The Nineteen Nineties
1999-2000
Life changed a lot in fall of 1999. The University converted to semesters and the University Theatre had to discover a new production season. The fall semester began the Tuesday after Labor Day and ended in the third week in December. Spring semester began on the Tuesday following Martin Luther King Day and ended in the first week in May. We had a brand new building just up the street to adopt and care for. And further integration of the dance and theatre faculty and students to achieve. Kent Stephens joined the faculty and began changing the focus of the BA degree toward total performance and introducing the value of puppetry into the curriculum. Aleksandra Wolska joined the directing and history/lit faculty. Marc Leone became Scene Shop Supervisor for
the year. The fall season opened with Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams, directed by guest Richard Cook, Artistic Director of Park Square Theatre, and featuring Enid Atkinson and Noë McKenna, with Brent Doyle as Shannon. The theatre department hosted a Williams symposium in conjunction with the production, entitled “Rediscovering Tennessee Williams” on October 22 and 23. Former Guthrie Bush Fellowship student Richard Hoover, successful designer and 1999 Tony Award winner for Not About Nightingales by Williams, returned to chat with students about his 
experiences. This production was followed by the rarely performed play The Dybbuk, directed by Stephen Kanee with original music arranged and performed by Prairie Heym Klezmorim. An exploration of a rich and challenging masterwork, Dybbuk was designed by Kelley McClung in the Thrust and featured two guest artists: David Bernstein and the return of Lee Adey to our stage as an actor this time. The fall Xperimental season included Ardele, The Sacred Prostitute, The Workroom and the Dance X project.
UDT this year was a counter to last year’s all-women choreographed concert. Entitled Man Made, it included “Pressing Memories” (Myron Johnson), “Humming”-premiere (Wil Swanson), “This Dance”-premiere (David Dorfman, assisted by Jeanine Durning), “Iris”-premiere (Chris Aiken improv), and “D-Man in the Water” (Bill T. Jones). Spoon River Anthology came next in March,
directed by guest Wendy Lehr, Associate Artistic Director for the Children’s Theatre Company. This stroll through the collected memories of the deceased citizens of mythical Spoon River, Illinois, played in the Arena. On the Edge 2-000 once again cast theatre and dance students together for an exploration of their intersections – this time with performances two days only at midnight! As You Like It finished the season, directed by guest Wendy Knox, Artistic Director of Frank Theatre, in the Thrust. Spring brought The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories directed by Jen Blackmer; Once Upon a Housewife directed by Pam Joyce; original 
scripts Sleep by Don Mabley-Allen, directed by Julie McGarvie, and Like Black Sunshine by Kyle Morton, directed by Kris Lencowski; the New Works Series; and Dutchman directed by Kamesha Jackson to the Xperimental.
The dance program inaugurated an alumni concert during the year and the PhD program began sponsoring a lecture series entitled “Theatre: Staging of the Self, the Other & of Inexistence” whereby four or five eminent theatre scholars and practitioners from around the country visited campus to interact and provide a unique educational opportunity for our students. Spring 2000 found the final class of MFA-Acting students graduating. Waiting in the wings was the new BFA-Acting program under the guidance of Scott Freeman and Judy Bartl. The Dance Program exchanged “office Guy” Matt Jenson for Nora Jenneman over the summer.
We had been poised to re-open the Centennial Showboat this summer with auditions for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde held and the cast in place when the bad news hit. On Thursday, January 27, in the midst of reconstruction, the old Showboat caught fire from a welder’s spark. It burned down to the hull and we were left with the question of whether to continue the Showboat tradition by either locating another Boat and purchasing it or just letting it go. Fortunately there was a third choice which proved to be a winner all the way round.
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