About the author

Besides my political essays and social commentary, I am a playwright, a landscape photographer, and a former owner at Great American Art, one of the largest commercial art companies in the nation: https://greatamericanart.com/

Art should serve to heal, inspire, provoke, challenge and to offer hope – but most of all to connect… to remind us of our common humanity.

I believe in the power of art. I believe a society and a culture is as healthy as its artists can flourish. I believe in the power of words, its power to ignite change, to inspire, to connect, to heal, and as a tool to ‘fight the power.’

For forty years, along with my wife, and then my son, we built Great American Art into one of the largest art companies in the nation. I had always written plays, but due to my lack of success, I realized I needed to master the craft. To that end, I went back to school and finished my undergraduate degree at UMass Boston in English. I then enrolled in Lesley University’s  graduate creative writing program and received my master’s degree in playwriting in December of 2021.

Halfway through the program, due to a long-standing lung disease, I received a double lung transplant at Mass. General. It was a miracle. I am lucky to be alive. One of the benefits of receiving a lung transplant, besides being able to breathe without an oxygen tube, was the discovery that I was surrounded by beauty and love. Before the transplant, you could say I was blind to my blessings. It changes you. You feel humbled and blessed by this second chance at life.

It gives you a sense of urgency, which I bring to my playwriting and essay writing. Words matter. Words can change the world.

Plays on New Play Exchange (NPX)

https://newplayexchange.org/users/68843/richard-strickland

 The Last Entrepreneur by Curt Strickland 

• Cast: 12–14
• Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 1 more

This is the story of a small business owner trying to save his company in the throes of the Great Recession, 2009. It is a story of his battle to fight out-sourcing, gentrification. It is a story about racism, father and sons and their legacies. Stan, the main character, is the embodiment of an entrepreneur, both its courage and its flaws.

• Family Dinner by Curt Strickland  
• Cast: 7–9
• Genre: drama, political + 1 more

Three generations of soldiers—World War II, Vietnam, and Iraq/Afghanistan—come together for a family dinner. It is a story about how each deals with the trauma of war and the trauma of the family history. It is also a story about the decisions that put soldiers in wars based on lies.

My intent with my writing and photography craft is to connect, to disable the barriers that separate us, to celebrate our common humanity, and to impel action. Words matter; words can change the world, shatter the blockades, the bunkers we feel compelled to erect. I feel it is a sacred journey, and I am humbled and blessed by this calling.