Love Ain’t Easy – Live Music by Richard Hoehler
When leading a theatre workshop at an upstate prison, Richard Hoehler sang covers after shows. The men urged him to “stop covering” and write his own music. Since they had risen to his challenges over the past fifteen years, he heeded their advice and rose to theirs. Join Rich for an acoustic evening in which he debuts over a dozen new songs. In the spirit of Cohen, Ochs, and Lennon, Hoehler takes an unflinching look at family, relationships, and social justice.
Hoehler’s original theatre work (New Jersey/New York, Working Class, Human Resources, I of the Storm) have run Off Broadway, regionally, and abroad and he is the winner of the OOBR for Best Solo Performance. His full-length play, Fathers and Sons, was produced at the Lion Theatre on 42nd Street and his collection of 10-minute plays, Showdown, was recently presented at the Gerald W. Lynch Theatre.
Hoehler’s theatre work is published by Smith and Kraus and included in the Billy Rose Collection at Lincoln Center. His material has been optioned by Columbia Tri-Star Television and featured at the Midtown International Theatre Festival in Manhattan and Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. His latest solo work, E, was performed at Cornelia Street Café, The Brooklyn Commons, Hudson View Gardens, and DVAA. As a singer/songwriter he has performed at HB Studio, The Fortune Society Castle Gardens, Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, Pangea, and the Drama Book Shop. Several of his original songs are available on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, and many other streaming sites
Off Broadway credits: But for the Grace (HB Playwrights), Rehearsing the Vonnsee Conference (Gerald R. Lynch), I of the Storm (Gym at Judson), HAIR (Connelly Theatre), Inadmissible (Canal Park Playhouse), The Rubber Room (Artistic New Directions), Cries for Peace (Neighborhood Playhouse). TV Credits: Black Box, Third Watch, Law and Order (various),NYPD Blue.
For thirty years, Hoehler created theatre with at-risk teenagers, inmates, and the formerly incarcerated. Richard conducted creative writing workshops on Riker’s Island for over a decade and for fourteen years led weekly theatre workshops at Otisville State Prison. In January of 2020, Hoehler founded Acting Out, a professional acting company for the formerly incarcerated. Hoehler’s book, Acting Out: How a Prison Theatre Workshop Broke Free, was published by Applause Books in January of 2025 and in 2024 Richard received the Justice through the Arts Award from the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Hoehler is an acting instructor at HB Studio and Stella Adler Studio, and an adjunct professor of Theatre at John Jay and City College of New York. He recently began teaching ACT ONE, an independent professional acting class on Theatre Row.
