I recently had the honor of presenting my book, “Lessons from Shakespeare’s Classroom,” to the Antioch College Alumni Association. My ties to Antioch are long and deep, as my parents met and married there and my father, Arthur Lithgow, returned when I was a child, to join the faculty. Happily, three of his colleagues in the drama and dance departments had daughters my age, so we became a small band of theatre brats. Paula Treichler, who conducts this interview, was one. Her dad. Paul, and Barrie Dallas’ dad, Meredith (Dal), along with my dad, made up the theatre department, and Jessica Langton’s mom, Louise, taught dance and choreography.
My father produced the entire canon of Shakespeare there in the 1950s and then went on to establish Shakespeare Festivals in Toledo, Akron, and Cleveland. The one in Cleveland continues to this day, as the “Great Lakes Theater.” And, of course, my father’s dramatic flair lives on in my brother John. We left Yellow Springs, home of the college, when I was thirteen, but my connection to my old friends remained strong and I was delighted to share my book with many old and new friends from the Alumni Association.
(Apologia: I’m technologically challenged and can’t figure out how to open this to the beginning, but you can scroll back to the start.)