The Nineteen Eighties
1988-89 “Drama at its Best”
Picnic, William Inge’s nostalgic portrait of small town American life, started off the season. Directed by Jean Congdon and designed by Wendell Josal, it was the first time we created a raised deck to cover the entire floor in the Arena. This gem was saved, used year after year as a subfloor, and is still known as “the Picnic deck” some 15 years later. Picnic was the final University Theatre project for both Professors Congdon and Josal – it was the first for new faculty member Martin Gwinup, Technical Director and Sound Designer. A 
Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Wes Balk followed in the Thrust. There were two versions of the play performed: the traditional version with a cast of 23 and an exploratory version with a cast of 7. By cleverly and exploratorily combining the court, the fairies, and the mechanicals into quadruple casting, the exploratory version was a wonderful piece of theatre and many audience members saw both versions to make the comparison. What was a Midsummer nightmare for MFA designer Pamela Kildahl became one of the legendary University Theatre productions of Midsummer. The Hostage was the fall Workshop in the Experimental.
The Trojan Women began winter quarter directed by Michelle Martin and designed by A. H. Novodvorsky. Midsummer toured to ATCF at the University of South Dakota (good weather for a change). The 1989 ACTF was the last time that the original regions competed together. Due to a re-structuring of the ACTF in 1990, Region V North ceased to exist. Midsummer was selected as the first alternate to the Kennedy Center festival. It was a banner year for the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities at the national festival: Kelly Bertenshaw, MFA actor, won the national Irene Ryan competition; Dale Huffington was invested as a Fellow of the American Theatre, and Lee Adey was honored as Chair of Region V North. The quarter continued with a presentation of Erdman’s play The Suicide in the Proscenium. Translated by Stephen Kanee working with Paulina Shur, it featured designs by Richard Rees (scenery), Lance Brockman (costumes), and Steve Draheim (lighting). Caligula played in the Experimental on the Workshop season.
This was a year of “firsts”: the first time we offered alternating performances of the same play with different production concepts (indeed possibly the first time in the country); the first time we offered symposia after certain performances; the first time we produced under the newly created Department of Theatre Arts and Dance; and the first time that “An Evening of Dance” performed in Rarig Center. Up until this time the dance program had been performing on the St. Paul campus. Robert Moulton served as producer, Barbara Barker as Dance Coordinator, and David Voss as Company Director. Barbara Barker noted that “this evening marks three important beginnings for the Dance Program. It is our first opportunity to join our colleagues in Theatre Arts in their production season, the first year for our dance ensemble, University Repertory Dance Company, and our first chance to show the splendid works created for our students by the faculty brought to our program under the auspices of the Sage Cowles Land Grant Chair in Dance.” The lighting designer for this first season was Kathy Stewart and costume designer Joe K. Leonard-Anderson, both graduate design students. The program featured “Gobe Gobang” (Meg Harper And Garry Reigenborn) with wonderful performances by Barbara Barker, Marcia Chapman, Sage Cowles, Kathie Goodale, Molly Lynn and Zoe Sealy as the Pole women; “Nine Person Ball Passing” (Charles Moulton) including the now-director of the Dance Program Carl Flink; “Crossings” (Carolyn Brown); “Idyll” (Maria Cheng); and “Let Yourself Go” (Zoe Sealy). The Three Sisters playing in the Thrust rounded out spring mainstage. A Taste of Honey and the original one-acts finished the Workshop season. The latter produced Cloud People by William Sonnega, Getting It Back by Tracie Peterson, and Grads by Joseph Berry.
The summer Showboat production was Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines directed by Robert Moulton. And we continued the H.I.T. program for high school students. Professor Michal Kobialka joined the faculty in the history/lit area; Maryanne Beneke joined the Middlebrook staff for 9 years, serving as assistant to the chair.
