Five actors from the London stage will be in residence here for a week next semester, from 23 September to 1 October. They will visit college English and theater classes and present three performances of a somewhat condensed Romeo and Juliet in Hall Auditorium, with each actor taking multiple roles. The English department will offer a modular course on that play, says professor of English Robert Pierce.
The college has previously hosted four residencies of actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company, the last in 1984 (Observer 12 February 1981, 2 September 1982, 13 September 1984). ACTER (A Center for Theatre, Education, and Research), sponsor of all these residencies, now draws actors from more than one London theater company. "We don't yet know who the actors will be," says associate vice president for research and development David Love, "but past residencies have included luminaries like Ben Kingsley, Patrick Stewart, and Cherie Lunghi."
Pierce is project director for the residency and chair of a committee that will include Love, theater and dance marketing and publicity director Alice Hirt-Hug, scene designer and associate professor of theater Michael Grube, professor of English Carl Peterson, associate professor of English Nicholas Jones, and Rebecca Phillips '96, who will be the student assistant for the residency. The president's office and the English department's R.A. Jeliffe fund are helping to pay for the residency.
Actors in earlier residencies visited local schools. The 1995 residency is comparatively short, but Pierce hopes there will be time for such visits.
