Scene from a 1960s theatre production. (Davidson College Archives)
By ROBERT ABARE
Davidson College News Office
Davidson’s theatre offerings have blossomed since their earliest days in the 19th century, when students were forced to perform Shakespeare plays off campus because the college’s charter did not condone drama. Professor of English Edward Erwin offered one of the college’s first formal theatre outlets for students with the creation of the Dramatic Club in 1920, and English professors John Sneden and Charles Goodykoontz cultivated drama in Davidson’s curriculum and community during the early 1960s.
The hiring of the late Rupert T. Barber in 1963 as the college’s first professor of theatre inaugurated theatre as an academic department in the curriculum. The department now includes seven faculty and two state-of-the-art performance venues.
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50th ANNIVERSARY SEASON ‘AMBITIOUS’ The Davidson College Theatre Department is celebrating its 50th anniversary season this school year, with an admired Shakespearean play, zany comedy, gripping drama, and a quirky Appalachian-inspired musical.
“I think the theatre faculty and staff are particularly ambitious this year,” Associate Professor and Chair of Theatre Sharon Green said. “We’ve compiled a season that’s going to challenge the students who work on these shows and the audiences who attend them.” |
Barber recruited his wife, Carol, to design and build costumes for the early productions. She remembers it as a challenging assignment. “I had no training in costume design, though I was taught to sew as a child,” she recalled. “It was
Rupert Barber
especially difficult to master men’s seventeenth and eighteenth century coats. They were so elaborate!”
Carol said that Rupert was passionate about his work, though it was often difficult to manage. “Building the theatre department was stressful at times, but he loved working with students and believed that experiences in theatre could equip a person for life, even if they weren’t going into the theatre profession.”
Davidson alumnus Joe Gardner (Class of 1969) was Barber’s student before returning to Davidson in 1975 to teach alongside him. “Barber instilled in me and other students an excitement and wonder in theatre,” said Gardner, who has now taught in the department for more than 35 years.
Barber and Gardner made use of a meager production budget and limited performance space to produce three to six student plays per year. The facilities have been tremendously improved since that time. The opening of the 650-seat Duke Family Performance Hall in 2001, and renovation of the Cunningham Theatre Center in 2008 have provided state-of-the-art venues for theatre faculty and students to present their works to the public.
“We offer shows in the Duke Family Performance Hall and Rupert T. Barber Theatre that we couldn’t have imagined when I first started teaching here,” Gardner said.
Green, who joined the faculty in 1999, also applauded the evolution of the productions. “Increasing the capabilities of our facilities made possible a tremendous leap in the quality of our productions,” she explained. “New facilities have shifted how the directors imagine their productions. The creativity involved in these productions has skyrocketed.”
The Barber Theatre features fly space, lighting grids, and a flexible seating arrangement that allow for a wide variety of theatre productions. “Rupert would be thrilled with that space,” said Carol Barber. “He had always envisioned a renovated performance venue with those capabilities.”
Despite the many improvements in facilities and increase in personnel, Green believes the guiding principle of theatre at Davidson has remained constant. “We—the Theatre Department staff and faculty—see ourselves as educators, artists and scholars. We choose to produce shows that offer creative challenges for everyone involved, and at the same time pose challenging questions to the campus and surrounding communities.”
