In 1855, the Michigan Agricultural College (M.A.C.) was founded, the first of its kind in the nation, and for many years it functioned without benefit of an organized arts component. In 1902, Ms. Maud Marshall presented H.M.S. PINAFORE as an extension of the budding instructional activities of the M.A.C. Chorus. Two years earlier, Mr. E. Sylvester King joined the faculty to teach public speaking. By 1907 King was regularly teaching courses in dramatic art and organized the first public presentation of a play as an extension of his teaching. The work of Marshall and King set a precedent of public performance as an appropriate extension of the academic function of the college. Thereafter, production of arts events became a natural consequence of classroom instruction.
Kings maiden production in 1910 was Sheridans THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL which was rehearsed on the fourth floor of Agriculture Hall. The play was presented on a low portable stage in the Armory with virtually no scenery. SCANDAL served to aid the new student newspaper -- THE HOLCAD. The enthusiasm which surrounded this production led to the formation of the M.A.C. Dramatic Club. Various other productions were presented by the club in the years which followed, especially in the Spring Term when out-of-door productions such as AS YOU LIKE IT and A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM were presented in the beautiful natural surroundings of the campus environment. The pattern of productions held out of doors in the Spring Term and in the Armory during other parts of the year continued until the construction of the Bandstand in 1938 which was located on the site of the present Bessey Hall.
M.A.C.s Dramatic Club presented its first musical comedy in 1915 at the Gladmer Theatre. The play was THE CAPTAIN OF PLYMOUTH and apparently enjoyed great success with the Lansing public.
Various productions were presented in the years which followed. The attached list indicates a wide range of productions designed to appeal to the students, faculty and general public. By the early 1930s courses in acting, play production and oral interpretation were regularly offered by the Department of English., In 1937 the Department of Speech and Dramatic Arts was formed, forever separating courses in theatre from those in dramatic literature.
In those early days, productions were rehearsed on the second floor of the woods hop which was later demolished to make way for the present Administration Building. By 1937 work had begun on the Fairchild Theatre/Auditorium complex which was to house a wide variety of public events including productions of plays organized by the newly created academic unit. THE MERCHANT OF VENICE was among the last plays presented in the Band Shell in 1938 under the direction of Professor Cecil H. Nickle. Appropriately, the Fairchild Theatre was named after Professor George T. Fairchild, who was a professor of English from 1865 until 1879 when he assumed the position of president of Kansas State University. The first M.A. degree in Speech was granted in 1939 to Gordon Thomas, longtime member of the MSU faculty and Secretary of Academic Governance. The fledgling department and faculty were moved to the Auditorium Building in 1940 which became the permanent home for Theatre among various other academic disciplines, such as Radio, TV, Audiology and Speech Sciences.
A period of enormous growth set in on college campuses throughout the nation with the return of World War II veterans and the implementation of the G. I. Bill. This sudden influx is reflected in the number of productions, which doubled and tripled from 1945 to 1948.
The post war years saw the appearance of Professor Jed Davis and Professor Mary Jane Watkins who instituted a significant program in the production of children's plays in a situation that was somewhat unique in that children were used as actor/performers directed by college students in productions of plays written for young audiences. This effort was called the Toyshop Theatre.
The Toyshop Theatre was presented with full production support in the hundred seat proscenium theatre of Room 49 of the Auditorium Building and also at the auditorium of the State School for the Blind from which the company toured to high schools and elementary schools throughout the state.
In 1954, the College of Communication Arts was formed under the supervision of Dr. Gordon Sabine. The Department of Speech, Dramatics and Radio was renamed simply the Speech Department and included within the new administrative structure of the college which had the blessing of MSU's long-time president, John Hannah.
This event coincided with organizational changes in the upper administration and Michigan Agricultural College was renamed Michigan State University in 1954 with an enrollment of about 15,500 students. These events were accompanied by an enormous growth of physical facilities. Under Dr. Hannah's leadership new dormitories for the university were created as "living-learning" components, whereby a student would live in a dormitory, attend classes and be provided entertainment.
Dr. John Dietrich who had had a successful career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and The Ohio State University assumed the duties of the Chair of the Department of Speech in the late 1950s, inheriting a situation that was bound in a successful tradition but which contained the seeds for creative alternatives. Dr. Dietrich instituted major changes in the theatre program and the direction of the Speech Department. He created the Arena Theatre in the basement of the Auditorium Building out of what had been a storage space. He increased the Speech Departments offerings in the Fairchild Theatre and presented both programs to the student public on a subscription season ticket. He inaugurated the Summer Circle Theatre in 1961, which was a duplicate of the highly successful Stadium Theatre program which he supervised earlier at Ohio State University. This latter was a summer theatre program presenting five plays to the general public using both student and community actors. A subscription was sold, as well as general admissions.
In 1961, Dr. Dietrich also expanded the theatre offerings in production and added studies of Asian Theatre to the courses and productions scheduled under the supervision of Dr. James Brandon.
1961-1962 was a crucial period in the development of the now active Theatre unit because many elements were in place but not directed toward specific goals. The number of graduate students had increased by this time, a summer production program had been established, most of the faculty who had opposed Dr. Sabine had resigned, the subscription season in Fairchild Theatre had been established, the Arena Theatre had created an aura of experimentation and avant garde-ism, and a serious effort of outreach to the states high schools for recruitment purposes had begun.
In the interim, events were occurring elsewhere in the state which helped to shape the future of Michigan States theatre. Dr. Leonard Leone established the Hilberry Company at Wayne State University. About that time, MSU produced a production of J.B. by Archibald MacLeish that wanted for lack of talent. In response to Wayne States lead and our own deficiencies, Dr. Dietrich established the PERFORMING ARTS COMPANY, which was to consist of a select group of graduate student/performers/artists/technicians who, augmented by the best of the undergraduate talents, were to present productions in the Fairchild Theatre and tour the state, as well as present productions originating in the Arena Theatre in the living-learning dormitories created by Dr. Hannah with their unique "Kiva" spaces which were equipped with minimal lighting facilities. MSU was to become a "Cultural Center in the Performing Arts" for all on-campus students and the entire state of Michigan. The MSU Board of Trustees responded with full funding for this ambitious program.
In the initial euphoria, music and dance were represented in the "living learning centers"; but their participation soon waned and the "tour to the dorms" became exclusively the province of the Theatre program which exacted such a heavy toll in design restrictions, custodial harassment, and staff fatigue that the program had to be abandoned in 1971.
The first state-wide tour of the Performing Arts Company took place in 1963-64 with productions of MEDEA and RHINOCEROS. Tours to cities outside of Lansing were sponsored by secondary schools and civic organizations.
The additions and gains of this season were continued into the next with a state tour of THE TAMING OF THE SHREW by William Shakespeare which toured Wednesday through Sunday for ten weeks and two weeks during the Spring vacation. The motivating factor was to emulate tours of the Catholic University of Washington, DC. Tours were booked through the MSU Office of Continuing Education, but this function was eventually assumed by the Department of Theatre. The tour program continued through 1972 until the first oil and gasoline crisis plus the overall retrenchment in secondary education began to render the program inoperable. The outreach aspects of the program were soon taken over by Dr. John Baldwin and his programs for the elementary and secondary schools.
During this period, the Summer Circle Theatre program continued to prosper and grow in new ways. In 1964 the Summer Circle Theatre which existed physically in Demonstration Hall as an arena theatre was redesigned by Professor Edward Andreasen and Professor Frank C. Rutledge into a three sided thrust stage. For that summer, five plays of varying production demands were mounted to test Tyrone Guthrie's proposition that any play could be mounted on a thrust stage. The Summer Circle Theatre continued in this mode until 1969.
In the spring of 1968, the Department of Theatre was created as a separate entity within the College of Communication Arts and Dr. Herbert Oyer was named Dean. Professor E. C. Reynolds became the departments first chairperson.
In 1971, after considerable debate concerning the advisability of doing so, the Department of Theatre was moved to the College of Arts and Letters which housed the School of Music and the Department of Art, thus combining all the arts under one administrative umbrella.
About the same time as the transfer to Arts and Letters, the theatre curriculum was totally redesigned to meet the needs of the students of the 1970s who were headed for secondary school teaching careers. M. F .A. degrees were approved in design, acting and directing. The Department undertook to produce a summer repertory season at Calumet, Michigan in a renovated opera house which eventually proved to be a severe strain on the departments resources. At the same time the Summer Circle Free Festival was begun.
In 1972, with the new curriculum firmly in place, the department embarked on a program to revitalize its obligations and long-nurtured relationship with theatre for children. The old Toyshop Theatre program was renamed The Toybox Theatre and extensive tours to the classrooms of the states elementary schools were undertaken. This activity gradually percolated up to the secondary schools so that today a major consideration in the selection of plays for the on-campus season consists of plays that will have appeal to the local area secondary schools.
In 1974, extensive planning was begun for what was to become the Wharton Center for Performing Arts. The Chair of the Theatre Department was part of the planning committee and a former Theatre Department colleague was the theatre consultant for this project. The planning and projected use of the new facility occupied a major artistic and curricular concern for the faculty during this period and ideas tested in the Summer Circle thrust stage arrangement created in the 1960s were to be realized in the eventual design of the Festival Stage of the Wharton Center.
The early 1980s saw the opening of the Wharton Center following many compromises in planning, execution, administration and programming which had a direct bearing on the academic and curricular programs of the Department of Theatre. A specialization in Dance was created when a tenured faculty member specializing in dance and movement was hired, which provided new avenues for exploration in the area of theatre. The addition of a faculty position in Black Theatre supported the departments commitment to affirmative action and equal opportunity. A tenure system faculty member in the area of lighting and scene design was hired. The Arena Theatre was reorganized into the New Arena Theatre, supervised and managed by students with faculty input. A B.F.A. degree program in Musical Theatre initiated in the early 1980s.
The summer of 1988 brought a change of format to the Summer Circle Free Festival program when two special seminars--one in American Dramatic Literature and one in American Theatre History--were added to the summer term schedule. Use of a theme approach began, and the name was changed to Summer Circle Free Festival of the American Theatre. In 1991, the Deans Community Council gave the program its Apollo Award for enhancing the mission of the college in the community. This topic driven emphasis continued until and through 1994.
In the fall of 1995, the faculty voted to discontinue the usage of the Performing Arts Company label. Instead, the production work will be known as the DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE presents, etc. This decision was prompted by the need to provide stronger identification for the department. The Performing Arts Company was an outgrowth of the concept of the university resident acting company consisting primarily of graduate students. Since most of the productions are auditioned across the whole of the student body, the idea of a resident company no longer exists.
Subsequently, the name Summer Circle Free Festival Theatre of the American Arts was changed and will return to the name: Summer Circle Theatre. This will allow for the production of more than just American plays. The future may warrant charging an admission and it was felt that the word "free" needed to be dropped in anticipation of such action.
The university calendar was converted from the quarter system to the semester system effective Fall 1992. All academic programs and courses were reviewed in the semester conversion process. The transition to the semester system and the strains of the conversion are still being smoothed over. Curriculum offerings were reduced by the mandated one-third; a mandatory Capstone course was instituted; the former intra-departmental cognates were discontinued; and the production program was reduced to six per year to match the semester calendar.
The B. F. A. in Musical Theatre and M. F. A. in Directing were officially discontinued during the switch to semesters. Contributing factors in the elimination of the B. F .A. in Musical Theatre included the lack of performance opportunities deemed necessary by the faculty to sustain the program. Additionally, it became apparent that students in the Musical Theatre program were equally interested in gaining experience in serious dramatic presentations. The faculty has consistently supported a strong liberal arts education. Cabaret Musical Theatre which had served as a valuable venue was discontinued when the Musical Theatre program was eliminated.
The M.F.A. program in Directing was discontinued due to lack of facilities and funds for supervision.
The Arena Theatre was restored to faculty governance for scheduling and supervision allowing for two formal departmental productions per year. Theatre majors may petition the Faculty Governance Committee to direct in the Arena as well as Studio 49.
In 1994-95, two more faculty retirements reduced the size of the faculty to six tenure-stream positions. During this year the faculty began to meet weekly to assess the department in terms of operations and standards. The faculty discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the department and as a result arrived at a new mission statement which reflect goals and objectives designed to complement the Guiding Principles of the university. As a result of these meetings a Five-Year plan was submitted to the Dean of the College of Arts and Letters. Information resulting from the meetings was also incorporated into the N.C.A. report as well as the Academic Program Planning and Review Document. Subsequently, the information is being utilized in the writing of the self-study for the NAST accreditation process.
The decision to place a moratorium on the Ph.D. degree was made in part because doctoral committees could not be constituted with the present size of the faculty. Additionally, it was felt that the present faculty could not supply the needed course work without assistance from other departments. Currently enrolled candidates are being supervised with assistance from companion departments.
Participation in the American College Theatre Festival as associate and participating productions has increased. In 1993, a student-written play was selected for the regional festival. The faculty remain active as regional adjudicators throughout the year.
Off-campus touring to high schools through the SIMPLY SHAKESPEARE tour and to elementary schools through the Young Peoples Theatre and Dance Tour group: DANCE ME A TALE; TELL ME A RHYTHM continue but are experiencing a reduced touring schedule due to lack of funds for the arts in the schools in Michigan. Many theatre students are teaching in the PARTNERS FOR THE ARTS program sponsored by Wharton Center and funded through corporate sponsorship. The students teach once a week in elementary, middle and secondary schools in the greater Lansing area.
A tour group entitled CONSIDER THIS...provides a forum for discussion and debate of critical social issues. The group is designed to reach high school as well as college-age students.
The department received an All-University Research grant (AURG) and a Michigan Council for the Humanities grant to produce A TALE OF TWO CITIES which was conceived and developed to honor the French Bicentennial. An AURG was awarded to the dance area to sponsor a tour of dancers in schools in the Lansing area designed to show the INFLUENCE OF AFRICAN-AMERICANS ON DANCE IN AMERICA.
Two doctoral candidates in the department have been recipients of Deans Fellowship Awards to further their doctoral research.
Staff positions for a seamstress and a technical director have been restored in the department. Three tenure-stream faculty positions have been requested to replace areas of need within the department.
In 1994, Dr. Dixie Durr was named Interim Chair. The faculty petitioned for a permanent chair appointment in 1995.
In 1995, Edward Albee provided a special seminar in the department for the theatre majors. He was invited to speak at Michigan State University as part of the Deans Community Council Celebrity Series. Prior to his visit a special department seminar was held during which time two graduate students presented papers relative to Albee's work. The opening scene from WHOS AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOLFF? as well as THE AMERICAN DREAM were also presented. Other celebrity lecturers who have provided special classes for students in the department include Judith Jamison and Jacques d'Amboise.
In the fall of 1995, a lecture-demonstration was conducted by artists from India who were sponsored by the Battery Dance Company. These artists represented Kathakali, Kathak, and Bharata Natyam theatre/dance forms. The ILLUSTRATED THEATRE COMPANY also performed for the whole of the department.