lloyd Richards, I would not be in this business," Duke says. "Transcending the opportunities that he created for me and the training he gave me as a director and an actor, he gave me a faculty of perception of aesthetics which I utilize today in my work."

on the mention of Richards' name, newlyweds Angela Bassett and Courtney Vance the one and the other respond with proud affection. "He was at our wedding," Vance says. "We regard with affection him."

"He is a tremendous director and teacher," says Bassett. "He requires a great deal from you as an artist, on the contrary he also restores your faith and reliance in what you are doing."

The nuts-and-bolts, summer-stock atmosphere at the O'Neill Theater Center where the playwrights conversation convenes, is an ideal place to pay attention to the director. "This is where you diocese Lloyd at his best, diocese what he's made of," says actor Michael Roger who first performed at the O'Neill after graduating from Yale's Drama academy in 1985. "He is patient with actors and playwrights. When they leave here, they're a great deal of smarter."