Peggy O'brien
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Television Executive Peggy O’Brien to Discuss Shakespeare in Today’s Schools Speaking of One of America’s Most Popular Educators To Share her Views SEPTEMBER 1999 SEPTEMBER 1999 ■ Shakespeare On What Is, and Is Not, Happening in the Nation’s Classrooms DIALOGUES ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT In a special back-to-school edition of SPEAKING OF SHAKESPEARE, we’ll launch our 1999-2000 season with a wide-ranging examination of what students AND HIS PLACE IN OUR LIVES TODAY in the U.S. and elsewhere are encountering these days when they’re intro- duced to the playwright a recent BBC survey identified as Britain’s “Man of Presented by The Shakespeare Guild the Millennium.” We’ll be honored to have as our guest a sprightly, charis- in league with The British Council, VOLUME 2, NUMBER 1 VOLUME 2, NUMBER ■ matic figure who, in the phrasing of English Journal, has “changed every- The English-Speaking Union, thing about the way Shakespeare is taught in this country.” and The National Press Club, As Vice President for Education at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and with generous support from the PEGGY O’BRIEN oversees CPB’s efforts to provide instructional services to its Naomi & Nehemiah Cohen Foundation consitituency. Among other things, she directs the corporation’s Ready-to- Learn initiative and supervises the publication of its Teachers’ Digest. In the meantime she continues many of the initiatives that highlighted her spec- WASHINGTON EDITION WASHINGTON ■ tacular tenure as director of education at the Folger Shakespeare Library. With support from NEH, Dr. O’Brien founded a Teaching Shakespeare In- stitute that permits secondary-school faculty members to study with the world’s finest scholars at the university level. Dr. O’Brien is the author of Shakespeare Set Free, a three-volume collection from Simon & Schuster, and her consulting assignments have taken her to such varied sites as the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, and the Prince of Wales Shakespeare School in Stratford-upon-Avon. After a half-hour reception, the proceedings will commence at 6:30 p.m. with a conversation between Dr. O’Brien and Shakespeare Guild president JOHN F. ANDREWS. They’ll chat for 45 minutes or so, and then you’ll have a chance to ask Dr. O’Brien to expand upon the many issues she’s addressed. Afterwards you’ll be welcome to dine at the National Press Club’s superb ARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE DRAMATIC ARTS ARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE DRAMATIC ARTS Fourth Estate restaurant, which will validate your ticket for free parking in the PMI Garage at 1325 G Street NW; to reserve, phone (202) 662-6738. Tuesday, September 28th For details about future Guild attractions, among them actors FLOYD KING 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. and TED VAN GRIETHUYSEN (currently starring in King Lear at The Shake- The National Press Club speare Theatre) on October 18th, corporate leaders KENNETH ADELMAN and NORMAN AUGUSTINE (co-authors of Shakespeare in Charge) on November 529 14th Street NW, 13th Floor 15th, and playwright KEN LUDWIG (best known for such hits as Crazy for Two Blocks from Metro Center You and Moon over Buffalo) on December 6th, see the pages that follow. For members of The English-Speaking Union and The Shakespeare Guild, the price for Speaking of Shakespeare events is $25. For non-members who do not belong to The National Press Club, the price is $35. If you wish to enroll in The Shakespeare Guild or guarantee space(s) for one or more of our SPONSORS THE ANNUAL SIR JOHN GIELGUD AW upcoming programs, you may do so by completing this form and either faxing it to (202) 483-7824 or mailing it to 2141 Wyoming Avenue NW, Suite 41, Washington, D.C. 20008-3916. To request further information, or to place orders by telephone, simply call (202) 483-8646. I wish to join the Guild, or renew my membership for the 1999-2000 season, as a__Subscriber ($50), __Contributor ($125), __Donor ($250), __Benefactor ($500),or __Patron ($1,000). I wish to reserve__ space(s), at__the $25 member price, __the $35 non-member price, for __September 28th, __October 18th, __November 15th, __December 6th. I wish to reserve__space(s) for all four events at the member rate of __$75, the non-member rate of __$125. My check for $_____ is enclosed. Please charge $_____to my_Visa_MC________________________________________ (exp.___/___). Name_______________________________ Address________________________________________ City, State, Zip______________________________ Phone________________Fax________________ PUBLISHED BY THE SHAKESPEARE GUILD, WHICH WHICH BY THE SHAKESPEARE GUILD, PUBLISHED Sir RICHARD EYRE, former artistic director of As she cradled the award, to the accompani- Dame Judi Dench Wins Britain’s Royal National Theatre and the ment of a rousing ovation that persisted for man who’d staged Amy’s View and several several minutes, a tearful honoree described The 1999 Gielgud Trophy of David Hare’s other plays, herself as “overwhelmed” by spoke of what a privilege it such an outpouring of affection. uring a delightful ceremony that took had been to direct so gifted and place at 8:00 p.m. on Monday night, disciplined a performer as Judi ress coverage was even May 17, in Broadway’s legendary Dench. His words were soon more extensive than ex- D echoed by Sir DAVID HARE, who pected. Announcements or ETHEL BARRYMORE THEATRE, DAME JUDI DENCH P claimed her special niche in a pantheon that described Dame Judi as his artistic news items about the program appeared in The Georgetowner, also includes such theatrical legends as Sir IAN “lodestar,” his symbol of truth and The New York Post (both Neal MCKELLEN (1996), Sir DEREK JACOBI (1997), “value,” and recalled an instance Travis and Liz Smith featured it and Miss ZOE CALDWELL (1998). in which she’d managed, while doing a scene from one of the in their society columns), The In years past The Shakespeare Guild had dramatist’s screenplays, to say the New York Times (an item in always bestowed its annual GIELGUD AWARD as word yes in a way that clearly and Lawrence van Gelder’s the centerpiece of a lavish spring benefit for emphatically meant no. “Footlights”), Parade (“Walter the FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY in Washington. Scott’s Personality Parade”), The Speaking on behalf of his fellow This year, thanks to the generosity of THE Shakespeare Newsletter (a four- actors in Amy’s View, RONALD SHUBERT ORGANIZATION and the producers of page cover article by co-editor PICKUP saluted Dame Judi as the Amy’s View, the Guild enjoyed a sparkling John Mahon), The Washington Post (Jane Hor- epitome of “Friendship.” His comments left no Broadway debut as its festivities moved to the witz’s “Backstage”), The Washington Times (a doubt about why she elicits such warm devotion venerable BARRYMORE THEATRE. In that stately full-page illustrated story by Ann Geracimos), from her colleagues. TOBY STEPHENS, the son of interior an evocative David Hare drama was and Women’s Wear Daily (two gushing reports Dame Maggie Smith and Sir Robert Stephens, providing its female lead an eloquent vehicle from the irrepressible “Suzy”). for the 1999 Tony Award, a laurel Dame Judi said that, though he’d long admired Dame Judi, collected, a few weeks later, in June. he’d never had an opportunity to meet this won- number of prestigious partners joined derful lady until a recent trip to see his mother the Guild for what proved to be a stellar ollowing a witty Elizabethan prelude by on location for Franco Zeffirelli’s movie Tea with gathering, among them THE AMERICAN EW ORK S NSEMBLE FOR ARLY USIC A N Y ’ E E M , Mussolini. FRIENDS OF SADLER’S WELLS, THE BRITISH COUNCIL, television journalist ROBERT MACNEIL, who F RIAN CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER, THE ENGLISH- had also hosted the 1996 and 1998 presenta- Two of the evening’s notables, actors B SPEAKING UNION, THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB, THE tions of The Golden Quill, greeted an enthusi- BEDFORD and HAL HOLBROOK, offered delightful ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY, THE SHAKESPEARE astic audience with reminders of the luminar- vignettes from fresh productions of A Midsum- SOCIETY, THE SHAKESPEARE THEATRE ASSOCIATION OF ies who had been honored with the first three mer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice, AMERICA, THE THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP, Gielgud Awards. He noted how appropriate it respectively. In an aside, Mr. Bedford said he hopes that when, three decades hence, he calls to and THEATRE FOR A NEW AUDIENCE. In addition was to be occupying a venue that memorial- the Guild received honorary patronage from ized our nation’s foremost acting family, and wish Dame Judi a happy 94th birthday, as he had BRITISH AMBASSADOR AND LADY MEYER, as well as then he yielded done with Sir John a few months earlier, she too from MRS. VINCENT ASTOR, MR. LOUIS AUCHIN- the podium to will say that as a consequence of hiring a new CLOSS, MRS. KITTY CARLISLE HART, and MRS. LEWIS “the Barrymore agent she’s “getting more work.” RESTON T. P . of our own day.” n what turned out to be the most stirring Key financial assistance came from two major After a series of moment of the evening, actor KEITH BAXTER, sponsors, MIRAMAX FILMS, which had given the charming reflec- who’d performed with Gielgud in the Orson I world Shakespeare in Love, and THE NAOMI AND tions about his Welles cinema Chimes at Midnight, read Dame NEHEMIAH COHEN FOUNDATION, whose trustees, hypothesis that Judi a congratulatory message from the Award’s guided by LILLIAN C. SOLOMON, have provided Gielgud must namesake. In what Mr. Baxter labeled a charac- crucial underwriting for several Guild initia- have been a contemporary of the poet himself teristic Gielgudian touch, a backhand compli- tives.