To Repair the World: Zelda Fichandler and the Transformation of American Theater

This book is a biography in the form of an oral history about a woman whose founding of Arena Stage in Washington, DC in 1950 shifted live professional theater away from Broadway and inspired the creation of non-profit theaters around the country. Dianne Wiest, James Earl Jones, Stacy Keach, and Jane Alexander, among many others, share their memories of this intrepid pioneering woman during Arena Stage’s early years.

As Head of New York University’s Graduate Acting Program for 25 years, Zelda Fichandler also trained a younger generation of gifted actors. Marcia Gay Harden, Rainn Wilson, Mahershala Ali, and other developing actors who became ＂artist-citizens＂ under her guidance, talk about the ways in which she transformed their lives.

Theater practitioners who have lived during Zelda Fichandler’s time will find this book a fascinating and entertaining read--as will all theater lovers, especially those in Washington, DC. And through this vivid and compelling oral history, students and aspiring artists will come to grasp how the theatrical past can shed essential light on the theater of today and tomorrow.

Mary B. Robinson headed an undergraduate directing program at New York University (under the auspices of Playwrights Horizons Theater School) from 1999-2014. She has directed 70 productions at non-profit theaters (including Arena Stage, Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage, and Seattle Repertory Company), from 1981 to the present. She was one of 50 directors (along with Zelda Fichandler) featured in American Women Stage Directors of the Twentieth Century (University of Illinois Press, 2008).