Richard Lear

Directing

44 Lights SHOWCASE - oCTOBER 2025 - ad/amd

God Of Carnage - nORTH sTAR tHEATER 2025

​ 44 Lights 29 hOUR Reading february 2025 - ad/amd

44 Lights - oFF-bROADWAY - May - ad/amd 2024

The Orchard - oFF-bROADWAY MOVE TO bOSTON Emerson Paramount Center - ad 2022 (w/Jessica Hecht & Mikhail Baryshnikov)

Moving Day - hb sTUDIO READING SERIES - 2022

Egg Salad - Dragonfly Arts Center - 2022

The Sunshine Boys - hb sTUDIO SHOWCASE - 2021

A Day In Hollywood, A Night In Ukraine - amd - 1995

Teaching

Sussex County Community College - Acting 25/26

Union county teen arts teacher - 2025

Masterclass on Acting SCCC - 2025

Union county teen arts teacher - 2024

Masterclass on Acting SCCC - 2024

duCret Center of Art Scene Study - 2022 -

Private Acting Coach - 2017 -

LA Rep Theatre Co. Singing for Actors - 1994 - 1995

Univ of Arkansas Masterclass & Concert - 1994

Univ of Arkansas Masterclass - 1992

Reel Clips

COLOR PURPLE PAPER

A teacher is accused of racism for failing a student.

STRANGER

A man looking for love meets a woman looking to murder.

HUMAN TELEGRAPHS - S1.E4

Herb revokes the Coop application of a couple caught in a lie.

THE LAMP EXPERIMENT

A science teacher is caught up in a school shooting.

HAMLET, SON OF A KINGPIN

Bi-lingual retelling of Hamlet

ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT

A shy, wanna-be Elvis impersonator finds a friend.

DEDALUS

A closeted Presidential Candidate risks everything for sex.

BLACK SKY

An astronaut explains his next mission to his daughter.

LAW & ORDER - S24.E22

Charles Kent and his wife learn their daughter was killed.

Commercial Campaigns

FIOS - National

Ran 18 Months - Version 1 of 42 different commercials

TERRY SINGH

Commercial Campaign lead up to Fashion Week

Pandemic Zoom Plays - 2020-2021

DOWNWARD DOGS - by: Caroline Aaron

Theater Breaking Through Barriers

A man and his dog deal with the world reopening.

THERE ARE TOO MANY OF US - by: Nico Grelli

Theater Breaking Through Barriers

A non-binary individual has to sing for their life or die on national TV.

GLORIA FIRMAMENT - by: Jeff Tabnick

Theater Breaking Through Barriers

COVID turns into a zombie apocalypse and a man turns to a female zombie for sex.

CLOWN FETISH PARTY - by: Jeff Tabnick

Theater Breaking Through Barriers

Unable to cope with the reopening of the world these clowns would rather live in a Zoom reality.

CLOUDBUSTING - by: Chris Phillips

Theater Breaking Through Barriers

A man seeks to find solace in a world that isn't working for him.

Favorite Self-Tapes

Pirouette

by: William Dennis

A former dancer in need of a hip replacement sees a young woman dancing on the subway platform he thinks would be able to do his choreography.

The Church Of St. Luke In The Fields

by: Jim Shankman

A man tries to come to terms with the life he was dealt.

When one of the gay men (played by Richard Lear) in this tensive and tender play breaks down because he has no way of knowing whether he somehow caused the deaths of his last three lovers, we are reminded of how cruelly primitive was the Stone Age of this epidemic. - Mr. Lear is a fine playing character

– Peter Marks

New York Times Arts Section

Shout Magazine

LGNY Arts

The supporting cast is equally good. In particular, Richard Lear as Bruce Niles is stalwart as a closeted Citibank vice president, but in the moment he breaks, he reveals himself as fragile and as frightened as everyone else.

- Christopher Byrne

Reviews

Backstage

Richard Lear is very fine as Bruce Niles, the stolid and respectable bank executive who not unreasonably fears the loss of his prestigious position.

- Dan Isaac

The strapping closeted Bruce (Richard Lear) who prefers to keep his private life private.

- Edward Karam

Time Out New York

The surprise of the evening was Richard Lear, who portrayed Bruce Niles who is paranoid of the Gay label and has lost three lovers to AIDS. As the group’s president, he is dedicated and trapped in an organization that personifies what he is trying to avoid. Gay politics, gay awareness, gay proclamation. At first one thinks he was merely cast for his looks, and deservedly so. He seems too conservative, too emotionally constrained to be an interesting character. Then in Act Two, his speech of the last journey home with his dying lover is the most terrifying, heart wrenching moment in the show.

- Robert W. Cabell

Who am I?

I have taught most of my life. I taught swimming for decades. At one point there was not a child in the pool at the 63rd Street YMCA in Manhattan who had not been my student. I became a professor of acting because my friends were always asking for my help with their auditions, and I realized I could be of use to others. The little guy in the picture with me was Squeaky. I saved him from a cat and fed him until he decided it was time to leave. My basic instinct in life is to help. Whether that means telling a story on stage or camera, plowing my neighbors driveway in the winter, or helping someone move something in their house that is too heavy to move on their own, I'm the guy everyone calls...and it brings me great joy. If I'm not swimming, acting, teaching, writing, gardening, or working on my house, you will find me about 80 feet underwater, SCUBA Diving.