The Nineteen Eighties
1986-87
Barbara Reid became department chair in the fall of 1986 and Charles Nolte began serving as Artistic Director of the University Theatre. The school year schedule of theatrical events began with The Second Shepherds’ Play, staged in the Experimental by Larry 
Ruth, followed by Time and the Conways directed by Leah Lowe. This production will long live in the light lab’s memory as the most use of cable and creative circuiting ever devised for the Arena (MFA designer Kathy Kohl)! The Miser directed by Vance Holmes ended fall in the Thrust and also returned for a Proscenium run winter quarter when we once again hosted the ACTF in Rarig. On top of the State High School One-Act Play Festival, it was quite the winter. The Bacchae ’65 was adapted and directed by Charles Nolte in the Experimental in February. And the quarter ended with Ondine directed by James Norwood in the Thrust, but not before the workshop production of The Bluebird.
Spring brought Anouilh’s Antigone to the Thrust directed by Lee Stille, followed by The White Devil, marking the return of Stephen
Kanee to the department as a faculty member. The quarter ended with Autumn Garden directed by Michael Lane with design by Kari Larson in the Arena. Brian Sherman directed an original adaptation called Laughter and the Love of Friends also in the Arena. An original one-act play festival was begun in spring of this year featuring work by student playwrights: Reunion by Dan Conway, Different Others, Different Selves by H. Noel Quamen, and Soldier of Art by Tracy James Anderson.
On the Showboat, audiences saw The Bat, a charming 1920’s mystery directed by Lee Adey and featuring Kelly Bertenshaw, Margie Weaver, and Amy Salloway. In August of 1987, Rarig Center first hosted the Playwright’s Center’s reading of new plays called Midwest Playlabs – an association that would continue for 11 years.
