Rich has co-directed with John Kirby (acting coach on
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, DéJà Vu, Count of Monte Cristo) on
Tartuffe and
Our Town, during which Rich performed the role of the Stage Manager, and
The Miracle Worker. He worked with Patricia Mauceri (Broadway:
Othello with James Earl Jones
, film:
Don Juan de Marco with Johnny Depp and
TV: One Life to Live) to direct
The Crucible, The Jeweler's Shop by Pope John Paul II,
Twelve Angry Jurors, and
Much Ado About Nothing. The last three plays were performed in Theatre 315, and Off-Broadway space.
Rich's shorter works have shared the stage with numerous musicians including
Margaret Becker,
Bob Carlisle,
The Martins and
Fernando Ortega.
Rich was on the planning committee for Media and Arts at the
Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa, and he served on the board of
Christians in Theatre Arts for many years, through which he was selected as a leader and Featured Dramatist for
CITA to the Nations, a trip to Jordan and Israel in which he taught, directed, performed and organized others to do the same for students in Amman, Jordan. Then they performed biblical sketches where they took place in Jordan and Israel.
Rich is a Freedom Finder for
Graceworks, helping presenters in a variety of fields overcome stage fright and connect with their audiences through seminars and project coaching.
He has performed and/or taught workshops in over
40 colleges and universities, including his alma mater,
George Fox University (rated the number one Christian college in the US by
Forbes and
US News and World Report),
University of Memphis, Namseoul University in Korea,
Singapore Bible College, and
Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary in the Philippines. Each spring he teaches a workshop at
Princeton University. Rich also spoke at the
Ivy League Congress on Faith and Action, hosted by the
Harvard University chapter of Christian Union.
He received his master's degree in theatre from Hunter College, where he studied under Eric Bentley (C. S. Lewis was his advisor at Oxford),
Tina Howe (playwriting: nominated for the Tony Award, Pulitzer Prize and winner of the
Guggenheim Fellowship), Patricia Sternberg (sociodrama: a student of sociodrama's inventor,
Jacob L. Moreno), Jerome Coopersmith (screenwriting: screenwriter for
An American Christmas Carol and many of the original
Hawaii Five-O episodes), Jonathan Kalb (criticism: critic for the
New York Times).