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Lloyd Richards, who was born in Toronto, Canada, moved to Detroit, Michigan, with his family when he was four. He graduated from Wayne State University before moving to New York in 1947 to pursue an acting career. His commitment to the theatre is equal to his achievements as an actor, director, and educator. Mr. Richards is among a small coterie of influential and widely respected theatre figures of the twentieth century. After an extraordinary career that spans six decades, he will forever be associated with two preeminent African American dramatists, Lorraine Hansberry and August Wilson. However, his contributions to new voices in the theatre deserve equal notice. Mr. Richards served as Dean of the Drama School at Yale University and as Artistic Director of Yale Repertory Theatre from 1979 to 1991; he also served as Artistic Director of the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theatre Center from 1968 to 1999. Among his numerous awards, prizes, and honorary degrees are a Tony Award in 1984 for his direction of August Wilson's Fences and the National Medal of the Arts in 1993. He was awarded the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (October 2002) for his efforts "in shaping modern theater and guiding some of today's leading voices to the stage."11 sat down with Mr. Richards, now 86, in his Manhattan brownstone for seven hour-long sessions, commencing in October 2002 and ending October 4, 2005, two days after August Wilson's death.
NGN: What have you been doing lately?
LR: Well, I get up every morning and check to see if I am all there. Once I have done that and got an affirmative response, I put my pants on, one leg at a time. I'm armored for the day. I choose to spend a certain amount of it teaching because I get a lot back from it. And I don't mean money. I mean what I get in terms of the students' responses. I mean to see their skills develop because I do teach practice and skills. I now teach at Actor's Studio, Acting Company, Fordham University.
NGN: What was it like growing up in Detroit during the Depression?
LR: The Depression was not a great time to be around. What it meant was that...