Theatre Programs 1970-1989

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USM Dance Show Program [1983]

University of Southern Maine Department of Theatre

Choreographed by Nancy Salmon, Craig A. Foley, Lee Caron, Sandra McLellan, Mary Judkins, and Holly Carlson
The Great American Mail Order Catalogue Program

University of Southern Maine Department of Theatre

THE GREAT AMERICAN MAIL ORDER CATALOGUE is a show celebrating that revered American institution, the Sears Roebuck Catalogue, and its comforting, stimulating presence throughout the development of the West. Nostalgic, informative, tuneful and often very funny, it offers a stirring compilation of true Americana. The show is directed by Walter Stump, Chair of the Theatre Department of the University of Southern Maine and recently recipient of the Kennedy Center Medallion for his contribution to collegiate drama.

This show marks the completion of the first decade of theatre interchange between USM and King Alfred's College in Winchester, England, initiated by Walter Stump and his English colleague, Robert Silvester, sometime Head of the Drama Department in Winchester. It will be playing at King Alfred's and other English theatres during the latter part of May.
The Glass Menagerie Program [1980]

University of Southern Maine Department of Theatre

By Tennessee Williams

Director Albert Duclos
The Imaginary Invalid Program [1980]

University of Southern Maine Department of Theatre

By Moliere

Directed by Thomas Power
The Star Spangled Girl Program

University of Maine Portland-Gorham

Written by Neil Simon

Staging by Minor Rootes
Desire Under the Elms Program

University of Maine Portland-Gorham Theatre Department

Written by Eugene O'Neill

Directed by Thomas A. Power

From the program:

Eugene O'Neill was born in 1888 on Broadway in New York City, the son of the popular actor James O'Neill. His early education was obtained at several private schools in New England, with a single year of college at Princeton. During a period of almost 70 years, O'Neill wrote over 25 major . plays. The consensus today is that Desire Under the Elms is the most effective of O'Neill's plays. It has been described as both a domestic tragedy and . a sex tragedy and is distinctly American in tone and atmosphere. It is an extremely challenging drama for college students and University audiences.
Women of Troy Program

University of Maine Portland-Gorham Theatre Department

Written by Euripedes

Directed by William Steele

From the program:

The Women of Troy is the third play in a trilogy, the remainder of which has been lost. The play stands on its own as an examination of the tragedy of victory with each of the participants sharing the tragic flaw.

Euripides intended the play as a protest of Athenian policies. First produced in the midst of a long war with Sparta, it holds an obvious reference to the previous year's slaughter of the citizens of Melos, a neutral island, by the Athenian army. The foreboding aura of conclusion that permeates the play proved prophetic as Athens surrendered to Sparta scarcely a decade later.

It would be a mistake to assume that The Women of Troy is, merely, an anti-war protest. Euripides uses that rhetoric of the victor and vanquished to examine the hazy outline of truth. The characters wander through a distorted world, caught between the mythic events of The Iliad and The Odyssey, in search of new bases for their lives. Their prophecies, duties, loyalties and loves spawn contradictory truths that fuel the play's central conflicts.
American College Theatre Festival VIII Program

The American Theatre Association

The 1975-1976 New England Regional Festival was presented by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts at Southeastern Massachusetts University in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

The University of Maine Portland-Gorham performed Two Fifes and Drum, staged by Minor Rootes.
Three One-Act Plays: Bringing It All Back Home, Aria da Capo, and Line Program

University of Maine Portland-Gorham

Three One-Act Plays Presented by Students of the Directing Class

BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME
Written byTerrance McNaNally
Directed by Sam Rossi

ARIA da CAPO
Written by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Directed by Deborah Hall

LINE
Written by Israel Horovitz
Directed by Reggie Groff
Two Fifes and a Drum: An Odessey of American Folk Lore Program

University of Maine Portland-Gorham

A Narrative Anthology Compiled by Jon Giodano and Richard Reade

Staged by Minor Rootes

Presented by the Treehouse Players and the Maine State Bicentennial Commission in cooperation with Ram's Island Dance Center and Langley Associates.

From the program:

In our presentation tonight, we are pleased to bring to you a collection of writings, short stories, and essays all of which are native to this country. In fact, many are the original works of New Englanders who lived during the periods depicted. In dramatic form the works are brought back to life again with the uses of narrative, music and mixed media. They reveal the pride, anguish, envy and determination of a people who moulded the American character and helped to develop a rich folk lore.
Stop the World I Want to Get Off Program

University of Maine Portland-Gorham

Written by Anthony Newley

Staged by Walter Stump

Music Director Jim Thibodeau
The Unknown Citizen Program

University of Maine Gorham-Portland

Written and Directed by JS/07/M/378 with assistance from

William Stieg
Terrance McNally
Jules Feiffer
Walter Stump
Antonio Del Pollaiuolo

Performed by the Treehouse Players
An Evening of One Act Plays: Sane, The Apes Shall Inherit the Earth, Wax Museum, and Interview Program

University of Maine Portland-Gorham

SAND

Written by Murray Mednick
Directed by Thomas A. Power

THE APES SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH

Written by Warner Aperstrom
Directed by Thomas A. Power

WAX MUSEUM

Written by John Hawkes
Directed by Thomas A. Power

INTERVIEW

Written by Jean Claude van Itallie
Directed by William P. Steele
The Beggar's Opera Program

University of Maine Portland-Gorham

Written by John Gay

Directed by Walter Stump

Presented by the Treehouse Players

From the program:

On January 29, 1728, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera opened in London at Lincoln Inn Fields marking the end of one era and the beginning of another. The ballad opera construction utilized by Gay, was the culmination of a new theatre genre which had begun with the Italian Opera Buffa and later was refined. into the French Opera Comique. In addition to the Italian tradition of satirizing serious opera, Gay combined the French comedies-en-vaudville concept of using popular folk tunes in the musical score. Italian grand opera had become fashionable in 18th century London, and many English composers had parroted the style. Foremost among the advocates of the Italian methods for George Frederick Handel, among whose techniques were the use of vocal trills, recitative and grandiose themes of gods and heroes. The Beggar's Opera sets up an anti-hero, satirizing the use of recitative and mocks artificial vocal techniques. There was no doubt in the minds of Londoners that Handel was being lampooned.

Included among the satirical targets at which Gay aimed was the. whole neo-classical tradition. Fresh from the dictatorial French academy had come the rigid rules of neo-classism: the purity of dramatic types; the purposes of drama; verisimilitude and decorum, and the unity of time, place and action. The Beggar's Opera happily mixes tragedy with comedy in direct conflict of the pronouncement from the academy. Watch the closing scene with the above in mind.
Dark of the Moon Program [1972]

USM Department of Theatre

By Howard Richard and William Berney
Ethan Frome Program [1972]

USM Department of Theatre

By Owen Davis and Donal Davis

Suggested by a dramatization by Lowell Barrington

Directed by William Steele
Carnival Program [1971]

University of Maine Portland-Gorham

Written by Michael Stewart

Directed by Minor Rootes

Performed by the Treehouse Players

From the program:

Welcome to CARNIVAL, the final main stage production of our 1970-1971 season. This delightful little musical by Michael Stewart and Bob Merrill was originally based on the movie "Lili," which starred Leslie Caron and Mel Ferrar. CARNIVAL is a study of youth, of feeling, of wanting, of sensuousness. It blends the nostalgia of childhood past with the immediacy of young people in love.

Tonight's production of CARNIVAL marks the starting point of a tour which will carry the Treehouse Players 9,000 miles to four countries. Under the auspices of the USO and the American Educational Theatre Association, our company will be entertaining America's servicemen who are stationed in the North East command.
Mandragola Program

University of Maine Portland Campus

Written by Niccolo Machiavelli

Translated by J. R. Hale

Directed by William P. Steele
The Victors Program

University of Maine Portland Campus

Written by Jean-Paul Sartre

Directed by Thomas A. Power

The action takes place in 1940 -- in an abandoned building used as a prison and police headquarters in occupied France.