24 Facts About Richard Foreman

Richard Foreman has written, directed and designed over fifty of his own plays, both in New York City and abroad.

Richard Foreman has received three Obie Awards for Best Play of the Year, and received four other Obies for directing and for sustained achievement.

Richard Foreman has received the annual Literature Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a "Lifetime Achievement in the Theater" award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the PEN American Center Master American Dramatist Award, a MacArthur Fellowship, and in 2004 was elected an officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of France.

Richard Foreman was born in New York City, but spent many of his formative years in Scarsdale, New York.

Two years after Arthur Miller's original production premiered on Broadway, Richard Foreman produced and directed The Crucible at Scarsdale High School.

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The documentary reveals that Richard Foreman was adopted — a fact he did not discover until he was in his 30s.

Richard Foreman admits that his adoption might have contributed his feelings of being uncomfortable in his body and in the world.

At Yale, Richard Foreman studied under John Gassner, the drama critic and former literary manager at The Theatre Guild.

Richard Foreman moved to New York City directly after graduating from Yale School of Drama and worked as a manager of apartment complexes.

Richard Foreman described feeling "overwhelmed" upon seeing The Living Theatre's productions of The Connection and The Brig.

Richard Foreman attended screenings of avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas at The Living Theatre.

Richard Foreman finally inserted himself into the avant-garde scene when police interrupted a screening and seized a copy of the 1963 film, Flaming Creatures, and charged Jonas Mekas, Ken Jacobs, and Florence Karpf for violating New York's obscenity laws.

Richard Foreman called Mekas, offering his help, and over the following years, Richard Foreman and Mekas became close friends and collaborators.

Richard Foreman began working for Mekas and Maciunas, overseeing their movie theater, Film-Maker's Cinematheque at 80 Wooster Street.

Richard Foreman became heavily involved in the development of Maciunas' Fluxhouse Cooperatives, which consisted of converted SoHo lofts designed to be living and working spaces for artists.

Richard Foreman himself has spoken about the significance of her writings to his work.

The primary connection between the works of Stein and Richard Foreman, she proposes, is the writers' conception of consciousness in writing.

Richard Foreman mounted his first production with Ontological-Hysteric Theatre in 1968 at the Film-Maker's Cinematheque on Wooster Street, where he worked under the Fluxus leader George Maciunas.

Kirby notes that Richard Foreman makes use of written text that is projected on screens on the set.

Richard Foreman's work has been primarily produced by and performed at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater in New York, though he has gained acclaim as director for such productions as Bertolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera at Lincoln Center and the premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks's Venus at the Public Theater.

Richard Foreman's plays have been co-produced by The New York Shakespeare Festival, La Mama Theatre, The Wooster Group, the Festival d'Autumn in Paris and the Vienna Festival.

Richard Foreman has collaborated with composer Stanley Silverman on eight music theater pieces produced by The Music Theater Group and The New York City Opera.

In 2004, Richard Foreman established The Bridge Project with Sophie Haviland to promote international art exchange between countries around the world through workshops, symposiums, theater productions, visual art, performance and multimedia events.

Richard Foreman has won seven Village Voice Obie Awards, including three for "Best Play", and one for Lifetime Achievement.