269 Shakespeare and the Generation of Genius - The Role of Performing Arts in Education (with Robin Lithgow)

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

History, Books, Arts

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 September 2020

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Robin Lithgow spent her life immersed in the performing arts, including a childhood in the theater and decades spent as an educator and arts administrator. But it wasn't until she read a little-known work by Erasmus that she fully realized the importance that performance had on Shakespeare and his generation--which mirrored the experiences she had had as an English and drama teacher in inner-city schools in Los Angeles. In this special episode, Robin joins Jacke to talk about her life in the theater, her epiphanies regarding Shakespeare's education, and the centrality of the performing arts in a child's development. ROBIN LITHGOW was the first Theatre Adviser, and eventually the Director, of the Arts Education Branch of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest school district in the United States. Before becoming an arts administrator, she was a teacher for twenty-one years, teaching every grade level from kindergarten through senior high school and ending her classroom tenure as an English and drama teacher. And before that, she was the daughter of Arthur Lithgow, a theater impresario who developed Shakespeare festivals all over Ohio, which meant that Robin and her younger brother John Lithgow, the acclaimed actor, grew up traveling from place to place, watching rehearsals and performances, as their father mounted productions of every play in the Shakespearean canon. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to [email protected]. New!!! Looking for an easy to way to buy Jacke a coffee? Now you can at paypal.me/jackewilson. Your generosity is much appreciated! The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to The History of Literature, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding literature, history, and storytelling like Storybound, Micheaux Mission, and The History of Standup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglamorate Network and LIT Hub Radio.
0:07.0	I saw my students hugely improve mostly mostly you know a lot of Hispanic and
0:19.7	and and and black American students who would just overnight turn into great English students.
0:27.3	And I would just see this amazing love for literature and reading and poetry. I mean I had kids who were you know gang gang kids and I would I
0:39.4	once took them to a play I would take them to a lot of plays I took them a play that was all
0:43.6	based on love letters of the romantics in the 19th century that you couldn't
0:48.1	be more alien from the African-American experience from the 19th century romantics from England, right?
0:54.0	Yeah. But these kids, they would line up at my door because I had run off copies of the
1:00.0	poems from the play. They would line up at my door, begging me to make Xerox copies of these
1:05.0	for them.
1:06.0	They were so into poetry.
1:09.3	And I just thought, it was a unique position for me to be a person well versed in the classics but
1:15.2	teaching African American and English learners and seeing it just light up their minds.
1:23.4	It was so clear to me that performance skills really profoundly increase
1:29.9	cognition and empathy. That's Robin Lithgow, whose life has taken her from a childhood in the theater to a role as an educator, an
1:44.7	arts administrator, an author, and an advocate. She's here today as our guest
1:49.7	to talk about what she's learned about Shakespeare's education,
1:53.2	the importance of the performing arts to a child's development,
1:56.4	and the connection she's made between the 16th century children
2:00.4	in English grammar schools and the 20th and 21st century students in the inner city schools of Los Angeles.
2:08.0	And we'll hear some rich anecdotes about her life as the daughter of a famous Shakespeare impresario, Arthur Lithgow, whose love for Shakespeare led to her and her family, including her brother, John Lithgow, to years of traveling around Ohio, as their father staged every play in the Shakespearean
2:25.2	canon. All that today on the history of literature. richer. Hey, here we go. Welcome to the podcast everyone. Wow. What a day? What a day this is. You are in for a treat. I want to tell you how all this began. It's a great story and today's
	...

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