newsmakers

newsmakers

Seeger will be feted at Hudson River festival

BEACON, N.Y.

Folk singer Pete Seeger’s life will be celebrated at the annual Clearwater Festival this summer.

Seeger died in January at age 94, after surviving his wife, Toshi, by about seven months.

Clearwater Festival organizers say the two-day show at Croton-on-Hudson starting June 21 will celebrate the couple’s legacy.

The couple founded the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater and the annual music and environmental festival in the 1960s.

Performers this year include Lucinda Williams, Norah Jones and Rufus Wainwright.

Playwright Dean dies

NEW YORK

Phillip Hayes Dean, a playwright, director and theater actor who wrote the play “Paul Robeson,” which starred James Earl Jones on Broadway in 1978, has died in Los Angeles. He was 83.

A family spokesman said Wednesday that Dean died Monday of a heart condition.

His plays included “The Last American Dixieland Band,” “Moloch Blues,” “The Owl Killer and Dink’s Blues” and “The Sty of the Blind Pig.” Dean taught acting and playwriting at the University of Michigan.

His most famous play is “Paul Robeson,” a chronicle of the singer, actor and activist, which has had three Broadway productions and has toured across the U.S. and Europe.

Associated Press