For immediate release
Written: Tuesday, Aug. 24, 1999

JUILLIARD PROFESSOR TO ADDRESS WITTENBERG'S OPENING CONVOCATION

The convocation also marks the first Wittenberg Series event of the academic year that will carry the theme "Creativity and Knowledge: Arts, Ideas and Great Works at the Millennium." In keeping with that theme, Eric Booth will speak on "The Art of Learning at the Heart of Learning."

The convocation will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 1 in Weaver Chapel with faculty in full academic regalia. The convocation will also mark the installation of the first two Wittenberg Fellows, designated by the university's Board of Directors to recognize mid-career professionals.

The convocation is co-sponsored by the university's Common Learning program, in which all first-year students participate, and the Springfield-Wittenberg Teacher Institute.

Booth is currently a member of the graduate and undergraduate faculty at Juilliard, the preeminent acting and music-performance school in the nation. He is also on the faculty at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

After earning a master's of fine arts from Stanford University with summa cum laude honors, Booth launched a 20-year career in the theater, which included acting in six plays on Broadway, including "Who's Life Is It Anyway" with Mary Tyler Moore, "Golda" with Anne Bancroft, "Caesar and Cleopatra" with Rex Harrison and "Design for Living," directed by George C. Scott.

He has also appeared in dozens of off-Broadway plays and at leading regional theaters around the country and has performed many times on television.

Booth has also pursued an active career as a teacher and has taught at New York University and has lectured and led workshops at more than 20 universities across the country and at more than 40 cultural institutions and schools.

Booth's quixotic career also includes the founding of Alert Publishing in 1985, which specializes in collecting and synthesizing research on lifestyles and trends of the American people. He became a major figure in trends analysis and has been frequently quoted by major U.S. media.

Associated with the Leonard Bernstein Center since 1993, Booth designed and led the training for a network of teaching artists from around the nation.

The Emerson College graduate, who was first in his class, is a former marathon runner, stage fight choreographer, published poet, New York City auxiliary police officer and wilderness adventurer.