JOHN LITHGOW
Tony®, Emmy® and Golden Globe® Award Winner John Lithgow brings his critically acclaimed show, STORIES BY HEART, to Elliott Masie’s Learning 2011 for a special performance and keynote interview on the ‘Power of Storytelling’ on Tuesday, November 8th in Orlando, Florida.For one very special evening, Elliott Masie’s Learning 2011 is proud to present the extraordinary John Lithgow in his one-man theatrical memoir, STORIES BY HEART. Earlier in the day, Elliott Masie will interview John Lithgow, in an Actor’s Workshop style, on the ‘Power of Storytelling’ - a key competency in the ever evolving field of Learning.
Following his triumphant appearances at New York’s Lincoln Center and London’s National Theatre, the Tony®, Emmy® and Golden Globe® Award winning actor offers a touching and humorous reflection on storytelling as the tie that binds humanity. Invoking memories of his grandmother and father before him, Mr. Lithgow traces his roots as an actor and storyteller, interspersing his own story with a great story that was read to him and his siblings when they were children - "Uncle Fred Flits By" by P.G. Wodehouse.
A fretful young Englishman is taken on a wild afternoon’s escapade in suburban London by his irrepressible uncle. In a hilarious tour de force, Lithgow performs with zany abandon, portraying ten distinct, outrageous characters (including a parrot). STORIES BY HEART provides ample evidence of the power of storytelling, the magic of theatre, and the talents of one of our greatest actors.
JOHN LITHGOW is an actor’s actor, with a broad range of interests and talents in every area of the entertainment industry. He has been working in show business for forty years and has achieved stunning success in a wild variety of ventures. A list of his restless pursuits strains credulity. At heart, Lithgow is a theatre actor. Theatre is where he started, and he started big. In 1973, he won a Tony Award three weeks after his Broadway debut in David Storey’s “The Changing Room.” Since then, he has appeared on Broadway nineteen more times in productions that included “My Fat Friend,” “Trelawney of the ‘Wells’,” “Comedians,” “Anna Christie,” “Bedroom Farce,” “Once in a Lifetime,” “Beyond Therapy,” “M. Butterfly,” “The Front Page,” “Retreat from Moscow,” and the musicals “Sweet Smell of Success” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.” His most recent appearance on Broadway was in a revival of Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons,” and Off-Broadway in A.R.Gurney’s “Mrs. Farnsworth” and Douglas Carter Beane’s “Mr. and Mrs. Fitch.” In the course of this remarkable run, Lithgow has won a second Tony, three more Tony nominations, and four Drama Desk Awards. In 2007 he was one of the very few American actors ever invited to join The Royal Shakespeare Company, playing Malvolio in “Twelfth Night” at Stratford-upon-Avon.
In the early 1980’s Lithgow began to make a major mark in films. At that time, he was nominated for Oscars in back-to-back years, for “The World According to Garp” and “Terms of Endearment.” In the years before and after, he has appeared in over thirty films. Notable among them have been “All That Jazz,” “Blow Out,” “Twilight Zone: the Movie,” “Footloose,” “Buckaroo Banzai,” “Harry and the Hendersons,” “Memphis Belle,” “Raising Cain,” “Ricochet,” “Cliffhanger,” “Shrek,” and “Kinsey.” Lithgow will next be seen on the big screen next summer in “Caesar: Rise of the Apes,” for 20th Century Fox.
For his work on television, Lithgow has been nominated for eleven Emmy Awards. He has won four of them, one for an episode of “Amazing Stories,” and three for what is perhaps his most celebrated creation. This was the loopy character of the alien High Commander, Dick Solomon, on the hit NBC comedy series “3rd Rock from the Sun.” In that show’s six-year run, Lithgow also won the Golden Globe, two SAG Awards, and The American Comedy Award. By contrast, his recent terrifying work as The Trinity Killer on Showtime’s “Dexter” won him the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series, as well as an Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.
And then there is his work for children.
Since 1998 Lithgow has written eight NY Times best-selling children’s picture books, including “The Remarkable Farkle McBride,” “Marsupial Sue,” “Micawber,” “I’m a Manatee,” and “I Got Two Dogs.” In addition, he edited “The Poets’ Corner” for Warner Books, a compilation of fifty classic poems aimed at young people, to stir an early interest in poetry. He has released three kids’ albums, “Singin’ in the Bathtub,” “Farkle & Friends,” and “The Sunny Side of the Street,” and has performed concerts for children with the Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Baltimore, and San Diego Symphonies, and at Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Finally, he wrote the libretto and narration for Christopher Wheeldon’s child-friendly ballet “Carnival of the Animals” for the New York City Ballet. He even joined the cast of fifty City Ballet dancers in the role of The Elephant. All of this work for children has won him numerous tributes, including two Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Awards and four Grammy Award nominations.
Lithgow has received both his Bachelor’s degree and an Honorary Doctorate from Harvard University and a Fulbright Grant to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. In a hat trick of honors that verges on the bizarre, he has been inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame, has been given a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. But despite all these honors and accolades, his family is his greatest source of pride and joy. He has three grown children, two grandchildren, and lives in Los Angles with his wife Mary, a Professor of Economic and Business History at UCLA.
We are proud to welcome John Lithgow to Learning 2011. The evening performance is limited to registered participants in Learning 2011 and their families.