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Frank Rich to Speak in Norfolk
Frank Rich, op-ed columnist and senior writer for the New York Times, will deliver the annual Brendan Gill Lecture at the Greenwoods Theater in Norfolk on Saturday, October 5 at 4 p.m. There will be a reception following the talk in the theater's Brendan Gill Cafe.
The Brendan Gill Lecture was established by the Norfolk Library Associates in 1997 to honor the life of a man who enriched the Norfolk community for sixty years, and who was a devoted friend to the Norfolk Library. New Yorker columnist, theater critic, novelist, biographer, social historian and preservationist, Brendan Gill led the charge, with Jacqueline Onassis, to rescue Grand Central Station in New York. Previous Brendan Gill Lecturers have been Frank McCourt, Amanda Vaill and George Plimpton.
This year's honored guest speaker, Frank Rich, covers much of the same journalistic turf as Brendan Gill did. As chief drama critic for the New York Times from 1980-94, he became legendary for his uncompromising and quotable reviews, which are collected in his 1998 publication, Hot Seat: Theater Criticism for the New York Times, 1980-1993. Rich's recently published memoir, Ghost Light, describes his youth and coming of age, wherein an early passion for the theater became a sort of beacon that tethered his attention and carried him through the uncharted vagaries of a broken and insecure family life. He went on to Harvard College, where he was the editorial chairman of the Harvard Crimson and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in American History and Literature.
Mr. Rich began writing daily columns for the Times during the presidential campaign of 1992, when he and the paper’s Washington reporter, Maureen Dowd, covered the political conventions. They repeated the assignment during the Clintons' inauguration week in Washington in January 1993. He has continued writing regular op-ed columns since 1994, and was given the additional title of senior writer for the New York Times Magazine in 1999. In both the Times and elsewhere, Mr. Rich's articles and commentaries draw on his background as a theater critic and observer of art, entertainment and politics.
This event is free of charge, and reservations can be made by calling the Norfolk Library at 860-542-5075.
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