The Nineteen Eighties
1985-86
The musical Working by Studs Terkel opened the season, Marguerite Bennett Folger directing and David Hartmann designing. There had been such an enthusiastic response to its workshop performance a year ago, that it was remounted on the mainstage. Mollie Bailey’s Travelling Family Circus: Featuring Scenes from the Life of Mother Jones followed in the Thrust directed by Robert Moulton and eventually traveled itself to ACTF in Duluth. The fall workshop was King John directed by Roberta Cullen. Theatre of the Word: Flight into Fantasy directed by Melissa Ann Reed.
La Ronde opened winter quarter in the Arena, followed by The
Rivals in the Thrust. Theatre of the Word produced the Selected Works of Mario Puzo and there were two workshops: Phaedra and Playboy of the Western World.
The Dining Room played spring in the Arena, and The Comedy of Errors followed in the Thrust. Spring workshops were Lion in Winter directed by Larry Ruth and Status Quo Vadis by Brian Sherman in the Experimental.
A well-received Sherlock Holmes played on the Showboat with Jay Goede in the title role. The script, adapted by director Robert Moulton, was called “acutely theatrical” and the youthful crew “a polished one.” Vance Holmes served as musical director.
1986 marked the end of Robert Moulton’s tenure as Artistic Director of the University Theatre – a post he had held since 1980. Arthur H. Ballet retired at the end of fall 1985 after an outstanding career as teacher, mentor, dramatist, creator, discoverer of talent, actor, director, DGS, etc. etc. Jean Darling, long-time Graduate Studies Secretary and then assistant to the chair, retired. James Norwood joined the faculty in the areas of oral interp, acting, and theatre history.
