APPRECIATION (This was my very first acting teacher, a hand-picked member of Lee Strasbergs very first Actors Studio, a classmate of Marlon Brando and a select few others. She was a remarkable woman and actress by any standards, a tremendous influence on me as a person and actor. To win her praise was to soar. I still hear her words from those university days and remain eternally grateful.) Robin Humphrey Actress, Director 1922-1998 Robin Humphrey was different from many entertainers born or raised in Kansas City who left our town, never to return. After success on Broadway, Humphrey returned to her hometown to share her talent with local audiences and to teach aspiring actors and directors. Humphrey graduated from Westport High School, where her father taught debate, drama, and English. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in art history at the University of Kansas City, Humphrey studied theater at Columbia University in New York. She traveled to England to study theater at the University of Birmingham and London’s School of Dramatic Arts. Returning to this country, she was selected by Lee Strasberg, founder of the Actor’s Studio, to join his first class in ‘method’ acting. Fellow classmates included Marlon Brando, Julie Harris and Maureen Stapleton. Humphrey appeared on Broadway in “Pygmalion” and “Playboy of the Western World” and acted in plays on the East Coast. She was artist- in-residence at Stanford University, worked at Harvard University’s Brattle Theatre and worked in radio and television in New York, Chicago, Boston and Seattle. She returned to Missouri and taught and directed plays for several years at the University of Missouri at Columbia. In 1964, Dr. Patricia McIlrath, head of the theater department at UMKC, began the UMKC Summer Repertory Theater as a company of professional actors offering a limited summer season at the University Playhouse. The project was so well received that it was expanded. Dr. McIlrath asked Humphrey to join the group as actress, director and instructor in the University’s theater department. The Summer Repertory evolved into The Missouri Repertory Theater. For many seasons, Humphrey played leading roles and directed plays ranging from comedy to drama. She also taught and directed in the University’s Theater Department, giving her students a firm grounding to pursue a successful career in the theater.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 14:28:13 +0000
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