Richard Figge is the Gertrude Gingrich Professor of German emeritus at The College of Wooster. He is also a character actor whose credits range from Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac and Friar Lawrence in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to modern comedy and drama. He is best known for his performance of David Rintels’ one-man play Clarence Darrow, which he has presented across the country, in Europe, and in 1985 in Washington, D.C., under the patronage of President Reagan.
In 1986, he performed at Wooster with Vincent Dowling in the American premiere of Sam Dowling’s Riverman, and in 1987, under the direction of Vincent Dowling, played the title role in the first public performance of Donald Freed’s The Last Hero, based on the lives of Charles and Anne Lindbergh.
He has toured in productions of Mass Appeal, Love Letters, and Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie. In 1997, he toured with Vincent Dowling, portraying President Theodore Roosevelt to Mr. Dowling’s John Muir in Phyllis Webster’s new play John and Teddy. In April 1998, he returned to Wooster to play Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Mr. Figge has experience in film and has made radio and television commercials. He has performed in special broadcasts on public radio and can be heard as the narrator on Visions of Souls: The Joshua L. Chamberlain Story. He has narrated Peter and the Wolf with the Wooster Symphony Orchestra and was a narrator for a performance of Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale with the Charlottesville (Virginia) Symphony.
Since 2015, Mr. Figge has had a weekly radio show, For Reading Out Loud, on which he reads short stories.