The Nineteen Eighties
1987-88 “A Season of Modern Masters”
Barbara Barker joined us this year as Dance Coordinator after a lengthy search. Lance Brockman took a sabbatical and MFA candidate Kelly Allison filled in as TD. Mourning Becomes Electra opened the season. We decided to produce the whole 5-hour play providing patrons with a break between parts I and II. It was very 
well received as both a production and an experience! Spring Awakening directed by Stephen Kanee and designed by KJ Sciandra followed in the Thrust and toured to Mankato in January (this time in a blizzard) as our ACTF entry. George Abbott’s Broadway was the final fall production in the Proscenium. The production directed by Larry Ruth also played in January to take advantage of a winter quarter audience.
Winter found rotating productions of The Snob and Brecht on Brecht
in the Arena. These two productions were part of the final creative process for the MFA Acting students whereby they could have the experience of playing two completely different roles on consecutive nights. The musical The Boys from Syracuse played the Thrust. Barbara Barker choreographed and persuaded a friend and colleague of hers Lee Abraham from UT-Austin to direct. MFA Susan Johnson-Hood’s wonderful wacky costumes and scenery were very appropriate to this musical based upon Comedy of Errors.
Pirandello’s To Clothe the Naked featuring the incomparable Gina Burke played on a Wendell Josal setting in the Arena to begin 
spring quarter. Charles Nolte directed Comrades in the Thrust. This production was the first in memory where we were forced to cancel performances due to actor illness. The Shewing Up of Blanco Posnet and No Exit played in rep in the Experimental. A very lively original musical workshop conceived and choreographed by Vance Holmes called Swing, Swing, Swing played the Proscenium. We continued the original one-act play festival.
For the 30th anniversary of the Minnesota Centennial Showboat, a musical revue Down River Ramble: A Mississippi Panorama was written and directed by Robert Moulton. This production featured a 100-foot long vertical roll drop painted by Lance and crew that took us down the Mississippi from the headwaters to New Orleans. It was a wonderful tribute to the river, the history of the region, and the historic scene painting techniques and styles so dear to Lance’s research. We continued with H.I.T. and providing space and support for the Midwest PlayLabs festival of new plays.
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