Rick Pender

Rick Pender grew up near Cleveland in Northeast Ohio. He fell in love with theater as a teenager in the 1960s: His first LP was the soundtrack of the motion picture of “West Side Story” with lyrics by 26-year-old Stephen Sondheim. In 1980 he moved to Cincinnati and a few years later he began to write about local theater. When CityBeat, the city’s alternative newsweekly, was launched in 1994 he became a regular contributor; in 1998 became joined the paper’s editorial team as its arts and culture editor. In 1997 he began to provide freelance features and reviews for The Sondheim Review, a quarterly magazine. He became its part-time assistant editor in 2002, and from 2004 to 2016 he was The Sondheim Review’s managing editor. In 2017 he launched a website, EverythingSondheim.org (now hosted by Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia). In 2002 and again in 2017 the Society of Professional Journalists named him Ohio’s best arts critic. For many years Rick conducted arts interviews for National Public Radio’s Cincinnati affiliate WVXU-FM, including several in-studio conversations with Stephen Sondheim. A longtime member of the American Theater Critics Association, he mentored young critics at regional seminars in Connecticut, Salt Lake City, Austin, and Seattle. He was ATCA’s chair in 2004-2005. A longtime communications and public relations professional, he was named to the College of Fellows of the Public Relations Society of American in 1996. Rick is an honors graduate of Oberlin College and earned master’s and doctoral degrees in English literature from Case Western Reserve University.