BLOOMINGTON—The Indiana University Department of Theatre and Drama is proud to announce that acclaimed British actor, director, and author, Simon Callow, will be the 2006 Ralph L. Collins Memorial Lecturer. One of the most respected figures of the British Stage, Mr. Callow will visit IU on September 14th and 15th. Mr. Callow will make one public appearance in the Ruth N. Halls Theatre on Thursday, September 14th, at 5:15 p.m. This interaction with Mr. Callow will include his lecture "The Welles of Onlyness": A Unique American which deals with his thoughts on Orson Welles. The talk will be immediately followed by a signing of his new book on Welles titled Orson Welles, Volume 2, Hello Americans.
As an actor, Mr. Callow has excelled in a many arenas. His stage credits include extensive work at England’s National Theatre where he created the role of Mozart in Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus and gave a one-man performance of all of Shakespeare’s sonnets which toured internationally. On film he has appeared in numerous successful movies including Shakespeare in Love, A Room with a View, Maurice, the film adaptation of Amadeus and HBO’s mini-series Angels in America.
He has directed many productions that include his own translations of Jean Cocteau’s The Internal Machine and Milan Kundera’s Jacques and his Master, Willie Russell’s Shirley Valentine; the musical Carmen Jones and the operas Die Fledermaus, La Calisto, as well as productions on the West End and on Broadway. He also directed the film of The Ballad of the Sad Café, starring Vanessa Redgrave, Keith Carradine and Rod Steiger. He is also an accomplished author whose published work includes many books on actors and acting as well as highly-acclaimed biographies of Charles Laughton and Orson Welles (Orson Welles: Volume 1: The Road to Xanadu) and a memoir called Love Is Where It Falls. The second volume of his biography of Orson Welles, Hello Americans, went to print in February 2006.
The Collins lectures are named for Ralph L. Collins, former Dean of Faculties at IU. As teacher and scholar Dean Collins was principally interested in the area of theatre and drama in which he published many articles in Modern Language Notes, Philosophical Quarterly, Theatre Annual, and University of Kansas Review. For many years he taught undergraduate courses in modern drama and in Shakespeare and a graduate seminar on George Bernard Shaw. Even after assuming his many administrative duties, Dean Collins maintained his interest in theatre. For him, drama was not merely a form of entertainment. It was an intense presentation of behavior, a projection of gestures of mind and heart, and a searching analysis of motives and moral foundation. No simple memorial could honor the memory of Ralph L. Collins as do these lectures.
"The Welles of Onlyness": A Unique American by Simon Callow takes place in the Ruth N. Halls Theatre in the Lee Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center on the Indiana University campus Tuesday, September 14th, at 5:15 p.m., followed by a book signing and reception in the lobby. This event is free and open to the public. No ticket is necessary.
The College of Arts