The Nineteen Seventies
1972-73 “Final Season in Scott Hall”
The last year in Scott Hall produced some of our more memorable productions (unchronicled in HEROES AND CLOWNS so included here). You Can’t take It With You opened the 42nd season directed by Lee Adey with Graham Thatcher as Grandpa, Mark Blum as Tony Kirby, Marianne Muellerleile as Olga, and Frank Dent as Boris. Haimanot Alemu directed Oda Oak Oracle in Shevlin and this became our ACTF entry for the year. Based upon the Henry Fielding novel Rape Upon Rape, the musical Lock Up Your Daughters directed by Wes Balk and choreographed by Robert Moulton featured memorable performances by David Kwiat, David H. Goldstein, Sheriden Thomas, Robert Krebs, Henry Jordan, Melanie Sonnenberg, Brian K. Johnson, and Bill Levis among others.
Horace Bond directed Four-by-Four in Black to open winter quarter.
A new play The Inheritance sponsored by OADR, directed by Ken Graham and designed by MFA Gregory Hill, came next. And then the original choice for the opening production of Rarig Center (had it been finished a year sooner), A Dream Play followed. Directed by Doc along the same lines as the original production in 1949, this production used all new slides designed by Mimi Gramatky.
Louis Dezseran directed Othello in spring with Lou Bellamy in the title role. Warren Bowles played Iago breaking the traditional casting of a white actor in that role and bringing a new and interesting interpretation to the play. YPUT went “underwater” for The Honorable Urashima Taro.
Workshop productions included Amedee in fall, Humanity in winter, A Little Season (with an original script by Fred Gaines) and Baal played in spring. Summer productions in Scott were Angel Street directed by Warren Frost and La Mandragola, along with the Summer High School Theatre Workshop production of Cans directed by Tony Steblay. The Centennial Showboat in summer of 1973 played A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Stephen Foster, both directed by Doc. And the Peppermint Tent productions of The Mirrorman and Hide-and-Seek Odyssey of Madeline G were directed by Karen Krause.
