ED GORDON, host: A bit of sad news. Late last week, legendary theater director Lloyd Richards died of heart failure in New York City. Richards may be best known for his direction of the ground-breaking Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun in 1960, starring Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, and Diana Sands.</s>ED GORDON, host: He was nominated for a Tony Award - the first of many - and would eventually win in 1987 for directing the August Wilson play, Fences. He helped foster the careers of many playwrights as Dean of the Yale School of Drama and Artistic Director of the Yale Repertory Theater, positions he held for more than a decade. But it was with playwright August Wilson that he would do some of his greatest work.</s>ED GORDON, host: He directed six of Wilson's plays, beginning in 1984 with Ma Rainey's Black Bottom through 1996's Seven Guitars, earning Tony nominations for several of the productions. In 1993, the National Endowment of the Arts awarded him with the American National Medal of the Arts.</s>ED GORDON, host: Richards was 87 years old.</s>ED GORDON, host: Next up on NEWS AND NOTES, the Tour de France is under way, but critics say it's one of the last sports where the color line hasn't been broken. And keeping the blues alive in Tinseltown: an L.A. Club brings the Delta to Hollywood.</s>ED GORDON, host: You're listening to NEWS AND NOTES, from NPR News.
Theater director Lloyd Richards died last week of heart failure in New York City. Richards is perhaps best known for directing the Tony-nominated A Raisin in the Sun starring Sidney Poitier on Broadway. Richards was dean of the Yale School of Drama and director of the Yale Repertory Theater. He directed six of August Wilson's plays and won a Tony Award in 1987 for Fences, his only win, but one of many nominations. He was 87 years old.