Richard Wesley is currently Associate Professor in Playwriting and Screenwriting. He was educated at Howard University in Washington, DC, graduating with a BFA in 1967.
His plays include, The Black Terror, a Drama Desk winner, produced at the New York Shakespeare Festival’s Public Theatre, in 1971; The Mighty Gents, an Audelco Award winner, premiered on Broadway in 1978.
The 1970s also saw Prof. Wesley embark on a motion picture career, penning screenplays for the motion pictures, Uptown Saturday Night (1974), Let’s Do It Again (Warner Bros., 1975), Native Son (1984) and Fast Forward (Columbia Pictures, 1985).
Prof. Wesley’s teleplays include, Murder Without Motive (1991), Mandela And De Klerk (1997), and Bojangles (2000). He has also written episodes for the television series, Fallen Angels and 100 Centre Street.
His play AUTUMN was awarded an AUDELCO Award for Outstanding Playwriting in 2017. The opera Five, for which Richard wrote the libretto, had its premiere at the Long Beach Opera Company in San Pedro, California. Richard has also written three librettos for the Trilogy Opera Company of Newark, NJ: Papa Doc, composed by Dorothy Rudd Moore; Kenyatta, composed by Trent Johnson; Booker T. and W.E.B., composed by Julius Williams; and Scott, Garner and Gray composed by Dwayne Fulton.
Prof. Wesley served as an Adjunct at the following institutions: Manhattanville College, Wesleyan University, Borough of Manhattan Community College and Rutgers University.
| Credit Type | Production | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Playwright | The Last Street Play | 1996-97 Season |