In the Spotlight: Rick Rose – Entrepreneur, Activist, Inspiration

Welcome to a new regular feature here at LGBTSr: In the Spotlight. We’ll be highlighting individuals who inspire us and demonstrate that age is no obstacle. Artists, activists, authors, and everyday people living life to the fullest.

Let’s get this show going with the indefatigable Rick Rose. Rick was an early contributor to LGBTSr and is currently the co-host of The Twist Podcast. Read on …

Rick Rose is an Emmy award winning producer and director who has worked over two decades in television, stage and film. He is also a social activist and entrepreneur. His vast professional experience includes development, directing, writing and producing in cities he has lived in including New York City, Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Hannibal, Mo. During his 8 years in Shreveport, Rick owned and operated Twine on Line, voted Southern Hospitality’s Best Restaurant of the Year, managed Suddenlink Media overseeing advertising on cable networks as varied as HGTV, CNN, ESPN and BET and recently served as Community Engagement Manager at the Shreveport Times. Rick worked on community connections across Northwest Louisiana building out relationships with such wonderful organizations as Shreveport Opera, Symphony and Metropolitan Ballet, SRAC, Strand Theatre, Community Renewal and Foundation, United Way, Philadelphia Center, Providence House, RFC, Holy Angels, Susan G. Komen and Advocates for Youth Justice for whom he serves as a CASA, Mentor and a Member of the Board of Directors.

Over the last couple years, Rick directed and produced the short films KEEPING ON and THE ORTON EFFECT and the web series THE BURKE SISTERS in North Louisiana. Rick’s greatest professional accomplishment was overseeing all creative, production, web and social media elements for four concurrent television series: DISCOVER WISCONSIN, PACKER REPORT TV, AMERICA’S DAIRYLAND and INTO THE OUTDOORS while directing the documentary RICHARD BONG: AMERICA’S ACE OF ACE earning his team and him numerous awards including the EMMY AWARD for production achievements and performance excellence.

Prior to this, Rick had been Performing Arts Manager for Pentacle/Danceworks and Playwrights Horizons in New York, working directly with teams that moved stage productions of dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov to PBS and the off-Broadway production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning HEIDI CHRONICLES to Broadway. Rick was later hired by Warner Bros. Television in Los Angeles to oversee a myriad of talent including actors, producers, writers and composers, his first being the Olsen twins, Ashley and Mary Kate.

While in Los Angeles, Rick launched the Donald O’Connor (of SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN fame) Family Theatre in Burbank, California, serving as its Planning and Development Director for the life of that theatre. He was also co-creator and co-host of SOAPTIME, the first cable talk show devoted to daytime drama. Rick has been a freelance journalist, contributing to SOAP OPERA WEEKLY, SOAP OPERA UPDATE and DAYTIMERS magazines and continues to write for publications such as IN TOUCH, OK! Magazine and THE WORD IN SEASON, a devotional of the ELCA Church which is translated into 30 languages. He is also co-host of THE TWIST PODCAST along with longtime collaborator Mark McNease of NYC where he expresses himself openly about political and social issues affecting the world, something Rick is very passionate about. Rick was named as a 2016 HIV ADVOCATES TO WATCH by popular blogger, Mark S. King of MyFabulousDisease.com.

Rick is proud of his work with the Miss America Scholarship Program and has coached three state title holders in winning the Miss America crown. He has also trained a Miss Costa Rica, Miss Louisiana, and a first runner-up to Mrs. World, all of whom remain dear trusted friends of his and fellow community activists. Born, raised and educated in Wisconsin, Rick is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Beloit College, after starting his college career at Bennington College following his senior year of high school in Osaka, Japan. Fluent in Japanese, German and English (sometimes!), he is an active fighter for equality, children’s and women’s rights and against AIDS, addiction, abuse and cancer.

If you know someone you’d like to see spotlighted, just send an email to editor@lgbtsr.com. We’re all in this together! – Mark McNease/Editor