The Western Regional Stage Managers Committee, on behalf of Actors' Equity Association's Western Regional Board, is delighted to announce this year's Lucy Jordan Humanitarian Award recipient, Rick Starr. The award was presented at the beginning of the Equity General Membership held on Friday, October 7, 2007 at the Los Angeles Equity office.
The appropriately named Mr. Starr is the sole staff worker at Hollywood Sheet Music and has supported musical theater and its artists for almost twenty years.
Most know him as an invaluable resource for all things musical, but relatively few remember that Rick Starrbegan his career as an Equity actor, doing character roles all over the Eastern Seaboard. He got his Equity card in a dinner theater production of Guys and Dolls, and for a long time worked regularly as an actor in stock companies, supplementing his career by directing and choreographing summer theatre and kids camps, culminating in the Equity Library Theater production of Anything Goes.
Moving to Los Angeles for a role in the film Night Shift, he found that young character actors weren't in high demand. He became an Equity stage manager for a short time, but when the chance came to work at Hollywood Sheet Music in 1989, he grabbed it.
Over the past 20 years, Rick has built a passionate fan base in the musical theater community. With a knack for finding obscure or out of print music, he has suggested audition songs and shared information about upcoming shows. He also attends as many shows as possible, bearing opening night gifts that range from music-themed pencils and erasers to framed out-of-print sheet music. He treats stars and new artists with equal respect, remembers birthdays and anniversaries, shares heartaches and successes, and counsels young performers to celebrate the auditions and callbacks, reminding them that you never know.
The Lucy Jordan Humanitarian Award (LJHA) is the only recognition award given by the Western Regional Board of Actors' Equity Association. It was established by the Stage Managers Committee in 1992 to commemorate the unflagging spirit of former Western Region Business Field Rep, Lucy Jordan, who passed away unexpectedly in May of that year. The LJHA is given to honor any members of the extended theatrical family who go above and beyond the call of duty, who embody that spirit of show business in which we are at our best, our most unselfish, where we go to the nth degree to make the working experience magical and special. We, the Stage Managers Committee members, are delighted to see Lucy Jordan's heritage carried on by someone who shares so much of her spirit.