Professor Robinson leaves behind vibrant legacy in theater, teaching
By Daily Bruin Staff
May 9, 2002 9:00 p.m.
Beverly Robinson
By Marcelle Richards
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
[email protected]
Known for her love of teaching, a knack for theater and a
wardrobe of African dresses, Prof. Beverly Robinson will be missed
by those who knew her.
Robinson, 56, died from pancreatic cancer on May 5, leaving
behind a legacy both in the School of Theater, Film and Television
and UCLA at large.
She received the Outstanding Teaching and Cultural Contribution
Award in 1978, the first year she launched a “Black Speakers
in the Arts Forum at UCLA” series that brought in such
scholars as Maya Angelou and James Baldwin.
“Beverly to me was the conscience of the department of
theater,” said professor and colleague Hanay Geiogamah.
“She personified a commitment to diversity, to fairness, to
trust and equality among all our students and faculty.”
Robinson, consulted during the filming of “The Color
Purple,” worked extensively in the field of African American
theater. Geiogamah remembers her interest in productions of all
other cultural and ethnic backgrounds as well.
Vice chair Gary Gardner acknowledged Robinson’s scholarly
prowess, but, he said, the thing he’ll miss most is the humor
and personal interaction Robinson brought to the department.
He described her as a “spirit.”
“She knew how to hug students; she knew how to put us down
when we got pompous,” he said. “But most of all, she
was a friend.”
Together they took cigarette breaks and attended shows on
campus.
Gardner looked back about 22 years to a showing of “As You
Like It,” which he saw with Robinson at the Freud
Playhouse.
“It was just an awful production,” he said,
explaining that various barnyard animals were positioned across the
stage, and as the stage crew switched sets, the animals were
carried off one by one.
The black sheep was the last one to go.
“Well there goes the token black!” Gardner remembers
her saying, as they broke out into a fit of laughter.
“Beverly had a marvelous sense of humor.”
He laughed at his next anecdote.
“A handsome man would walk through the door and (she would
say), “˜You think he’s single? You think he’s
straight?'” Gardner recalls. “She had a zest for
life.”
Her support for the arts and people she knew carried beyond the
department.
Geiogamah said one of the things he appreciated most was seeing
her at his productions.
“She amazed me constantly at how attentive she kept up
with my creative work outside,” he said.
Robinson studied folklore at UC Berkeley, where she earned her
M.A. in 1976. She received her doctorate in performing arts and
history from the University of Pennsylvania.
A service will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at Forest
Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills. Call 1-800-204-3131 for
information.
