Forty-five years ago tonight my first play was produced by the University of Minnesota. Staged in the Experimental Theatre of the Rarig Center, it was directed by the late Stephen G. Hults. It was my master’s thesis project.
I consider it to be my first pancake: used to test the griddle then tossed or fed to the dog. I subsequently revised it and directed it at the University of Colorado in 1984.
This is the poster from the original production.
I was once asked if I would like to see it produced again. My reply was concise: “Not even at gunpoint.”
Hokey smokes – we must have been there around the same time. I got my MA at the University of Minnesota. The name “Rarig Center” hasn’t entered my mind in years. That’s quite an anniversary!
I was there from September 1975 to June 1977, graduating in August 1977 even though I was in Colorado at the time. I first lived in an apartment in St. Louis Park, then moved downtown to a HUD-subsidized apartment tower on Oak Grove Street. I have family history there: Dad was born and raised in Minneapolis and my grandparents are buried there.
We did overlap; I lived in student housing for a while and then in Cedar Riverside, not far from one of the Dudley Riggs Brave New Workshop theaters. I got my BA at Madison and thought a change of schools would be a good idea, and Minnesota had reciprocity, so I went there.
Cedar Riverside: The Haberdashery, Annie’s Parlor, and the Triangle. Did you ever venture down to the 90’s and Sutton Place on Hennepin?
I’m sure I did. Now I’m trying to remember the name of the bar in Cedar Riverside – always had music and Leo Kottke would sometimes drop in unannounced. I haven’t been back to the Twin Cities except for the airport in years.
Replying to myself…am I thinking of the Cabooze?