The Nineteen Seventies
1976-77
Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris was the opening production of the fall season. Directed by Kenneth L. Graham, it was selected by the USO-American Theatre Association screening committee to tour the Pacific for 6 weeks. Medea followed in the Arena, with Romeo and Juliet directed by David Thompson in the Proscenium as our associate entry in the ACTF. This would mark Professor Thompson’s last directing assignment for the University Theatre. Peter Thoemke staged the all-important duel scene and the lovers were double-cast. Gail Crellin joined the faculty as our Costume Designer. The fall Workshop was Ghosts.
In January, the midwest premiere of Bertolt Brecht’s Happy End directed by H. Wesley Balk was produced in the Thrust. This was only the second time the musical (loosely based on the Guys and Dolls story) was staged in the U.S. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
followed in February along with the YPUT production of Johnny Moonbeam and the Silver Arrow. Bottom’s Ghost was the first winter Workshop in the Experimental followed by Gary O’Brien’s production of The Imaginary Invalid in the Arena. Theatre of the Word staged I Bertolt Brecht in the Thrust.
Spring quarter brought a Charles Nolte adaptation and direction of Hedda Gabler in the Thrust, and the Dannabrog Folk dancers were a part of the celebration. The final play of the main season was Ladyhouse Blues, a new play by Kevin O’Morrison from the American Playwrights’ Theatre. Directed by Lee Adey and set in St Louis just after the armistice, it was a human mood piece of women waiting for their men to come home from France. Spring workshops were The Hunter written by Philip Middleton Williams as his MFA thesis production and directed by Stephen G. Hults, Everyman directed by Jann Pier Iaco in the Experimental, and Gesamkunstwerk directed by Kathleen Ellison and Diane F. DiVita in the Other Space.
Other workshop productions of the year included Orpheus: From Oerd to Auden in the Thrust.
The Peppermint Tent now in its permanent home in the Stoll Thrust Theatre was the scene of Reynard the Fox and The It’s OK Stories. 
A spirited melodrama, The Black Crook, was the Showboat offering in its 20th season. One of America’s first musicals, it was directed and choreographed by Robert Moulton with mega scenery and special effects props by Lance Brockman. Known to the Showboat TD Norbert Een as the summer of batteries, almost all the props were electrified; lighting designer Jean Montgomery’s favorite was “yon brazen casket” which lit up and emitted fog when opened. And it was the first summer of the glow worm olio with bustles that lit up in tempo. Favorite olios included “Tell Me Pretty Maiden” and “A Grand Patriotic salute to the veterans of the recent civil conflagration with songs from both sides” (aka the Civil War olio). The Peter Ustinov spoof Romanoff and Juliet directed by Jean Montgomery was performed in the Whiting Proscenium. This was the last summer show done in Rarig and featured Donald “Twig” Webster, Carolyn Lardinois, Beth Gilleland, and Sugith Varughese.
Merle Loppnow retired, M. Kent Neely became our new Managing Director, and Barbara Reid joined our acting faculty.
