Getting Out of Bed with Richard Foreman: Love Among the Retro Avant-Garde. (2016)

Downtown NYC absurdist playwright Richard Foreman (b. 1937) won a MacArthur "Genius" Award in 1992, just as his wife, actress Kate Manheim, was diagnosed with spinal stenosis. He continues to care for her in their SOHO loft. In this intimate short film, Foreman reflects on inspiration in a godless cosmos, the 20th Century avant-garde, and what art does not tell us about love. Richard Foreman has written, directed and designed over fifty of his own plays both in New York City and abroad. Five of his plays have received "OBIE" awards as Best Play of the Year-and he has received five other "OBIE'S," including Best Director and Sustained Achievement. Foreman has received the 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 Club Master American Dramatist Award, a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, and in 2004, he was elected officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of France. His archives and work materials have been acquired by the Bobst Library of New York University.