Golden anniversaries are like a time capsule of memories and achievements. This year, the Theatre Department celebrates its 50th anniversary and in its rich history, there is much to be proud of.

The anniversary is actually celebrating the construction of the University Theater. The department began in 1949, seven years prior to the building, and moved to the Sacramento State campus from the City College campus. The department was made up of only five faculty members at the time, and these dedicated people produced all of the theatre’s earliest productions, said Larry Shumate, the facility’s original technical director who became department chair during the late 1980s.

The Theatre Department began its career in 1956 with a production of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” a play the department is currently producing to celebrate its half-century milestone. “It was a very simple, straightforward kind of thing,” Shumate said.

The theatre itself had not been completed and existed on rented draperies, borrowed lights and no real setting. The actors worked with a few pieces of furniture, costumes and their talents.

Over the next decade, the department progressed rapidly, putting on its first musical, Lane and Harburg’s “Finian’s Rainbow,” in 1957 as well as its first opera, Verdi’s “Rigoletto.” During this time the building did not have an orchestra pit and two pianos provided the accompaniment for “Finian’s Rainbow.”

The department also made history in its own right by offering the West Coast premier of Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh” during its 1957-1958 season. During these first years the department also started its Lenaea Festival, a three-day event in February in which high school drama students come to the campus and put on one-act plays as well as receive training through workshops and special presentations. In the late 1990s, this program received recognition from the Northern California Educational Theatre Association and the California Alliance of Arts Education.

Throughout its first decade, the department put on 73 productions. Finally, in 1969, what had been called the Department of Speech and Drama became simply the Drama Department and the theatre was expanded, adding a scene shop, costume shop, office space for faculty members and an orchestra pit. The Playwright’s Theatre was also added on, giving the department even more space.

It was also in 1969 that the Black Theatre program, “Sons and Ancestors Players,” was started. The group is one of the oldest African-American theatre groups west of the Mississippi, and gives university students the chance to see theatre from a different direction, according to the department’s website.

In 1972, a Chicano program called “Teatro Espejo” was also added. This group focuses on the legends and rituals of the Chicano culture as well as teaching students to work in a bilingual setting.

By the mid 1970s, the department had come into its own and was invited to compete in the American College Theatre Festival on an annual basis. The nationwide competition is held throughout different regions of the country. The Theatre Department won several of the regional competitions, but in its 1972-1973 season it was given national recognition for a Black Theatre production called “Sty of the Blind Pig.” The faculty and cast participating in the play traveled to Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, where the national competition is held. The cast was the first African-American theatre group to perform at this festival.

In its 1974-1975 season the department was once again given the national award for a rendition of the Gilbert and Sullivan musical “The Pinafore.” Cast members once again traveled to Washington, D.C. and were chosen to open the festival with their performance. Three performances were played to full houses and each received a standing ovation. Afterward, faculty and students were given a tour of the capitol and a reception was thrown in their honor, Shumate said.

Unfortunately, the various difficulties in planning such a trip, including financial costs and students’ other priorities, prevent current theatre students and faculty from taking part in this festival, Shumate said, and then added that there was one additional Kennedy Center competition in the 1976-1977 season that will forever be remembered by faculty and alumni. Sac State’s production was called “Enrico IV,” and the secondary lead in the show was a young actor by the name of Tom Hanks.

In 1981, the theatre jumped another hurdle with its 25th anniversary. Because of this achievement, the National Association of Schools of Theatre gave the department full accreditation. During this time playwriting and puppetry/youth theatre classes burst onto the scene, creating various electives for theatre majors. Sac State’s Children’s and Puppetry Theatre is interesting in that its productions contain roles for puppets as well as human actors.

In 2000, the Theatre Department merged with programs in dance, creating the current Department of Theatre and Dance, and the department is still going strong. New faculty members are being hired to bring this newly-bonded department into the future.

“I feel honored and proud to have joined a department that has 50 years of history behind it,”

Lorelei Bayne, an associate professor in the area of dance who was hired in fall, 2005, said. “Sac State Theatre and Dance has weathered many ups and downs and still holds strong, maintaining quality for our students and community, while continuing to challenge itself. The sky is the limit.”

“Over the past four or five years, we’ve had a number of professors who’ve been here for a while retiring, and they’re slowly being replaced,” said C. Willard Haynes II, the department’s current audio and lighting technician, who joined the theatre’s staff in 1978. “New people are creating a new vision of how the department should work. Re-examining how the department’s working and what it’s doing is a good thing.”

There will be four theatre productions this season as well as four dance productions.

For more information on the Department of Theatre and Dance, visit its website at www.csus.edu/dram/.

Bridget Jones can be reached at [email protected]