Sunday, April 16, 2023
Robert Cassidy had a profound influence on me. In about 1960, when I was age 14, for one year, I was a student in Robert Cassidy's English literature class at Windsor Mountain, a school in Lenox, MA ,now closed. Robert taught us to think. We read and discussed Golding's LORD OF THE FLIES and Dostoyevsky's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. He then assigned essays about what we thought these authors thought was the nature of humanity. Robert inspired us and made class thrilling. I remember when he told his students that he was leaving to get a Phd in Comparative Religion at Princeton. After Windsor Mountain,I went into theatre and eventually founded a non-profit organization, Theatre for a New Audience (www.tfana.org) which is in Brooklyn. We produce Shakespeare and plays of the past alongside contemporary drama. We also created and run the largest program in the New York Public Schools to introduce Shakespeare. Plays, like the books Robert Cassidy taught, explore timeless questions. Please share my sympathies with Mr. Cassidy's family. I would be honored to welcome them as my guests at any time to TFANA. Composer Stephen Sondheim observed "Teaching is a sacred profession. And art is a form of teaching." Robert Cassidy was a great teacher. Jeffrey Horowitz, founder/artistic director, TFANA,Jhorowitz@tfana.org
