PWE050 ASH Interview with Richard Freedberg - Teaching Drama for 39 years in The Netherlands

Passionately Wrong Podcast Episode E050

Interview – Richard Freedberg

Key takeaway: We don’t always know what decisions will be important in life, but we do reveal our character with our choices. Richard shares stories from four decades of running the theater program at the American School of the Hague. 

Topics covered in this video: 

• What can a teacher tell about how a student is going to turn out in life?
• Why theater is an insight into the inner lives of the actors
• What to do when a parent asks you to spy on their child
• The amazing cultural diversity represented at the American School of the Hague (ASH)
• From teaching English in Pennsylvania to running the theater program in Holland and then spending 39 years there
• On writing, and how much authors control their characters
• Why plays are so different than movies
• The definition of acting is reacting
• What Richard considers his legacy to ASH
• Why Holland was so encouraging of international schools, and what distinguishes American education internationally
• A staging of Harold Pinter’s play Mountain Language 
• Speaking foreign languages
• Is it possible Richard oversaw more than 700 productions?
• How he got a student an interview at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts)
• A bloody nose in The Miracle Worker
• The only time Richard ever withdrew a planned production
• Advice to high schoolers and people of all ages: expose yourself to other cultures, be open, learn from the world you ar in
• The meaning of life

Resources in this video

The Student Becomes the Teacher (R. Freedberg Guest post)