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Featured Stories

75 Years of Summer Theater

May 29, 2009

Story and timeline written and compiled by Roger Sherman and edited by Diane Cays for the 75th anniversary souvenir program, which will be available at the box office by the first performance. Sherman was the technical director from 1992-2007, and is currently a faculty member in the School of Theatre Arts & Dance. Cays is the director of the Performing Arts Box Office and also teaches. The summer 2009 schedule is at http://www.arts.unco.edu/ltr/default.html.

In these 75 years much has changed.

One change has been the venues, although Frasier Hall has been home to LTR for most of these 75 years. Despite the upgraded turntable, electrics and rigging, and a new ceiling and catwalks, founder President George Frasier and first LTR director Helen Langworthy would still recognize the space, even if the rehearsal area at that time now houses the scene shop.

President William Ross’ creation of the Theatre Department in 1946 began the gradual change toward a focus on student participants rather than guests actors or designers, and the expansion of the department to its present size accelerated that trend.

In the early years, students or teachers coming back to build credentials or to take advantage of the GI bill made up the majority of LTR participants. Now students hone their skills in an intensive summer program, mentored by Actors Equity guest artists and professional designers.

Perhaps the biggest change has been in musical theatre, which didn’t exist as a separate program until the late sixties. Claude Schmitz, Howard Skinner, Steve Girault, John Willcoxon and Jeannette Triomphe laid the foundation for the explosion in the 1990s under Vance Fulkerson and John Leonard.

The show choices have changed, reflecting the tastes of directors and audiences. In the 1930s, LTR shows were often the best of contemporary Broadway. An analysis of 75 years of show titles reveals a tendency toward "American Classics" for both plays and musicals. Some of our most popular shows were new when originally produced; current audiences often enjoy seeing new interpretations of what are now classics, mixed with hot-off-the-presses new scripts.

There have been some famous names, if not household, participating in LTR ; there are also hundreds of alumni in the "business," working hard to establish themselves. From Broadway to regional theatre, cruise lines and community theatre, Hollywood movies to local indies, LTR is a part of many resumes.

Even more important are the number of LTR folk currently involved in education, both at the K-12 and college level, in Colorado and all over the country. This truly is Langworthy’s legacy – LTR serves "as a training ground for students and teachers in drama, art and literature, both directly as a teaching force, and indirectly by the nature and quality of its offerings to the public."

LTR has been magical for 75 years.

We expect that it will continue creating magic. Vital to that magic – our audiences, who create the most important magic of all, turning the script, the director’s concept, the designers’ and technicians’ craft, and the actors’ performance into the ephemeral "reality" that is a play.

75 Years at a Glance
1934 - LTR Begins -Eight shows; opened with "The First Mrs. Fraser"
1937 – "A Church Mouse" – first design by Welby Wolfe
1942-45 - World War II (no performances)
1946 - LTR returns; creation of Theatre Department; Welby Wolfe appointed to college
1947-48 - Remodel of theatre in Cranford Hall
1949 - March 4 - Cranford fire – LTR moves to the Sterling Theatre
1949-53 - LTR performs at Greeley High
1954 - Frasier Hall opens premier performance of "Point of No Return"
1963 - Lloyd Norton hired in Speech Department; moves to Theatre in 1965
1965 - John Willcoxon joins department
1965 - Helen Langworthy retires
1973 - Welby Wolfe retires; Bill Van Loo hired
1977 - Ron Gloekler hired
1981 - Jeannette Triomphe hired
1985 - Theatre in Frasier renamed Langworthy Theatre
1988 - Tom McNally takes over LTR and Department
1989 - Vance Fulkerson begins at LTR /UNC
1990 - Dance joins Theatre Department
1991 - "My Fair Lady," first LTR show at UCCC
1992 - The department grieves the death of Bill Van Loo
1993 - Dan Guyette joins program
1996 - Theatre in Gray Hall renamed Lloyd Norton Theatre
1998 - Theatre Department receives Program of Excellence grant from state
2002 - "She Loves Me," first summer show in Norton Theatre
2005 - Summer repertory begins in Norton Theatre
2007 - First LTR show of summer moved to Greeley Central High School following stage fire in Langworthy
2009 - 75th Anniversary

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