Lloyd Richards--Director and Educator.(includes information on dramatist August Wilson)(Interview)

Lloyd Richards has spent more than 40 years in the theater and has collaborated with some of the best playwrights nationally and internationally. A quiet, soft-spoken man, he has a gentle manner and a wonderful sense of humor. To meet him you might not imagine that he has been such a powerful force in the theater.

Richards grew up in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Jamaican immigrants. After graduating from college and serving as a pilot in the Air Force during World War II, Richards began a career in acting and reciting. He also began to teach part-time. While teaching, he met Sidney Poitier, who encouraged Richards to pursue directing. Poitier told him that if he ever did a play on Broadway, he wanted Richards to direct it. The play turned out to be A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. Richards became the first African American to direct a play on Broadway.

Throughout his career, Richards has helped many aspiring playwrights and collaborated with a number of them, including August Wilson. Richards won a Tony Award in 1986 for directing Wilson's play Fences.

Richards has also worked as an educator. He ran the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in …