Richard

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Lore & Background

Richard Foreman wrote, directed and designed over 50 of his own plays, both in New York City and abroad. He received three Obie Awards for Best Play of the Year, and received four other Obies for directing and for sustained achievement. 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. In May 2025, The Brooklyn Rail published a Tribute to Richard Foreman with contributions from poet Charles Bernstein, musician John Zorn, Richard Schechner, Kate Valk, Bonnie Marranca, P. Adams Sitney, Shauna Kelly, painter Susan Bee, Tony Torn, Jay Sanders, executive director and chief curator of Artists Space, Andrew Lampert, Tom Sellar, Travis Just, Felix Bernstein, Ivan Sokolov, Willem Dafoe, and artist/performer Kate Manheim.

In Their Own Story

Edward L. Friedman was born in New York City on June 10, 1937. He was adopted by Albert and Claire (née Levine) Foreman of Scarsdale, New York, who changed his name to Richard Foreman. Foreman's birth mother was an orthodox Jew, and his birth father was Catholic 'with artistic talent,' according to information he received from the Jewish adoption agency, Louise Wise Services. Both his adopted parents were Jewish. Foreman said, '...my parents were very supportive, but nevertheless, I didn't feel that close to them in certain ways.' At Scarsdale High School (SHS), from which he graduated in 1955, Foreman was heavily involved in the theater department. A 2018 documentary produced by the Lower East Side Biography Project outlined Foreman's early motivations for pursuing work in the theater. The documentary maintains that Foreman suffered from extreme shyness as a child; it also reveals his adoption. Foreman went on to study at Brown University (B.A., 1959) and received an M.F.A. in playwriting from the Yale School of Drama in 1962. As a freshman, he starred as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, receiving much acclaim, despite his later stated antipathy for Miller's work. Later at Brown, Foreman founded the Production Workshop, Brown University's student theatre group, while taking part in other student theater productions. In 1993, Brown presented him with an honorary doctorate. At Yale, Foreman studied under John Gassner, the drama critic and former literary manager at The Theatre Guild.

Reader's Guide

Richard Foreman moved to New York City directly after graduating from Yale School of Drama and worked as a manager of apartment complexes. Before finding his footing as a theater practitioner, Foreman became an avid patron of New York's downtown experimental theater and film scene. Foreman described feeling 'overwhelmed' upon seeing The Living Theatre's productions of The Connection and The Brig. Foreman also attended screenings of avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas at The Living Theatre. Mekas' early cinematic work had a profound impact on Foreman. In The Lower East Side Biography Project documentary, Foreman stated, 'those [films] really got to me. I thought this is the most poetic, beautiful, creative art that I've seen Americans producing.' Foreman claimed that, for a long time, he was too shy to introduce himself to Judith Malina and Julian Beck (the founders of The Living Theatre) or to Jonas Mekas, but fascinated by Mekas' work, Foreman and his wife, Amy Taubin, began following Mekas as he filmed various projects in New York. 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. Foreman called Mekas, offering his help, and over the following years, Foreman and Mekas became close friends and collaborators. Through his connection to Jonas Mekas, Foreman became acquainted with Fluxus architect and artist, George Maciunas. Foreman began working for Mekas and Maciunas, overseeing their movie theater, the Film-Maker's Cinematheque at 80 Wooster Street. Foreman also became heavily involved in the development of Maciunas' Fluxhouse Fluxhouse Co-Operative, which consisted of converted SoHo lofts designed to be living and working spaces for artists. During the 1960s, Foreman also got to know theater director Robert Wilson, filmmaker and actor Jack Smith, and theater director and scholar Richard Schechner, all of whom encouraged Foreman to start producing his own work. With Schechner, Foreman formed a theater collective in 1968 called 'A Bunch of Experimental Theaters of New York Inc,' which included seven theater companies: Mabou Mines, The Manhattan Theatre Club, Meredith Monk/The House, The Performance Group, The Theatre of the Ridiculous, Section Ten, and Foreman's company, Ontological-Hysteric Theatre. From this point on, Foreman began producing works under the moniker 'Ontological-Hysteric.' The Ontological-Hysteric Theater (OHT) was founded by Foreman in 1968. The core of the company's annual programming has been Richard Foreman's theater pieces. 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.

Did You Know?

• Richard Foreman was born Edward L. Friedman and was adopted by Albert and Claire Foreman of Scarsdale, New York, who changed his name.
• As a freshman at Brown University, Foreman starred as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, receiving much acclaim despite his later stated antipathy for Miller's work.
• Foreman founded the Production Workshop, Brown University's student theatre group, while taking part in other student theater productions.
• Foreman called Jonas Mekas to offer help after police seized a copy of the 1963 film Flaming Creatures and charged Mekas, Ken Jacobs, and Florence Karpf for violating New York's obscenity laws.
• In 2004, Foreman was elected an officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of France.