A “Strange, Eventful History”

Summary

The author reflects on their journey to becoming an actor, influenced by experiences with the Stratford Festival and guidance from renowned actors like Inga Swenson and Lowell Harris, which led to their participation in the "Cherub" program at Northwestern University.

Abstract

The author, reminiscing on Christmas Day 2023, recounts their serendipitous introduction to the world of Shakespeare at age 12 through the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. This early exposure to high-caliber performances, featuring actors such as Richard Easton, Hiram Sherman, and the captivating Inga Swenson, ignited a passion for acting. Despite being a low-B, high-C student, the author's aspiration to pursue acting was encouraged by Swenson and her husband Lowell Harris, who informed the author's parents about the "Cherub" program at Northwestern University, where they had both studied. This program became a pivotal stepping stone in the author's career, as it was a pathway to college admission and further acting opportunities, including studying under the influential Alvina Krause. The narrative is a personal account of the interconnectedness of chance encounters, mentorship, and the profound impact of early artistic influences on one's life path.

Opinions

The author holds the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in high regard, crediting it as a transformative experience in their appreciation for Shakespeare and acting.
Inga Swenson, in particular, is remembered with great admiration for her beauty and acting prowess, leaving a lasting impression on the author.
The author expresses a deep personal connection to the actors and the experiences shared at their family's summer home, indicating a sense of nostalgia and reverence for these memories.
The "Cherub" program at Northwestern University is viewed as a significant opportunity, especially for a student with average academic performance, to pursue a career in the performing arts.
Alvina Krause is recognized as a legendary figure in theatre education, with the author later seeking her mentorship despite her retirement from Northwestern.
The author acknowledges the unpredictable and eventful nature of their journey into acting, echoing Shakespeare's description of "a strange, eventful history."

A “Strange, Eventful History”

The Globe Theatre in London. Photo by Hulki Okan Tabak on Unsplash

Writing this on Christmas Day, 2023.

I was thinking back to 1963 and wondering how a privileged upper-class New Yorker such as myself could have learned about the summer “Cherub” program at Northwestern University in Illinois — when all of my high school fellows were desperately focused on applying to Ivy League schools in the East. It was a very unlikely happenstance!

In the early 1960s my family had a beautiful summer home in Connecticut. One of our traditions was to have season tickets for the Shakespeare Festival at Stratford. My first Shakespeare experience had been at age 12 — A Midsummer Night’s Deam starring Richard Easton as Puck, Hiram (Chubby) Sherman as Bottom, Frederick Warriner as Snug, Morris Carnovsky as Peter Quint, Nancy Wickwire as Titania, Barbara Barrie as Hermia and Inga Swenson as Helena. I think Douglas Watson was in the cast, also.

By the way — I wrote down all those names from memory, in case you were wondering whether it had made an impression on me!

At 5’ 10” Inga Swenson was one of the most beautiful blonde actresses in the world. When I saw her as Helena, she must have been all of 26 years old.

A few years later she played Juliet to Richard Easton’s Romeo. Morris Carnovsky played her father. It was a soul-moving production.

It turned out that Inga was married to an even taller blonde actor named Lowell Harris, whom she had met in college. They stayed married their entire lives, and Lowell was her manager. That summer at Stratford, Connecticut he had played either Demetrius or Lysander. (I have performed in that play myself, and even the actors can’t tell those 2 guys apart!)

Inga died in July of this year, five months after my wife Nora. My wife only made it to 77. Inga Swenson was 90.

Since my mom was in show biz herself, it was easy for her to invite the Stratford actors to our “farm” for a bar-b-que on their dark day (the one day a week when actors don’t have a show to do.) They all came! I was in hog heaven.

By the summer of 1963 when I was 16, my folks had become old friends of the Stratford actors, though I was still in awe of them. I had written my first Shakespeare-inspired play at age 12, and at 16 I realized that I wanted to be an actor, too. My parents mentioned this to Inga and Lowell one summer afternoon at the “farm.”

So, it had been Inga Swenson and Lowell Harris who told my folks about the “Cherub” summer program at NU for aspiring Theatre majors! They had both gone there.

And they also mentioned that it would be a pretty good way for me to get into college, since NU accepted as Freshmen pretty much anyone who had been a Cherub. Which, for a low-B, high-C student like me, would be a pretty good deal!

In fact, Inga and Lowell had met while acting together in a production at Eagles Mere Summer Playhouse in Pennsylvania, a training ground for NU students conceived and directed by Northwestern teaching legend Alvina Krause.

I actually spent a couple of frosty months in Bloomsburg, PA as a private student of Miss Krause — “AK” — there were 4 of us — in Winter 1973, when she was 80. My classmate Roger Baron and I had decided to see what all the hype had been about, since by the time we got to NU she was no longer there.

But by that time, I had been a Company member at Stratford Ontario, Canada, and I had completely forgotten the part that Inga Swenson and Lowell Harris had played in my professional life.

The Bard was right. It has been a “strange, eventful history.”