Richard Kuranda is an American director and artist of stage, cinema and television. He currently is the director of the Raue Center for the Arts in Crystal Lake, Illinois and the current Artistic Director of an Off Broadway company, Epic Repertory Theater Company. He resides in Illinois with his wife and three children. In 2005, The New York Times profiled Kuranda as one of the nation's top theater talents to watch (at the time he was the youngest producing director of a Tony Award winning Theater). Kuranda has had working relations with Former Senator Bob Kerry, Senator Christopher J. Dodds and others. Kuranda spent part of the 90's as an independent contractor working on several projects with Xe Services LLC.
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Born in 1969 in North Eastern Pennsylvania, Kuranda was educated at the Jesuit Scranton Preparatory School, then attended West Virginia University as a scholarship student and at the Actors Studio program at the New School for Social Research from which he holds two Masters degrees under the guidance of Romulus Linney and Arthur Penn. As a graduate student he was mentored by Norman Mailer. Kuranda has lectured at Yale, Harvard, NYU and various others. He also served as an advocate for the United Nations in conjunction with the Universal Forum of Cultures in Barcelona 2004.
Kuranda's first professional film work was as a teenager, discovered by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Jason Miller. Kuranda worked for several years as a youth in the Scranton Theater. His first professional theatrical work was at the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival. His film work includes a series of films with Bill Plympton, which are part of the MOMA permanent collection. Kuranda's collaboration with Plympton helped launch the budding New York Underground Film and Video Festival helmed by Todd Phillips and Andrew Gurland. The New York Times chronicled the festival's opening with a half-page photo of Kuranda cutting his tongue with a dinner knife. Kuranda's early work at the Actors Studio included a lengthy exploration of Oedipus Rex with Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Estelle Parsons.
He is the former Producing Director of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. He also served as interim Artistic Director as well for The O'Neill and all its programs. While at the O'Neill, Kuranda was credited by the New York Times [1] as restoring confidence to its national programs with the addition of Michael Bush, Wendy C. Goldberg and Oz Scott. Projects developed under his tenure at the O'Neill included In The Heights and {title of show} amongst others which have debuted at nearly every major regional theater in the US. He served as the Head of Operations at NY's Signature Theatre Company under James Houghton. Kuranda co-founded Epic Repertory Theater in NY and in a three-year span produced nearly 24 off Broadway plays including works by David Auburn, JT Rogers, Romulus Linney and Lee Blessing. Kuranda was a principal at Elliott Associates ; having opened doors to film production in his first three.
Kuranda is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio, and the former Director of Professional Development for The Actors Studio Drama School at the New School for Social Research (The New School) having replaced the retiring Associate Dean, Stephen Benedict. Kuranda was recruited from the Signature Theater to come back to the West Village institution by James Lipton. The program was the third generation of Dramatic Workshop run by Erwin Piscator. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. Kuranda serves as a Mentor for the Kennedy Center, Arts In Crisis program.
Kuranda cites his collaborations with Bill Plympton, Jack Temchin, Al Pacino, JT Rogers and James Lipton as defining moments in his career.