The Nineteen Seventies
The 1970s saw several significant changes in Theatre Arts. In 1971 the University separated the disciplines of speech and theatre arts into two departments and Professor Kenneth L. Graham was named head of the Department of Theatre Arts and Director of University Theatre. Professor Frank M Whiting retired in 1972; Lance Brockman and Jean Montgomery came on board as faculty in the areas of scene design/technical direction/sound and lighting design/stage management, respectively; Glen Gadberry joined the 
history/lit faculty. Certainly the largest change was the move across the river to our new home in Rarig Center. Until 1973 the department had been scattered across several buildings on the East Bank: Scott Hall with its 549-seat mainstage theatre shared with music and Scott Studio theatre below; Shevlin which housed the very rectangular arena theatre and faculty offices for Drs Ballet and Whiting; Nicholson Attic (apply named) which contained a petit staging space with a marvelous creaking wooden floor, the costume shop and a large room for some prop storage, all on the third floor; the Other Space next to the Y on University Avenue which was used for directing classes and projects; Folwell Hall where the main department and DGS offices were located; third floor Westbrook which housed the design classroom, faculty offices, and our main rehearsal space; the Armory Annex where the scenery/prop shop lived; and storage spaces in the stadium and Holman Building. We were everywhere! But after 30 years of planning and pleading, the department was finally given the go-ahead to build a performing arts center where all our activities could be in one building which we would share with radio and television. There were only four buildings on the west bank when we broke ground for Rarig Center in 1971. The original design for the building was 8 floors with 5 theatres and included faculty offices. When the bids were returned, the word went out that we were $1 million over the available funds. In the space on one week, the plans were pared down to the approximately $7 million dollar building you see today. Space was reduced in the lobbies, we lost the Elizabethan theatre but through the graciousness of the Stoll family were able to finish off the thrust theatre instead which now bears Elmer Edgar Stoll’s name, the design room switched places to the north side of the building, the Arena Theatre came down a floor, and the faculty were housed in dorm rooms in Middlebrook Hall for over 25 years.
The move into Rarig Center occurred in 1972 following the summer production of La Mandragola in Scott Hall -- the black velour legs fell in a gigantic cloud of dust in August and the bats were left behind (well, some of them were anyway). We made a long chute out of a third-floor east window of Nicholson and basically threw the costumes out the window, down the chute. We got so good at that that soft props and chairs soon followed. Things not wanted were left in a huge pile behind Northrop for trash pick-up the next day. By the time the truck arrived, there was almost nothing left -- re-cycling by students having emptied the ground.
The first season in Rarig was ambitious: one production in each theatre each quarter! The grand opening play was to be King Lear which was hastily moved to winter. Fall quarter began with only the lighting equipment brought from our old East Bank spaces, no patch systems, no sound systems, and big holes in the control booth walls until the control consoles could arrive. Personal Appearance was the first production in the building, performed in the Arena Theatre using Shevlin’s lighting equipment and every portable lighting board we owned. Staff wired circuits for direct plug-in to the back of the boards -- but we had lights! We then moved everything over to the Thrust for A Doctor in Spite of Himself and Gammer Gurton’s Needle, again wiring directly into the backs of the portable boards. There were portable boards and cable drops everywhere! It took five light board operators to run the show. We built the Experimental Theatre’s patch system and installed the Davis twinpack system from Shevlin (which controlled the lighting in this space until 1984 when the first computer system was installed) in time for the first production in that space of The Cycle Plays.
We soon discovered that in our haste to reduce costs by reducing square footage all of the control booth windows were too high. This caused major demolition in each theatre throughout the quarter. Even Professor Ballet’s Intro classes put up with the noise while the windows were lowered so we could actually see the stage. But we finally had lighting and sound equipment on hand, control equipment installed, booth walls bricked up, and the grand gala opening complete with Governor Wendell Anderson and President Malcolm Moos in attendance on February 23, 1973. Rarig Center was officially open and home of the Department of Theatre Arts and the University Theatre for many years to come.
We soon realized that 4 Plays in 4 Places each quarter was a tad ambitious and the seasons settled into a Thrust, Arena, Proscenium pattern with workshop productions interspersed throughout the four theatres, but mostly based in the Experimental. Theatre of the Word and YPUT were produced yearly and, of course, the Peppermint Tent and the Centennial Showboat in the summers. We continued producing summer productions in Rarig until the final one of Romanoff and Juliet in 1977. And The Repertory Players toured each year to high schools around the state.
The University Theatre continued touring to ACTF sites throughout the 1970s. This tradition begun with Peer Gynt in 1971, exemplified with H. Wesley Balk’s production of 365 Days being selected to tour and play the national festival in the Kennedy Center in 1972, continued through wind, sub-zero temperatures, blizzards, icy roads until the placid 1989 tour of Professor Balk’s traditional production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to the University of South Dakota.
The 1970s also saw a shift in the support of the MFA Acting program from the McKnight to the Bush Foundation, the retirements of Frank M Whiting, Kenneth L. Graham, and Merle Loppnow. Warren Frost left for the west coast; Louis Dezseran, Maxine Klein, Ted Herstand, and Mary Corrigan for greener pastures; Elizabeth Nash and Barbara Reid arrived to join the acting faculty; Merle retired and Kent Neely became our Managing Director. We battled with the Park Board over the River Flats and lost, so going to the Showboat became a shuttling experience for 18 years and the Peppermint Tent moved from the cottonwood-filled river bank into the Thrust Theatre to play in air-conditioned comfort for 6 years.
The 1970s were a decade of new beginnings and fond memories. The move out of Scott Hall et al was a wonderful step forward for the Department and the University Theatre. It unified us under one roof (except for offices) but it was also a nostalgic and regretful time of change for many (including our audiences) who were asked to leave the familiar and wonderful stages and classrooms full of memories that had been created for more than 70 years on the East Bank. [JAM]
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