LET IT BE ART! Starring Ronald Rang To Perform At Logan Festival Of Solo Performance

International Cultural Ambassador Ronald Rand brings to life the legendary Harold Clurman-hailed as the "Elder Statesman of the American Theatre"- in his critically-acclaimed solo play, LET IT BE ART!, in the Logan Festival of Solo Performance at 1st Stage in Tysons, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., during the 26th year of touring the production to 29 countries and 21 states across five continents.

Opening the Festival, LET IT BE ART! will be performed on Thursday, August 20 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, August 22 at 5:00 p.m.; Sunday, August 23 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, August 28 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, August 29 at 2:00 p.m.; and Sunday, August 30 at 5:00 p.m. Rand will also participate in artist discussions and post-performance talkbacks with the community throughout the festival.

The Logan Festival of Solo Performance celebrates 'the power of one,' bringing together solo performers from across the country to share their stories, artistry, and unique theatrical voices.

1st Stage is celebrating nearly two decades as an award-winning professional theatre and cultural community hub, earning recognition for its artistic excellence, including multiple Helen Hayes Awards and the American Theatre Wing's National Theatre Company Award.

Rand was fortunate to have Harold Clurman as a teacher and mentor, and studied with Stella Adler for over five years, imbuing the performance as both an intimate personal theatrical experience and a celebration of the enduring power of art.

In LET IT BE ART! audiences are transported around the world to New York City, Paris and Hollywood - meeting several fascinating luminaries including Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, Constantin Stanislavsky, Marlon Brando, Clifford Odets, Aaron Copland, Alfred Stieglitz, Katharine Hepburn, Isadora Duncan, Robert Edmond Jones, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis - and experience the creation of America's greatest acting company, The Group Theatre changing American acting forever.

His portrayal in his inspiring solo play, LET IT BE ART! has received standing ovations during three critically-acclaimed Off-Broadway productions and performances in 29 countries, including five tours across India, representing the U.S. at the Theatre Olympics, a 5-state tour across Malaysia sponsored by the Malaysian Ministry of Culture, and at over a hundred universities, colleges, performing art centers, and festivals on five continents.

In 2025, Rand received the Best Actor Award at the 26th International Monodrama Festival in Bitola, North Macedonia. Earlier this year he was honored as Guest of Honor at the inaugural Krakow Fest in Poland, where he received the Eros Awakening Award following the Polish premiere of LET IT BE ART! He has also been selected received to represent the United States at the Peru Biennial in Lima, the first international biennial in the Americas.

Rand has been seen in several plays across America and Off-Broadway including in Julius Caesar at BAM with Richard Dreyfuss, Thomas Hulce, and George Rose; all three male leads in Perfect Crime; Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at the Classical Theatre of Harlem directed by Arthur French; and Servant of Two Masters directed by Stephen Vaughan. He has appeared in over a hundred films and television shows including opposite Sean Connery and Dustin Hoffman in Family Business; Christopher Plummer and Jane Alexander in A Marriage: Stieglitz and O'Keeffe; Yoko Ono in Homeless; Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder in Another You directed by Peter Bogdanovich; Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky; Ralph Fiennes and Paul Scofield in Quiz Show, directed by Robert Redford; and played Mercedes Ruehl's husband on Law and Order.

Ronald Rand has received four Fulbright Awards from the U.S. State Department and the Fulbright Program, serving as a Fulbright Specialist/Guest Professor in Greece, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Uruguay, and Malaysia. During more than thirty-five years of teaching as a Master Acting Teacdher, he has presented master classes and workshops at more than one hundred universities, colleges, conservatories, and acting schools around the world.

As a director, Rand's acclaimed production of LUV enjoyed an eight-year sold-out run at Sarajevo's Chamber Theatre 55 before touring throughout Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia, and Montenegro, receiving numerous festival awards. He also directed Thornton Wilder's Our Town in Spanish in Uruguay and conceived and directed Living Roots: Who We Are in Greece.

Rand is the Founder and Publisher of 'The Soul of the American Actor', now in its twenty-seventh year, and the author of four books: Solo Transformation on Stage, The Marsh in May and 30 Poems with 29 Paintings by Ronald Rand, Acting Teachers of America, and CREATE!, a collection of more than 130 interviews and 100 works of art celebrating many of the world's leading artists. He is also the librettist of the opera, IBSEN, the first opera about Henrik Ibsen's final years, and the screenwriter of GROUP PARADISE, the first feature film about the famed Group Theatre of the 1930s.

Harold Clurman has been called "the theatrical conscience of 20th century American Theatre.' One of America's great directors, he co-founded The Group Theatre with Lee Strasberg and Cheryl Crawford. Clurman embodied the passion and fervor of an entire generation.

Recognized by Arthur Miller as America's foremost drama critic, Clurman was a master acting teacher, and the renowned author of several books including two of the most influential books written about the American Theatre, 'On Directing' and 'The Fervent Years'.

Clurman was the award-winning director of forty of the most important plays in Broadway history, including the original Broadway productions of A Member of the Wedding with Julie Harris and Ethel Waters; Bus Stop with Kim Stanley and Elaine Stritch; A Touch of the Poet with Helen Hayes, Eric Portman, and Kim Stanley; Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing and Golden Boy; Waltz of The Toreadors with Sir Ralph Richardson; Tiger at the Gates with Sir Michael Redgrave; and Incident at Vichy with Joseph Wiseman and Roy Scheider. He also directed Marlon Brando in Truckline Café; Tiger at the Gates with Sir Michael Redgrave; the national tour of A Streetcar Named Desire with Uta Hagen and Anthony Quinn; Montserrat at Israel's Habima Theatre; Long Day's Journey Into Night with Roy Scheider in Tokyo; and The Iceman Cometh with Japan's Kumo Theatre Company.

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