Ronald Rand Represents USA In LET IT BE ART! At Sri Lanka's Colombo International Theater Festival

Goodwill Cultural Ambassador Ronald Rand will represent the United States, performing in his internationally celebrated solo play, LET IT BE ART! bringing to life Harold Clurman, "the elder statesman of the American Theatre in the Colombo International Theater Festival, in Colombo, Sri Lanka on August 4th.

Approaching his celebrated second decade, Ronald Rand's LET IT BE ART! has received two critically acclaimed productions Off-Broadway, standing ovations across five continents in 23 countries from Belarus to Thailand, across 20 U.S. states, and represented the USA at the recent World Theatre Olympics in India.

The moment Ronald Rand takes the stage in a tour-de-force performance, embodying Harold Clurman through voice, gesture and size, audiences are thrust into a world of boundless passion for the theater, taken on an inspiring journey that lingers within their consciousness for a very long time.

Encouraging audiences to change the world for the better, Harold Clurman in LET IT BE ART! inspires audiences to "live life to its fullest" with joy, courage, and compassion.

Set in New York City in Clurman's apartment in 1980, we follow Clurman on the journey of his life from his education at the Sorbonne in Paris with his roommate, Aaron Copland, his beginnings at the famed Provincetown Players with Eugene O'Neill and Robert Edmond Jones, meet Lee Strasberg and Cheryl Crawford as they found The Group Theatre with Clurman, becoming America's greatest acting company, and along the way, audiences meet a galaxy of fascinating personalities including Stella Adler (whom Clurman married), Marlon Brando, Constantin Stanislavsky, Clifford Odets, Alfred Stieglitz (visiting his famous 291 gallery) - even Katharine Hepburn and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis!

Rand has appeared in many Off-Broadway and regional productions including including JULIUS CAESAR at BAM with Richard Dreyfuss, THE MIRACLE WORKER as Captain Keller opposite Marla Schaffel, MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM directed by Arthur French, SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS directed by Stuart Vaughan, and in over 200 films and TV shows including O'KEEFE and STIEGLITZ with Christopher Plummer and Jane Alexander, IN & OUT with Kevin Kline, QUIZ SHOW directed by Robert Redford, HOMELESS with Yoko Ono, and SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.

Rand is the librettist of a new opera, IBSEN, about Henrik Ibsen's final days, with composer Harmut von Lieres. IBSEN's world premiere is being planned to be performed by conductor Dr. Ashley William Joseph and the Indian National Symphony Orchestra in Bangalore, to be followed by an Asian Tour to Malaysia, Thailand and The Philippines.

An acclaimed international director, Rand's award-winning production of the hit comedy, LUV continues to delight audiences in its 5th year at Sarajevo's Chamber Theatre 55, starring Zana Marjanovic, lead in Angelina Jolie's film, IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY. Rand is also the Founder and Publisher of "The Soul of the American Actor" Newspaper, and best-selling author of "Acting Teachers of America" and "CREATE!"

Rand has performed LET IT BE ART! in Tangier's Dar al-Makhzen Palace in the Casbah, a grass-roofed tribal hut in Harare's Centenary Park, Tbilisi's Cave Theater, Minsk's Palace of Culture, Bangkok's Patravadi Garden Theatre, and at the foot of Mt. Everest in Kathmandu.

Harold Clurman was considered the "elder Statesman of the American Theatre." The inspiring voice of an entire generation, he co-founded the famed Group Theatre of the 1930's with Lee Strasberg and Cheryl Crawford. Clurman was the award-winning director of forty of the most important plays in Broadway history, including the original productions of A MEMBER OF THE WEDDING with Julie Harris and Ethel Waters, BUS STOP with Kim Stanley and Elaine Stritch, the national tour of A STREETCAR NAMES DESIRE WITH Uta Hagen and Anthony Quinn, A TOUCH OF THE POET with Helen Hayes and Kim Stanley, Clifford Odets' AWAKE AND SING and GOLDEN BOY, WALTZ OF The Toreadors with Sir Ralph Richardson, TIGER AT THE GATES with Sir Michael Redgrave, INCIDENT AT VICHY with Joseph Wiseman, Hal Holbrook and Roy Scheider. He also directed Marlon Brando in TRUCKLINE CAFE. An influential director around the world in Japan, London and Israel, Clurman authored several books including "The Fervent Years" about The Group Theatre, "On Directing," "Ibsen," and his autobiography, "All People Are Famous." Clurman's writings can be found in "The Collected Works of Harold Clurman," and "The Soul of the American Actor" Newspaper.

According to Mr. Rand, "Being able to represent the United States with LET IT BE ART! and bring Harold Clurman's great passion and universal ideas of opening one's heart to each other in the fullest way possible, to the people of Sri Lanka is both humbling and a beautiful way of sharing the great healing power of theater. In all the countries I've performed in and taught workshops, I've seen how the art of communication and the universal language of theater breaks down all barriers through the gift of story-telling. I'm delighted to be able to share LET IT BE ART in the Colombo International Theater Festival."

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