The Catskill Chronicle

Paul Austin rehearses Chekov’s The Bear for The Liberty Free Theatre. Ted Waddell photo

JEFFERSONVILLE, NY –  Paul Austin, Founder and Artistic Director of the Liberty Free Theatre, will be Dick Riseling’s guest on WJFF’s Connections on Monday, August 2 at 7:30 p.m. The discussion will center on the value of the arts and humanities to the spirit of Community. The Liberty Free Theatre is in its sixth season, during which it has presented 30 plays, and dozens of fiction, poetry and music performances.

Paul Austin’s professional life spans forty years and includes acting and directing On and Off Broadway, Off-Off Broadway, summer stock, and regional theatres around the nation, as well as acting for television and film, including roles on West Wing, Law and Order, Cosby, and the films, Palookaville, Thirteen Conversations, Tune in Tomorrow, and Sommersby. Among recent stage appearances was Late Night Conspiracies, a collection of his own writings at New York’s Ensemble Studio Theatre, where he is a long time member. 

Mr. Austin has directed first productions of a number of new plays, including Percy Granger’s Eminent Domain at the Circle in the Square on Broadway.  He has written for and about the theatre in essays, poetry, plays, and Spontaneous Behavior, a book on acting.  One of his recent works, Dreaming Angel, was included in More Monologues for Men by Men and was also published in Newport Review.  He was for many years the artistic director of The Image Theatre in New York, where he produced plays and taught acting.  A tenured faculty member at Sarah Lawrence College for twenty years, Mr. Austin is currently Artistic Director of The Liberty Free Theatre in upstate New York.