A Tribute to NYU Study Abroad in London from Jonathan Heron

As we neared the close of our day in Stratford and were just about to tuck in to our supper at The Dirty Duck, Jonathan Heron graciously thanked the students and staff for welcoming him on the program and paid tribute to the 37 year legacy of Study Abroad London (began in 1973) and toasted to 37 more years.

Here is a transcript of the toast:

Dr. Taylor: It’s hard to believe that it’s been a week since we’ve all been together. (laughter) It was last week, wasn’t Robert? (Yes, it was.) We were in the Lamb then…we were in The Lamb’s Pub then, last week, and now we’re here in The Dirty Duck. Now this is becoming quite a tradition for the Program in Educational Theatre…to come to The Dirty Duck. And it’s such a tradition that last year, at The Dirty Duck, Professor Emeritus Gavin Bolton made a toast and he said, “I would like this toast to be a regular event—if not at The Dirty Duck, then certainly in England from now on.” And he made a toast to Nancy Swortzell. And if you look in the back of your course book—I’ve referenced this before of course, so no doubt you have—she in her own hand wrote the chronology of the history of the Educational Theatre Program’s global effort in England since 1973, when she first set it up, and it’s been going every summer since then. Gavin said that’s an extraordinary achievement by any academic in the world in Educational Theatre—to consistently bring students to England to study. And he went on to say a number of other things, but the photo in the course book of Gavin (who you’ll be meeting next week) was actually here at The Dirty Duck in the back room with the picture of Shakespeare behind him. This year, I am very pleased to announce that Jonathan Heron is going to make the toast. (applause) So, without further ado: Jonathan Heron.

Jonathan: Here I am. It’s obviously a great privilege to do something that Gavin’s done and to follow on from Gavin’s work. I feel particularly connected to Dorothy and Gavin because I am from the northeast. I went to school in Durham where Gavin and Dorothy worked from—lectured from. So, it’s a great pleasure to do that. I’m looking at this Appendix I that Nancy created and I’m looking at summer 1974 and I’m thinking, “What kind of expectations did the NYU students of summer 1974 have and how did they compare with our expectations in 2010?” Expectations not just for what we might do with drama…with theatre…with performance—how we might change lives. How lives might be changed by accident through the work we do with performance, theatre, and drama. But also, what might the students thirty-seven years hence be doing? And will the students in 2047 being sitting here in The Dirty Duck about to see a version of King Lear, thinking about how they might change lives with theatre, performance, and drama? And these are simply questions or ramblings of a dangerous mind that I wanted to share before proposing a toast. But it is really in honor—and I use the word honor quite pointedly—honor for those of you who’ve chosen to spend your life trying to help people through the performing arts… those of you who spend your lives trying to use performance as a way to learn to become a human being—a better human being. Somebody who might—through creativity and through connecting with other stories, other experiences, and other journeys—change lives. And in honor to you who are here today to those people in ’74 and to the group of people in 2047, I propose a toast on behalf of NYU, on behalf—I don’t have the authority to do this, but—on behalf of the British government (laugher), I’d like to declare what a great honor and privilege it is to have a constant flow of New Yorkers and Americans through this strange little country that is England, just as those young people are walking through our dining room as a metaphor for the discipline—to ’74, to 2010, to 2047 (Cheers!)!