Rick Foster is co-founder and Resident Playwright of Duende.
Rick is a native Californian. He is the author and translator of many plays. Among them his The Heroes of Xochiquipa (written for Thomas F. Maguire) won the Bay Area Theater Critics Award for Outstanding New Play in 1984. Heroes went on to performances in Los Angeles, Washington DC, Princeton, and Sonora. His translation/adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening has been professionally produced in Los Angeles, and Boise, Idaho and at such colleges and universities as Carnegie-Mellon University, Hunter College, Roosevelt University, Cabrillo College, and Notre Dame College in Belmont, California. In 1995, while on staff at Sierra Repertory Theatre, he began his cycle of plays on California history. To date these comprise Gunpowder Man, Friendly Fire: A Forty-niner’s Life with the Miwok, Uncle Sam’s Fandango, Corrido de un Sobreviviente, Women of the Bear, The Betsy Ross of the Bears, Legacy, Seabiscuit, The Stephen Hill Affair, Wicked Dick Three Eyes, Inventing the West, and Dust Storm. Foster’s The Great Blight with music written by David Maloney premiered in Tuolumne County in October of 1999. Rick has also written science history plays for Duende. To date these comprise The Starry Messenger and The Air We Share. His newest play for Duende is the U.S. history play Money Man produced in 2015. His 1997 one-woman play Vivien, earned rave reviews at its Sonora premiere with Janis Stevens as Vivien Leigh. Vivien has gone on to productions in Carmel, Foster City, Sacramento, Mendocino, Oroville, and San Francisco where the production won three Dean Goodman Choice Awards. His translations of Arthur Schnitzler (Reigen) and Anton Chekhov (Seagull) have been produced to acclaim. His 2003 play On Fire! won both the Glenn F. Myers award for “Conservation Education and Interpretive Services” and a “Superior Service Award in Wildfire Prevention” from the U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region. Rick was honored with a 2001 Director’s Award from the California Arts Council for his “Immeasurable Contribution To The Field Of Playwriting In California.”