MAVERICK A Director's Personal Experience in Opera & Theater

New York: Vanguard Press. Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. 1978. Hardcover. Autograph; 318 pages; Inscribed and SIGNED on ffep -- "For Roger -- / friend and buddy / in endurance! / God Bless / Frank Corsaro" Clean and secure in original red cloth binding in very nice dustjacket. A lovely association copy from one theater luminary to another. Frank Corsaro (1924 – 2017) was one of America's foremost stage directors of opera and theatre. His Broadway productions include The Night of the Iguana (1961). He became one of the City Opera's leading directors. PROVENANCE: Roger Lacey Stevens (1910 – 1998) was an American theatrical producer, arts administrator, and real estate executive. He was the founding Chairman of both the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (1961) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1965). In politics, he made a mark as chairman of the Democratic Party's finance committee in 1956. He produced more than 100 plays and musicals over his career, including West Side Story, Bus Stop, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. In 1971, he received Special Tony Award for his body of work. He became known for introducing plays by such adventurous writers as Harold Pinter, Arthur Kopit and Tom Stoppard. Stevens was the General Administrator of the Actors Studio as well as one of the producers of the Playwrights Company, a member of the board of the American National Theatre and Academy (ANTA), and one of the members of a Broadway producing company he founded in 1953 with Robert Whitehead and Robert Dowling. In 1961, he was asked by President John F. Kennedy to help establish a National Cultural Center, and became Chairman of Board of Trustees of what was eventually named the Kennedy Center from 1961 to 1988. In 1965, he received an appointment from President Lyndon Johnson as first Chairman of the National Council on the Arts later named the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1986, Stevens was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.On January 13, 1988, Stevens was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan. In 1988, he was also awarded the National Medal of Arts. ; Signed by Author .