Robin attended Port Credit High School as Gordon Graydon was still four years away from its opening. All the students from Applewood had to make the trek to Port Credit High School or to Thomas L. Kennedy, which had just opened. Neither school, however, had anything to offer in the way of theatre for Robin and as he recalled in an interview more than a half-century later, he sought out the Credit Valley Dramatic Society, which presented its productions at the Clarke Hall in Port Credit. His interest in theatre was sparked when he was attending Fisher Park High School in Ottawa. He then joined the Julia Murphy’s Theatre, also the Saturday Players. While with the Credit Valley group Robin had lead roles in such productions as Bell, Book and Candle and The Night Must Fall. Often Robin would be the guest speaker at various gatherings in Applewood to talk about Shakespeare. In November, 1955, he was the guest speaker at the Home and School Association’s monthly meeting.
While his family stayed in Applewood until 1956, Robin was soon off to pursue his love for the stage. Robin found himself at the Caravan Theatre in Sarnia, and then he got his big break at Stratford as a ‘child’ actor. Stratford was about to enter its third season when Robin joined in 1955 and was influenced by Tyrone Guthrie, a well-known British director.
Mr. Guthrie was the first artistic director at Stratford and as such directed the who’s who of Canadian theatre. He directed Sir Alex Guiness, who played the title role in Shakespeare’s Richard 111 when Stratford opened on July 13, 1953, along with other greats such as Bruno Gerussi, Robert Goulet, Don Harron, James Mason, Jason Robarts, William Shatner and Christopher Plummer.
Tyrone Guthrie, whose original approach to Shakespearean and modern drama greatly influenced the 20th-century revival of interest in traditional theatre, he was highly regarded in the UK and was knighted in 1961.
It didn’t take long for Robin’s talents to show. His first speaking role was the Boy in the Langham-Plummer production of Henry V. This was one of the few times this role had been played by an under-age actor rather than a younger man. When the Stratford Festival company was invited to perform Henry V at the Edinburgh Festival in August 1956, Robin was included.
While in the UK, Robin was awarded the Tyrone Guthrie Scholarship along with fellow actors William Shatner and David Gardner. He studied in London until he returned to Stratford in 1961 to play the lead role in Romeo and Juliet. It would be nine more years before Robin would again play Stratford and, this time, he returned as a mature actor, a comedian and leading man. He spent one more season at Stratford in the production An Italian Straw Hat.
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