Charles R. Lyons

{{short description|American professor of drama and comparative literature (1933–1999)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Charles R. Lyons

| image =

| imagesize =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1933|4|27|df=y}}

| birth_place = Glendale, California

| death_date = {{death date and age|1999|05|11|1933|3|27|df=y}}

| death_place = Palo Alto, California

| occupation = Professor

}}

Charles R. Lyons (27 April 1933{{snd}}11 May 1999) was an American professor of drama and comparative literature at Stanford University and co-owner of the art gallery Lyons Ltd. He received his AB (1955), MA (1956), and PhD (1964) from Stanford as well. As an undergraduate at Stanford he focused on Shakespeare with the legendary professor Margery Bailey,{{cite news|title=UNFORGETTABLE TEACHERS: MARGERY BAILEY|url=http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2003/marapr/classnotes/bailey.html|accessdate=22 June 2011|newspaper=Stanford Magazine|date=March 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616210221/http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2003/marapr/classnotes/bailey.html|archive-date=16 June 2012|url-status=dead}} the namesake of his endowed chair.{{cite news|title=Stanford Fill Professorships|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SJ&s_site=mercurynews&p_multi=SJ&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB7275EC9D149FC&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM|accessdate=22 June 2011|newspaper=San Jose Mercury News|date=12 December 1985}}{{cite news|title=Memorial Resolution: Charles R. Lyons|url=http://news.stanford.edu/news/1999/november17/lyonsobit-1117.html|accessdate=22 June 2011|newspaper=Stanford Report|date=November 17, 1999}} He is best known as a theorist and teacher of theater. His interest in performance began in the 1950s as a professional actor in Los Angeles where he routinely performed at the Pasadena Playhouse. After finishing his masters, Lyons spent four years as a lieutenant in US Navy, where he served in the Far East and later in Washington, D.C., as a liaison to Jacques Cousteau.{{cite news|last=Blitzer|first=Carol|title=Affordable charm|url=http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/2003/2003_03_28.charming28ja.html|accessdate=22 June 2011|newspaper=Palo Alto Weekly|date=March 28, 2003}}

In the early 1960s Lyons took a teaching position at Principia College in Illinois. In 1968 he moved on to the University of California, Berkeley becoming a professor of dramatic art and later the associate dean of letters and sciences.{{cite news|title=Memorial Resolution: Charles R. Lyons|url=http://news.stanford.edu/news/1999/november17/lyonsobit-1117.html|accessdate=22 June 2011|newspaper=The Stanford Report|date=November 17, 1999}}{{cite journal|last=Lyons|first=Charles|title=Addressing the American Theater|journal=American Literary History|year=1983|volume=5|issue=1|pages=159–171|jstor=489766|doi=10.1093/alh/5.1.159}} He returned to Stanford as chair of the theater department in 1973 and installed an undergraduate and doctoral program that established a new approach for the training of theater practitioners and theater scholars.{{cite news|title=Setting the Stage for Change|url=http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/1999/julaug/classnotes/lyons.html|accessdate=22 June 2011|newspaper=Stanford Magazine|date=July 1999|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060427001325/http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/1999/julaug/classnotes/lyons.html|archive-date=27 April 2006|url-status=dead}}

Lyons' scholarly writings included Shakespeare, Chekov, Ibsen, Brecht, Beckett, and Shepard. His former students currently occupy key positions in theater and performance departments across the US and in Europe, as well in repertory theaters, professional theater companies, and the film industry.{{cite news|last=Boudreau|first=John|title=Curtains for Stanford's Drama Dept.? : Stage: Beset by budget woes, the university's acclaimed drama program faces severe cuts .|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-12-26-ca-1312-story.html|access-date=22 June 2011|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=December 26, 1991}} Throughout his career, Lyons continued to work at the practice of theater, directing productions of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, William Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona and Hamlet with Andre Braugher in the title role.{{cite journal|last=Lyons|first=Charles|title=Addressing the American Theater|journal=American Literary History|year=1983|volume=5|issue=1|pages=159–171|jstor=489766|doi=10.1093/alh/5.1.159}}

Concerned with diversity issues within the arts, Lyons put forward a new Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford, financed by the James Irvine Foundation.{{cite news|last=Ray|first=ELAINE|title=Charles Lyons, who shaped Drama Department over past 26 years, dies at 66|url=http://news.stanford.edu/news/1999/may12/lyonsobit-512.html|accessdate=19 June 2011|newspaper=The Stanford Report|date=12 May 1999}}{{cite news|title=STANFORD GIVEN $3.2 MILLION FOR NEW PROGRAMS|newspaper=San Jose Mercury News|date=April 7, 1999}}