TheCornerstoneThe Newsletter of the Rice Historical Society Vol. 19 No. 1

Winter/Spring 2013

In This Issue

All the Campus isA Stage: A Historyof Theater at Rice University . . . . . 1

Trauma on the Trinity . . . . . . . . 12

All the Campus is a Stage: A History of Theater at Rice Universityby Nicole Pariseau

rom its beginning, Rice Universityhas been seen as a school focusedon the sciences and engineering, an

elite training ground for its innovatorsand leaders of the natural andmechanical world, with a benign neglecttowards the arts. Yet, it has almostalways had theater. In spite ofperceptions, Rice is home to both theoldest collegiate theater troupe and thelongest-running annual Shakespearefestival in Houston, and it is a schoolthat produces more plays in any givenyear than most surrounding universitiesthat boast stronger, more firmlyestablished theater departments. ThoughRice was the last major university inHouston to establish a formal theaterprogram and degree, the fierce dedicationand enthusiasm of its students to the production of ambitious and progressivepieces allowed the growth of a deep and lasting theater tradition at RiceUniversity.

Rice theater finds its roots in the Dramatics Club, formed shortly after theconclusion of the First World War, which started the traditions that haveremained a part of Rice’s theatrical identity throughout its history. Thoughtheater existed on campus before the rise of this new club, with an annualproduction by the Young Women’s Christian Association following their firstplay, “Green Stockings,” in 1918 and the occasional show by other groups oncampus, the Rice Dramatics Club became the first organization solely focusedon creating theater at Rice. With their preliminary plans laid out in 1921, thegroup premiered a festival of one-act plays at Autry House that fall, a successful

production that gained the supportof students and the greaterHouston community. By 1923 theclub was invited to perform for theRice Alumni Association’s annualreunion, an honor that “markedthe first official recognition of theDramatics Club as an importantphase of Rice activities.” Though

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“Green Stockings,” 1918

Program cover, “Romeo and Juliet,” 1995

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other groups continued to dabble in Rice theater,from this point forward, the Rice Dramatics Clubwas the dominant producer of plays on campus.

Though the beginning of the Dramatics Clubincluded significant faculty involvement, as the clubgained strength and confidence, it shifted to focus onstudent involvement and leadership, establishing astrong student presence in Rice theater. The club wasinitially governed by a council of two students andone faculty member who were changed for eachproduction. The club was open to “all interestedmembers of the Rice community,” allowing for theappearance of Rice faculty and students in the sameproduction, a rare occurrence in university theater atthe time. Club members were selected based onauditions at the beginning of each term, withthose considered of adequate talent acceptedfor a year of probationary membership. Theclub itself rarely met beyond these initialauditions and gatherings to select plays forproduction, but productions found their castand crew from among club members. Inthese early years, the major faculty advisorwas John Clark Tidden, a professor inarchitectural drawing and painting whofrequently served as the company’s director.His talent and dedication to the groupduring the organization’s first years ensuredthat the club had a firm foundation, whichallowed the group to continue on studentinitiative following Tidden’s departure fromRice in 1925. Though other faculty sponsorswould step in to serve as directors andadvisors, the club had become entirely astudent affair. The trend towards a morestudent driven organization continued with arestructuring of the club in 1933, whichestablished a traditional officer structure of

The RiceHistoricalSociety

PURPOSETo collect and preserve for the future the history of Rice University

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2012–2013

OFFICERSHelen L. Toombs ’79 President

Nancy Burch ’61Vice-President

Lee PechtTreasurer

Kerry Goelzer ’70Recording Secretary

Lynda Crist, ’67Corresponding Secretary

Mary DixThe Cornerstone Editor

BOARDSandy BenakJohn Boles ’65Maydelle Burkhalter ’53Stephen Fox ’73John GladuDoug Killgore ’69Quin McWhirter ’62Joyce Winning Nagle ’44Karen Hess Rogers ’68Joan Schell Alan Shelby

The Rice Historical Society welcomesletters to The Cornerstone, its officialnewsletter. Rice alumni and friends areencouraged to contribute photographsand remembrances of historical interestthat may be used in future issues of The Cornerstone. Items cannot bereturned and will be donated to ourarchival collection.

Newsletter designed by Starfall Graphics.

All the Campus is a Stage: A History of Theater at Rice University(continued from page 1)

John Clark Tidden

“Rose of the Southland,” 1933

“Naked Boy,” 1921

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leadership and divided the club into eight departmentsfocused on different production elements such as acting,directing, costuming, and playwriting. With the neworganization, students, rather than faculty, establishedthemselves as the leaders who would define an emergingtheatrical tradition at Rice.

This tradition focused on creating a professionalenvironment under which students could produceprogressive and innovative plays. The club operated withalmost no budget; the productions were funded by modestdues paid by members and the small amount earned inticket sales. They performed most of their productions atAutry House, where sets had to be taken down and tuckedaway when the club was not rehearsing or performing, andthe plays often lacked a rehearsal space altogether. Withlimited supplies, space, and budget, students were oftenforced to be creative, leading to a greater willingness toexperiment and innovate. Nevertheless, the group wasknown for putting on plays of the “highest artisticproduction [standards] and standard of acting.” Theprogressive nature of the Dramatics Club, however,eventually led to some controversy around theirproductions. Most notably, the announcement of aproduction of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in the fall of 1933caused an uproar from the Harris County Council of theUnited Daughters of the Confederacy, who opposed theidea of the play being produced in a “southern institution,”considering the source material as “one of the causes of theCivil War.” They filed a court suit in an attempt to stop theproduction from going forward. The judge threw out thecase as absurd, leaving the decision of the play’s future upto the Rice Institute. The Dramatics Club decided toinstead present a production of the burlesque musical“Rose of the Southland, or the Spirit of Robert E. Lee,”which provided an even greater commentary of the South,as a further dig at the Daughters of the Confederacy. In1936 the Dramatics Club decided to rent out the oldPalace Theater for a performance of “Waiting for Lefty” toprevent a kerfuffle with the administration over the piece’smentioning of the Communist Manifesto, which “gave itthe potential to be deemed an inappropriate topic for aplay on campus.” Fortunately, neither controversy made animpact on the growing tradition for innovation in theaterthat was being established by the Dramatics Clubmembers.

With America’s entrance into the Second World Warin 1941, however, campus activities, including those of theDramatics Club, were halted, leading to the decline andeventual end of the theater group. Even with the end of thewar in 1945, the Dramatics Club did not immediatelyreappear, with students waiting until the spring of 1947 toreorganize. Despite the years of dormancy, the club quicklyrebuilt itself and gained prominence on campus once

again. This was not to last. In the early 1950s, the school’sauthorities banned the club from campus following theirdestruction of the wooden floor in their theater in LovettHall during a thunderstorm. Without the funds or spacerequired to continue productions, the group was forced toundergo a significant reorganization, which caused the clubto become essentially defunct, creating a period ofstagnation in student theater. Nonetheless, with theirstrong dedication to resourceful and ambitiousproductions, the Dramatics Club laid a firm foundationthat defined the promising future for theater at Rice.

The eventual completion of the Dramatics Club’sreorganization by a group of dedicated students a couple ofyears after its collapse resulted in the formation of Rice’ssecond major theater club, the Rice Players, anorganization that, from its beginning years, continued theinnovative practices of its predecessor. The birth of theRice Players was largely due to the help and guidance ofDr. Willard Thorpe, a visiting professor in AmericanStudies from Princeton University who served as the firstfaculty advisor. Rather than instituting a traditional officerstructure for the new organization, the club’s founders

“Earth Spirit,” 1955

Department which had jurisdictionover the club, about the possibilityof a job. Havens, a Rice alumnusand founding Rice Player, hadgraduated from Indiana Universitywith a Master of Arts, and, during abrief stint in New York City, hadearned two Broadway credits:assistant stage managing the IrvingBerlin musical “Mr. President” andstage managing “Tiger, TigerBurning Bright,” the company’s nextproduction. At the time he appliedfor the directorial position, however, he had just spent twoyears as a buyer for boy’s clothing at Bloomingdales andwas ready for a change and a return to the theater. A fewmonths after expressing his interest in directing the RicePlayers, the Dean of Humanities brought Havens toHouston for an interview. The interviewing processincluded a meeting with Rice President Kenneth Pitzer, theDean of Humanities, and, most significantly, the studentsof the Rice Players. The students’ questioning of Havenslasted for several hours as they probed all aspects of hisbackground, his interest in theater, and his philosophies onteaching. Their thorough and lengthy interviews withHavens and the other candidate presented the Players withthe unprecedented opportunity to provide the final say inthe appointment of their director, and Havens emerged astheir clear choice. Havens, unlike any faculty memberbefore him, was hired by the students. With a permanentdirector, the Rice Players entered a new era ofprofessionalism in 1964, creating high-quality theater thatwould gain recognition throughout the Houston area.

Havens’ arrival had consequences that extendedbeyond raising the professionalism of the Rice Players,however, as aspiring student directors turned the residentialcolleges into a new venue for theatrical production and thetradition of college theater as an entirely student-drivenendeavor began. In the fall 1964, the same year thatHavens came to Rice, Lawson Taitte broke with the RicePlayers to form Baker Theater-in-the Round, producingEugene Ionesco’s “The Lesson” in the fall and “Waiting forGodot” in the spring. Though the initial season achieved“great acclaim” at both Baker and beyond, the programfolded on Taitte’s departure the following year.Nevertheless, the idea of theater in the colleges was plantedin the minds of enterprising students. The following year,Roger Glade proposed the establishment of HanszenCollege Theater; the cabinet, unwilling to advance thenecessary funds, rejected Glade’s elaborate plan. WiessCollege, on the other hand, supported the proposal, andgave Glade the funds he needed to establish a theater intheir commons. Unlike Taitte, who had simply been

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established a system of governance based around a group ofstudent coordinators who would handle the managerialduties necessary to keep the club running, includingbudgeting, publicity, and play selection. The initialreception of the administration to the group was “cool, ifnot downright hostile,” and, at first, the Players received nofinancial support from the university. The club had noconstitution, by-laws, or dues; it depended solely on theenthusiasm and dedication of its members. Nonetheless, intheir first year the Players presented a series of one-acts,performing both in the Fondren Library basement and onthe Autry House stage. Their final production of theseason, an outdoor Shakespeare festival on the lawns ofRice, would soon become an annual tradition. The scenestraveled throughout the campus, from the steps of theChemistry Lecture Hall to the grassy area between LovettHall and the Physics Building, with audience membersbeing led by torchbearers and musicians and the technicalequipment moved from set to set by a specially equippedtruck. By the mid-1950s, the Rice Players, who hadestablished themselves as a legitimate theater organization,began to receive some funding from the university andgained a permanent home upon the completion ofHamman Hall in 1958. Formulating themselves early as adistinctly student-basedorganization, the arrival ofthe Players marked areinvigoration of studentinterest and involvement atRice.

In the 1960s, campustheater experienced a majorturning point with thearrival of Neil “Sandy”Havens as the permanentprofessional director andhead of the Rice Players.Before this, Rice Players’productions relied almostprimarily on studentdirectors, with facultysponsors occasionally fillingthe directorial role. The quality of these productions, as aresult, varied greatly from play to play. It was truly“amateur” theater. In 1962, the coordinators hired theirfirst professional free-lance director. The resulting rise inprofessionalism of the Players’ productions was such that,two years later, a proposal was made to the dean ofstudents and the Board of Governors that funds be madeavailable to hire a drama assistant. Around the same time,after hearing from a friend that a permanent directorialposition with the Players might become a reality, Havenscontacted Wilfred S. Dowden, the chairman of the English

All the Campus is a Stage: A History of Theater at Rice University (continued from page 3)

Adrian Neil “Sandy” Havens

Roger Glade

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looking for an opportunity todirect, Glade hoped to establisha permanent theater program atWiess that would last beyond histenure at Rice. In the fall of1965, the Wiess TabletopTheater, so named for the use ofthe college’s tables to provideelevation for audience seating,presented its first production,Sophocles’ “Antigone,” directedand produced almost single-handedly by Glade. Afterscrapping a spring production of“Six Characters in search of anAuthor” to prevent the collapse of the program under theweight of a bad show, the Tabletop Theater entered itssecond season in fall 1966, producing “Dr. Faustus” and, inthe spring, “The Alchemist.” With the success of eachproduction, Glade gained greater support from the rest ofWiess and, by the end of the 1966–67 school year, thecollege began introducing permanent physical facilitiesdesigned to make theatrical production there easier in thefuture. In fact, when the Wiess Commons underwent laterremodeling, a lighting booth and trusses for a theater werebuilt into the new commons to “assure that Tabletopwould continue.” Nonetheless, after Glade’s graduation,Wiess Tabletop Theater faced potential collapse when itsentire budget was appropriated and spent on a student-written musical; the program’s future became entirelydependent on the success or failure of the show. Thismusical, entitled “Hello Hamlet,” a parody of the classicShakespearean tragedy, also depended almost entirely on asingle student, George Greanias, who not only wrote anddirected the piece, but starred in the title role. The showwas, fortunately, a roaring success, and Greanias producedthe show for a second time in 1970, his senior year. Sincethen, it has become a tradition at Wiess, with the playrevived once every four years.

With the invention of college theater and theintroduction of Sandy Havens to the Rice Players, the1960s and ’70s were marked by a period ofexperimentation within Rice theater as each group grewinto its identities and found its place among Rice students.The success of Wiess Tabletop inspired other collegetheater programs to form at many of the other residentialcolleges of Rice. As colleges attempted to establish theirown unique character, they began to specialize in the typesof shows produced, and most of the colleges becameknown by their specific niche. Hanszen started withminstrel shows, “a type of burlesque with racialundertones,” but soon transitioned into the production ofan annual musical. At Jones, this period was dominated by

melodramas. In 1970, BakerCollege, in conjunction with itsfestival each spring established atradition of putting on an annualShakespeare play. Still in existencetoday, Baker Shakespeare hasbecome the longest-runningannual Shakespeare festival in thegreater Houston area. The collegesquickly became the “communitytheater” of Rice, the place wherestudents less serious about theatercould get involved. Though collegeproductions varied greatly inquality and in dedication, the vast

availability provided by the enormous number ofproductions being held on campus spread theater to allstrata of the Rice student body.

The Rice Players, on the other hand, took the hiring oftheir permanent professional director as a cue to elevate thequality and professionalism of their productions, taking onnewer, more ambitious shows and establishing themselvesas the elite theater group on campus. With Baker taking onan annual Shakespeare production and the overall growthof theater in Houston outside of Rice, the Players began tomove away from producing the classical plays that hadfilled their earlier seasons, making their mark in Houstonby showing more contemporary works. By the mid-sixtiesat least three of their four annual productions were“Houston premiers,” and, in this period, the Playersintroduced Houston to playwrights such as Harold Pinter,Edward Albee, Samuel Beckett, and Tom Stoppard. Mostlythrough the efforts of the Players, Rice became “the hotbed of radical theater” in the late 1960s, and there wasoften controversy over the explicit language and sexualsituations that would sometimes appear in Players’ shows.The administration, however, supported the Players underHavens, never attempting to oppose a production thatmight cause a tumult on campus or in the community.

“Hello Hamlet” publicity photo, 1967

Jean-Claude DeBremaecker with students at protest, 1969 (left)Masterson Affair, 1969 (right)

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Strangely enough, the largest stir created by the RicePlayers in this period came entirely by accident. InFebruary 1969, the Board of Trustees announced that Dr.William Masterson would replace Dr. Kenneth Pitzer asthe president of the university, acting without consultingthe faculty or the students. The decision outraged themembers of the Rice community, many of whom approvedneither the choice of candidate nor the method by whichhe was selected. For the entire weekend following theannouncement, there were college and faculty meetings,debates, and protests throughout campus. Meanwhile, theRice Players were in the midst of dress rehearsals for theirlatest production, a play called “The Persecution andAssassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by theInmates of the Asylum at Charenton Under the Directionof the Marquis de Sade,” which was opening the followingMonday. The play itself had been labeled as controversialafter a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company hadfeatured nudity, one of the first instances of it on the stage,garnering some attention for the Rice production after anarticle was published in a local Houston newspaper aboutthe possibility of its appearing again in the Players’ piece, aconcern which proved unfounded. More importantly,however, the play was concerned with the FrenchRevolution, a fitting topic for the revolution that wascurrently occurring on campus. The entire next week, asthe Board of Trustees was forced to reverse their decisionand Masterson withdrew his name from consideration, theauditorium of Hamman Hall was filled, a five-hundred seattheater, with standing room only. The production, througha complete coincidence, managed to embody this incidentexperienced by the entire Rice campus. It also stands as anaccurate reflection of the work being done by the RicePlayers in this period. With a smaller professional theaterpresence in Houston at the time, the Players were able toestablish themselves as a competent, solid organizationwith a consistent level of performance that matched manyof the outside theater companies in the area. With frequentreviews by the three major newspapers in Houston at thetime, the Press, the Post, and the Chronicle, the Players wereknown well beyond the hedges of Rice and had a regularfollowing among members of the Houston community.Though Hamman Hall was not always sold out, the largeaudiences seen in the “Marat/Sade” production were notunique in the Players’ experience in this period. In fact, in1976, the university, feeling that the organization hadbecome financially self-sufficient from box office returns,halted funding for the Players with the understanding thatthe administration would not let the group fail if they raninto trouble with money, an occurrence which the Playershave only experienced twice in their history due to thepopularity of the group’s productions. In this way and

many others, the period ofthe late 1960s through theearly 1980s can beconsidered as the height ofthe Rice Players as anorganization and as atheatrical company.

The arrival of aprofessional director for theRice Players also broughtabout the introduction ofeducational theater at Rice.As a member of the faculty,Havens was expected toteach in addition to hisduties as the director ofRice Players. Considered amember of the Englishdepartment upon hisarrival, his first year wasspent teaching public speaking and a basic English coursefor scholarship athletes, filling in for a professor on leave.In his second year, Havens transferred to the newlyestablished Fine Arts Department, leading some studentsto suggest the creation of a course in theater at Rice. In thefall of 1966, Theater 300 and 301 appeared in the General

All the Campus is a Stage: A History of Theater at Rice University (continued from page 5)

Rice Players, 1972

“Marat Sade” Program, 1969

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Announcements for the first time as a course titled“Introduction to Theater,” and several years later, Fine Arts450 was added as a “Special Problems” course which wasdesigned by students with Havens to meet specific interestsin theater. It became a common course for coordinatorsand other students heavily involved in Players to survivetheir massive time commitments to the organization.Throughout his time at Rice, however, Havens consideredhis greatest teaching tool to be the stage rather than theclassroom. At one point, Havens worked with Nina Vanceand Iris Siff at the Alley Theatre in Houston to puttogether a proposal to establish a school of theater at Ricein conjunction with the Alley’s company. The proposal fellthrough, but the relationship between the Players and theAlley remained, and the Rice Players became the onlyoutside theater group to perform on the Alley’s main stage.Throughout this entire period, however, Havens neverattempted or wanted to develop a theater department ortheater major at Rice. He felt that the establishment of aformal theater program would take away opportunitiesfrom engineering, humanities, and science majors whowanted to be involved in extracurricular theater in favor ofthose who were training to enter into it professionally. TheRice Players, despite only being an extracurricular activityfor its members, was sufficient in its professionalism and

reputation to provide those who wanted to pursue a careerin theater the opportunities they needed to succeed.

Despite the presence of a faculty director, the RicePlayers remained a student-run and student-drivenorganization. By this point the coordinator system hadexpanded from three students to a group that rangedanywhere from four to ten members. Becoming acoordinator required a level of dedication to theorganization that caused distinction, as new coordinatorswere selected at the end of each year by Havens and theexisting group. Havens recognized, from the process of hishiring and his own experiences as an undergraduate, thathis position as the director of the Rice Players did not granthim control of the organization. The students, as always,were the primary drivers of the company, and Havensremained very open to cooperation and collaboration withhis pupils. Beyond the administrative duties involved inrunning an organization, the coordinators were involved inplay selection, casting, and, frequently, the important rolesrequired for productions, such as design and stagemanaging. When the Players began producing an annual“Evening of One-Acts” in the spring, directors were oftenpulled from among the coordinating team. Opportunitieswere also open for non-coordinating students, but, withthe strong presence and overwhelming dedication of thecoordinators, as well as with the highly professionalizedproductions that were being put up by the organization,the Rice Players began to be seen by the student body asintimidating and exclusive, causing many aspiring toparticipate in theater to turn to the colleges rather thanmake the commitment required by the Players. In a certainregard, this strengthened the organization as it becamepopulated by the best and most enthusiastic thespiansat Rice.

By the 1980s, as professional theater became morereadily available throughout the greater Houston area andthe amazing output of new plays seen in the 1960s and 70sfinally slowed, the Rice Players noticed a natural decline inaudience sizes and student support; nonetheless, with itsbase of dedicated students under the guidance of Havens, itremained an organization committed to the production ofserious., innovative, and ambitious theater through the endof the millennium. Though the Players still remainedcommitted to producing new plays, the growth of theaterin Houston, both on other university campuses and in theprofessional sphere, limited their options on new plays,especially as professional theaters were usually givenpreference to premiere a piece. As a necessity, the Playerswere forced to coordinate with the other, surroundingtheaters to create a season that was distinctly unique inorder to attract an audience. At the same time, the Playerslost a significant source of publicity as Houston newspapersbegan to turn their focus away from university

“Close of Play” by Simon Gray, 1982

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productions. The organization itself, however, was thriving,maintaining its innovative practices in theater. With thecompletion of the Farnsworth Pavilion in the RiceMemorial Center in the late 1980s, the Rice Players beganto experiment with theater-in-the-round. They constructeda series of platforms for seating that conformed to theoctagonal shape of the room, creating a theater that couldseat about 130 people with a stage space in the center, asetup that was later transitioned to the Hamman Hallstage. In 1991, when the Shepherd School of Music movedinto their new space in Alice Pratt Brown Hall, the RicePlayers were left, for the first time, with sole jurisdictionover Hamman Hall, which they essentially ran as a “rentalhall” when not using the space for their own productions.Havens served as the building manager, and many of thePlayers acted as hall technicians, taking care of equipmentand working tech for concerts and outside shows. Thisoffered a new opportunity for education among the RicePlayers, as they learned “what life in the theater was like” aswell as “real life collaboration experience.” Mostimportantly, however, the students in Players learned howto run a theater. By the late 1990s, a greater proportion ofRice Players went to reputable training programs to pursueprofessional careers in theater than in any era past. In manyways, in this period, the lack of a formal theaterdepartment proved more beneficial to the studentsinvolved in Rice Players than a program involving a theaterdegree would have been.

In 2000, after 36 years as the director of the RicePlayers, Sandy Haven retired, inducing a major shift in thePlayers as a new set of directors, with differentbackgrounds and visions, came to head the organization.The retirement of Havens prompted the formation of TheFuture of Theater Committee, which was led by Dr.Dennis Huston, one of the campus’s leading advocates fortheater, and included two Rice Players coordinators amongits member. Formed to explore the possibilities of Ricetheater, the committee began officially searching fordirectorial candidates in February following the approval ofPresident Gillis and the Dean of Humanities to hire twofaculty members to replace Havens. The university hopedthat dividing Havens’s technical and directorial dutiesbetween two jobs would bring more theater expertise to theRice community and so make available to more studentsthe possibilities of learning about theater. The firstposition, the director, would, like Havens, serve as the headof the organization and provide artistic direction for themajority of the shows produced by the Players. Theassistant director, on the other hand, would take over themanagement of Hamman Hall and only occasionally act asa director for the Rice Players’ shows. With the division ofthe position, the committee also envisioned expanding thenumber of theater classes offered at Rice. A technical

theater course and a class on directing were considered asviable additions to the program. After months of searching,bringing in each of four final candidates to teach one-hourdirecting and acting classes and then meeting with thePlayers coordinators and Havens in order to get an idea ofhow they would fit in the organization, the committeeselected Mark Ramont as the new director and TrishRigdon as the assistant director of the Rice Players. Beforecoming to Rice, Ramont had served as an artistic directorat the Hangar in New York in addition to directing inHouston at the Alley Theatre and Stages RepertoryTheater. He also had the necessary background ineducation, having taught theater at Sam Houston StateUniversity and Southwestern University. Rigdon, on theother hand, had broad expertise in not only technicaltheater, but also design and administration, and hadimpressed the committee with her initiative in gettinginvolved with the Rice Players. However, despite theenthusiasm of the new directors, the departure of Havensstill marked a blow to the organization as a whole. Theconstant presence of Havens throughout his long tenureoffered a cultural continuity that was critical for theorganization’s identity, stabilizing the constant flux of newand graduating students while providing institutionalmemory and long term guidance. The Havens era of theRice Players was finished, ushering in a new period thatwould ultimately result in the establishment of a formal

Sketch of scenery, “A Man for All Seasons,” 2000

All the Campus is a Stage: A History of Theater at Rice University (continued from page 7)

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theater program, with a theater major, for the first time atRice.

With the arrival of Ramont and Rigdon, the RicePlayers noticed an inevitable shift as the new directors tooktheir place at the head of the organization. Withbackgrounds rooted outside of Rice, both Ramont andRigdon sought to run the theater program with similarrigor to degree granting programs and with aspirationallyprofessional standards. They had more direct oversight ofthe coordinators and the program and quickly tried toapply models of professional theater practice to theorganization, a move that caused occasional strife amongthe coordinators who had worked with the more lenientHavens. The coordinators, however, still maintained theirdominant role in the organization, serving in majorproduction roles, including producer, and handlingbudgets, building maintenance, and play selection. Duringthis period, the coordinators organized themselves intocommittees, which focused on jobs ranging from publicityto recruiting to facilities. In 2002, the position ofManaging Coordinator was created to run meetings andhead the committee system. However, despite the increasein the organization within the coordinating system, themomentum of the Players began to slow, and theproduction schedule decreased from two shows persemester to one. The Players, nevertheless, continued theircommitment to produce professional quality theater whileexploring works that pushed and challenged the audience,and this period was characterized by many abstract andedgy productions, such as Paula Vogel’s “Baltimore Waltz”and Keith Curran’s “Walking the Dead.” At first, Ramontacted as the primary director for the Players’ productions,while Rigdon served as a bookkeeper and buildingmanager, but Ridgon soon began to push to direct more, amove the Players’ coordinators had mixed feelings about asthey found her to be a polarizing figure within the

organization. Unlike Havens, Rigdon seemed eager toestablish a formal theater program and major at Rice, anidea that alienated many of the coordinators who preferredthe student-run basis of Rice theater. This conflict betweenRigdon and the Players was exacerbated when Ramont leftRice to pursue other prospects in the professional sphere in2004. Rigdon replaced Ramont as the director of the RicePlayers, while a new faculty member Matt Schlief wasbrought in to manage Hamman Hall and act as thetechnical director. In the fall of 2004, the Players’production of “The Laramie Project” was widelyconsidered a company disaster, with a large amount ofconflict between Rigdonand the actors. By thespring of 2005, followingthe significantly moresuccessful production of“Equus” by guest directorGeorge Brock, thecoordinators put forth aproposal that would givethem more control overthe organization, forcingRigdon to apply likeother directors instead ofgetting to automaticallydirect at least one play peryear. The measure leftRigdon with little jobsecurity and provided herwith the impetus to createan alternate theater company through the university. In2006, the theater program through the Visual andDramatic Arts Department was formulated, and, for thefirst time in its history, a degree in theater was offered atRice.

The emergence of a theater degree program markedanother turning point in the history of Rice Players andcampus theater. In the beginning, the conflict that drovethe formation of the theater program resulted in a tenuousrelationship between the new department and the existingPlayers. Finding themselves having to share their space forthe first time in a decade, the coordinators became focusedon strategizing about how to protect their rights toHamman Hall from the encroachment of the theaterprogram. In 2008 Trish Rigdon left Rice to pursue a careerin professional costume design, and the tension betweenthe new program and the Rice Players eased with herdeparture. Rigdon was replaced by Christina Keefe, andimportant restructuring occurred in the department. Keefe,as the director of the program would not automaticallyserve as the director of the productions, and, moreimportantly, she would not be considered the head of the

“Equus,” 1985

Smash Rice Players, 2001

Rice Players, as Havens, Ramont, and Rigdonhad been. Instead, Matt Schlief, as the managerof Hamman Hall, would take over the facultysponsorship, and the Players were left to choosetheir own directors. Keefe recognized theimportance of a university-wide, student-runtheater troupe and strove to improve therelationship between the department and thePlayers. The program began to collaborate withthe Rice Players on productions, first in 2008with “Private Eyes” and again in 2010 with“Noises Off,” in an attempt to fostercooperation and trust between the twoorganizations. Though the strain between theprogram and the Players was reduced, it didnot disappear entirely. In the spring of 2010,following an incident in which a light boardwas left on overnight by the Players, Keefe andSchlief imposed a contract with new measuresthat restricted the Players’ use of Hamman Hall, includinga clause that required that a VADA professional be presentat every Players function, including rehearsals, withpayment coming from the Players budget. The measurelasted for a semester before it was revoked. Nevertheless, inthe years since Rigdon’s departure, the efforts of Keefe,Schlief, and the current Players’ coordinating team havevastly improved the relations between the Players and thetheater program, and Keefe and Schlief have becometrusted mentors and advisors for the student-run troupe.

Despite the drama of its inception, the introduction ofa theater major to Rice has provided many benefits tostudents, but it has also forced a redefinition of the place ofstudent-run theater on campus. With the new program,the availability of theater-based classes expandedenormously in order to fill the needs of the theater degree.Majors are required to complete work both backstage andonstage, taking classes in design, acting, and technicaltheater and running crew for VADA productions, as well astaking electives from other artistic disciplines, such asdrawing and film-making, and the classes remain availableto interested non-majors. Theater education at Rice hasexpanded vastly with the new program. Despite SandyHavens’ fears that a theater department might lead to aneglect of the non-major thespians of Rice, the small sizeof the program, with seven majors in 2008 and close totwenty today, has prevented the exclusion of non-majorsfrom productions. Whether that will remain true with thecontinual growth of the program has yet to be determined.Even with its small size, the theater program has alreadyhad a lasting impact on the Rice Players and on student-run theater. With a larger, university-sponsored budget andthe department name to attract professionals, the theaterprogram quickly began producing shows of very high

quality, superseding the ability of the Rice Players andtaking their place as the professional theater group oncampus. The Players became smaller and less ambitious asthe coordinators struggled to find their new place andpurpose. Though the volume of college theater haddecreased, with Wiess Tabletop and Baker Shakespeare theonly remaining college theater that was consistentlyproduced, the other colleges presenting shows sporadicallybased on interest, college theater’s presence on campusremained thriving, and, in many cases, it filled the want forstudent-run theater; it was theater produced for the sake oftradition and fun, and it had the base support of theresidential colleges. The Visual and Dramatic ArtsDepartment, on the other hand, began to take over theneed for a professional training ground, the placepreviously filled by the Players. As a result, the Rice Playershave been forced to settle in the middle, serving as thebridge between the community theater in the colleges andthe professional theater being produced by the department,advertising themselves as a theater company where studentsperform in a professional space, design with professionalequipment, while under the guidance of a professionaldirector, without having to commit to the time anddedication required for a VADA show. Additionally, withstudents still at its head, the Rice Players remains one ofthe best places on campus to learn the aspects behindrunning and organizing a theater.

As with many of the activities at Rice, theater hasalways has been a student affair. Sometimes with the helpof a strong faculty advisor, and other times on their ownpower, the budding thespians of Rice drove the creation ofa strong tradition of innovation and ambition as theuniversity continually produced shows that matchedsurrounding schools and, in some cases, the professional

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All the Campus is a Stage: A History of Theater at Rice University (continued from page 9)

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theaters of Houston in quality and merit. Pushing theboundaries and its audiences, Rice theater continued tointroduce new ideas and playwrights to the people ofHouston and established itself as an essential part of thecampus and the community at large throughout itsexistence. At its height, Rice theater was producing close tofifteen shows per year, shows which were produced and runalmost entirely by students. With the professionalism ofthe Rice Players program, students were able to pursuecareers in the theater regardless of their graduation degree,and many of the top theater organizations in Houston andthe United States count former Rice Players among their

members. From the rise of the Dramatics Club in the1920s to the birth of the Rice Players in 1952, from theformation of college theater in the 1960s to theintroduction of the theater program under VADA in 2006,Rice has created a tradition by which an astonishingamount of theater is produced, more than at most otheruniversities, with involvement across the student spectrum,from those who desire to pursue it professionally to thosewho try it for fun. Though at its core, it may be a schoolfocused on science and engineering, Rice has neverneglected the arts.

My first job out of Rice was teachingin Romayor, Texas, a “gravel-pit-stop”hidden right on the banks of theTrinity River in the Big Thickethalfway between Cleveland andLiberty. It was a Southern Pacificrailroad “stop” only if the train wasflagged down or had to let off apassenger. The train went fromAustin to New Orleans. The trackswere between the school grounds anddowntown Romayor. The trainspassed through twice during the

school day and caused a great uproar, especially duringoutdoor recreation. The town consisted of a general storewith a post office, a feed and hardware store, a barber shop,the constable’s office, a filling station, and a wooden two-story eight-room hotel built in 1910, all on a gravel street.There was a mile-long railroad spur from the school to thegravel pit station, a site that had company houses, asuperintendent’s office, and a commissary, all amid dozensof old gravel pit lakes full of perch and trout. These wereenjoyed by many fishermen at sunset and on weekends. Itwas really a beautiful East Texas setting with woodlands fullof red oaks, yaupon, and holly trees in winter and abloomin dogwood, redbud, wild azaleas, and magnolias in thespring. Every company house had big hydrangeasblooming in the yards. I had the choice of living in thehotel where three other teachers lived (with boarding housetype meals) or boarding with the commissary manager andhis wife a mile away in the gravel pits. The wife prepared asuperior lunch for all personnel and visiting business menfrom Houston, so the choice was clear. I walked the spurtrack one mile to school, two miles home for lunch, andone mile back in the afternoon (four miles total).

I had a light, airy room in a typical company house;the windows were just six feet from a pretty, small lake.Across the tracks by the superintendent’s office was aswimming pool fed by artesian water shooting out from abig pipe about eight feet above the waters—a real waterfalland such fun! There were interesting people from theoutside world to play with and walk in the woods. I hadthree superior meals and a pleasant “family” for anincredible $18 per month for 10 months, $180 annually!

I read a lot, wrote letters, made lesson plans, andplayed with the housedog. We had no television or longdistance telephone. I wrote and got lots of letters.

The school itself was a shock—a big wooden buildingwith four classrooms, an office, and a big auditorium witha stage; it had a wide center hall and outdoor “facilities.” Itwas built high off the ground in case the river flooded. Thefront and back doors locked with big old fashioned Yalelocks. There was no janitor, so the high school boys’punishment was to sweep the floors after school. Threetimes during the year all of the brooms were stolen!

Then, as winter rains set in in January, I decided thatI would seek out another school the next year and wenthome to Houston every Friday at 2 p.m. It rained so much, the banks of the Trinity overflowed and the roadswere impassible and two weekends we had to take the train to Cleveland and be picked up there (55 miles from Houston).

One of my first “reality experiences” occurred thesecond week of school. A group of seniors were openlyeating candy in English class, so I had five of them stayafter school for about 30 minutes to write a story. They leftand when I gathered up stuff and went to door, they hadlocked me in and there wasn’t another soul around. Thewindows were too high to jump from so I yelled atsomeone across the street. He went to the principal’s house

Trauma on the Trinity, 1933–34by Anna Margaret Fooshee Alexander ‘33, who just turned 100 in January

Anna MargaretFooshee

12

and the principal came and unlocked the door and “freedthe hostage.” I was rather embarrassed to face my classesthe next day as they all knew the story. But we were allforgiving and I treated it as an adventure!

Another adventure I had: The edge of a big pond was afew feet from my bedroom window. Since we left windowsopen for ventilation and my side of the house seemedremote, I felt my privacy was secure. Image my shock andembarrassment when one day I got my mail and read thisletter before class began as the big seniors filed in: “DearMiss Fooshee, I thought you would like to know that abunch of boys are sneaking by the pond and watching youundress at night. A Friend.” How could I teachdiagramming sentences when I was numb?

Since this was years before mosquito control,practically everybody had malaria; the children wouldattend spasmodically. Friends would say, “this is Jamie’sfever day.” Chilly days they came to school and shivered inclass. The teacher had to come early and start a big coal-fedstove in the middle of the room. Bymidwinter, I started many a fire withungraded papers. I told them later Igave an “A” to every paper I burned. Wehad spelling bees and geography beesand played indoor games and sang songsin bad weather. We played dodge ball,softball, and basketball in good weather.The principal, Mr. Webster taughtscience, math, history, and socialstudies. His wife taught first, second,and third grades; other teachers taughtfourth, fifth, and sixth grades. I taughtseventh grade English, grammar,reading, spelling, and English andSpanish in eighth, ninth, and 10th

grades. I also taught extemporaneousspeaking. We went to interscholasticcompetitions in spelling, speech, debate,and essay writing. The students playedvolleyball and softball 45 minutes everyday and had one hour for lunch. Therewas a platform in the rear of the school

with a barbed wire fence about eight feet from the wildestforest and underbrush. We would eat lunch theresometimes and wild javalinas would come to the fence andstudents would throw food to them and often we often sawdeer and raccoons—nature in the raw! I had about tenstudents each in the ninth and 10th grades and 20 in theseventh. The principal had “whipped” the wrong boy thethird week of school (the son of an executive) and after thestorm had passed, he announced it was his last year ineducation. He told me that he had trained his last“inexperienced” teacher. True to his word, he left me aloneand I left him alone. Now I see that it was a finearrangement. I used my intuition, laid-back personality,and hopeful attitude, and along with a few books,notebooks, and pencils, made it through that year. In thecontract we agreed to stay in Romayor three weeks out offour, attend church, funerals, and all other town activities,so I went home twice before Christmas.

Archives AlertThe Woodson Research Center,Fondren Library, would like to haveadditional copies of the 1916–1920Campaniles for its collection as well as Archi-Arts costumes and photographs.

In Memory of Greg Davis ’51We lost a good friend, talented photographer,and loyal member of the Rice Historical Societywhen we lost Greg Davis. The two photographsfrom the dedication of the Lovett statue weretaken shortly before his death.

At right:Statue of Edgar Odell Lovett dedicated October 13, 2012.

Below:President David Leebron, sculptor Bruce Wolfe,Chairman of the Board of Trustees Jim Crownover, and Rice history professor John Boles

Photos courtesy ofGreg Davis

12 Trauma on the Trinity (continued from page 11)