Robert Alexander, 78 - director, ex-husband of Jane Alexander
bway...@gmail.com
Backstage
A Director for Real Life
The Founder of Living Stage Brought Marginalized Washingtonians Into
the Limelight
By Jane Horwitz
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, February 20, 2008; C05
For three decades, Robert Alexander and his small band of actor-
teachers gave Washington's inner-city residents, disabled kids and the
incarcerated a taste of and for the theater. The founder, artistic
director and philosopher-king behind the Living Stage Theatre Company
died Feb. 10 in La Jolla, Calif. He was 78.
"When children who had basically been told they didn't have a
chance . . . came in and were told that they were fantastic people who
had amazing creative power, and discovered that power, really," son
Jace Alexander told Backstage, "lives took on a direction they never
would have."
Robert Alexander retired in 1995, but Living Stage continued as the
outreach wing of Arena Stage until it was phased out in 2002, when
Arena announced that its community efforts would be focused on its
home district of Southwest Washington.
"There have been many people who have put together many socially
active theater companies . . . but I don't think any to the success
and fullness that the Living Stage did over the course of its years. I
mean truly life-changing," said Jace Alexander. Now a stage and
television director, Alexander grew up in Washington with his father
after his parents' divorce. His mother is actress Jane Alexander.
Jennifer L. Nelson came from California to audition for Alexander in
1972 and found her niche in his movement- and improvisation-based
approach to theater for nearly two decades and a friendship that
lasted even longer. The former artistic director of African Continuum
Theatre Company said she "didn't intend to stay, but I fell in love
with Living Stage. It was everything I wanted to do at that time."
Bob Alexander "gave me and many others a philosophy of working in the
theater, of what the theater could be, of working with children, and
an insight into the lives of children," Nelson said. "It just
completely opened my mind in terms of understanding the role of an
artist in the community."
Jace Alexander's younger brother, Taro, founded the Our Time Theatre
Company in New York for people who stutter and also "uses a lot of
what our dad did in his work."
Jace Alexander is planning a memorial service in New York on March 3,
and he and Nelson are hoping to arrange one in Washington for Bob
Alexander's birthday, March 17.
"My hope is that we rekindle people's memory of what a force he was in
D.C.," Jace Alexander said. "He really was somebody everybody knew.
Everybody knew Living Stage."
© 2008 The Washington Post Company
Brad Ferguson
<43894791-3a48-4fc1...@60g2000hsy.googlegroups.com>,
<bway...@gmail.com> wrote:
> "There have been many people who have put together many socially
> active theater companies . . . but I don't think any to the success
> and fullness that the Living Stage did over the course of its years. I
> mean truly life-changing," said Jace Alexander. Now a stage and
> television director, Alexander grew up in Washington with his father
> after his parents' divorce. His mother is actress Jane Alexander.
Robert married Jane Quigley, the first of his two wives, in 1962. They
were divorced in 1968. Robert married his second wife, Riki, in 1970,
and they were divorced in 1981.
> Jace Alexander's younger brother, Taro, founded the Our Time Theatre
> Company in New York for people who stutter and also "uses a lot of
> what our dad did in his work."
Half-brothers. Taro is the son Robert had with Riki.