Summer Circle Theatre Memory Book

1969
HALEN AND CHARLES FOSTER

Our children grew up going with us to Summer Circle Theatre.
We discovered Summer Circle Theatre in 1969 when we moved to East Lansing. At that time, we were intrigued with the opportunity to see "free" theatre in the summer months just a few blocks walk from our home. The first production we recall seeing was Charley’s Aunt, and the stage backed up to a grove of trees near the "Banks of the Red Cedar."

Even after we moved to the western suburbs of Lansing, we continued to include the Summer Circle Theatre in our summer plans. We hired a babysitter when our children were too young to take with us. Eventually, we decided to include our children in what became a family tradition. We left early in the evening of opening night, stopped to get take-out food, parked our car in the lot behind Giltner Hall, found our favorite place near the stage, and enjoyed our little picnic waiting for the show to begin. We continued this tradition for several years even as our children grew up. Eventually, they moved out of town. Their interest in theatre has continued to this day.

The two of us keep this family tradition going.

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BEE VARY

When SCT performed in the courtyard between Kresge Art Center and the auditorium, I played one of the mothers in Our Town. So many people came, several had to sit on the steps and on the edge of the stage itself. One night before the last act was over it started to rain and it looked as if we

would have to call it quits.However, the audience stayed and Frank Rutledge told them we would continue as long as they did. It was a soggy wonderful experience.

 

Our Town
by Thorton Wilder
The Summer 1962 Show
in Dem hall

Donald F. Kiel as the Stage Manager
Barbara Smith as Emily Webb
George Sollo as George Gibbs

 

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That summer of 1970, the first one in Kresge Courtyard, SCT produced an original adaptation of KurtVonnegut’s Welcome to the Monkey House and a dance concert that featured works choreographed to themusic of Paul Simon, along with She Stoops to Conquer, and my father wondered whether anyone would come. Not only did they come, but they came early with picnic baskets and lawn chairs. Hundreds of people came and liked what they saw, and came back in greater numbers the following year.

 

LINDA O. STANFORD

In the mid-1970’s, when I was a new faculty member in Art, my office was on the first floor of the Kresge Art Center. I remember working at my desk and being able to hear and see the sets being built and the actors rehearsing in the Kresge courtyard. Experiencing these events motivated me to attend the actual performances outside Kresge and, in later years, at the present site near the Red Cedar.

It is wonderful to witness the exuberant performances of the actors and the variety of plays each summer. SCT is the best of summer theatre!

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This was the year SCT produced Our Town and my mother was in it. While my mother had been in other
shows in SCT and in the Lansing area and had directed and choreographed

Andrea Rutledge

extensively by this time, this is one of my first memories of seeing her perform in a play. Of course I knew by then what actors did and how plays came together, but it was a new experience to see my mother up there as part of it. My memory of helping her learn her lines and later seeing her on stage, in costume, and shelling peas during Act I is very clear.

Origins of SCT.