Since 1965, Davidson summers have been a bit more dramatic due to Davidson Community Players productions. The company was truly a town-gown collaboration with faculty, students and townspeople combining talents on-stage and back-stage — and usually performed at a Davidson venue. This week the on-campus show is big production of 42nd Street.
The first production was on a smaller scale. The cast of Time of Harvest, written by Davidson professor Wilmer Welsh and directed by Connie Welsh, consisted of Ralph Quakenbush, Martha Lowder, Charles Cornwell, Truscott Rhodes, Carolyn Jones, Jeff Sailstad and Bob Young. (Click on the article to get a larger version.)
Mecklenburg Gazette article on first DCP production in July 1965
The College Archives collection of playbills and programs covers the 1970s to the 1990s. We’re offering a mid-summer stroll down memory lane for summer plays of the 1970s. You can’t by tickets at The Hub any more but you might remember a few names and faces.
The 1971 production was a musical.
Flyer for 1971 Summer show
Cast and production staff list, 1971
1972 brought the ever-popular Our Town. In 1973, they went for comedy with Garson Kanin’s Born Yesterday with a future mayor (Randy Kincaid) and town commissioner (Cary Wolf) in the cast.
Flyer for 1973 summer show
Born Yesterday cast and crew
1974’s production was Truman Capote’s Grass Harp.
Cast and crew for summer 1974 – Grass Harp
1975 brought another tried and true script – Arsenic and Old Lace while America’s bicentennial year turned to historical themes with Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. The 1977 show moved venues. Instead of a stage production in the Cunningham Fine Arts Building, a benefit dinner theatre took over the Union’s 900 room. A western farce, The Death and Life of Sneaky Fitch, helped raise money for the New School House of the Arts. Davidson professors J. B. Stroud and Gatewood Workman made their DCP debuts, while veteran cast member Robert Manning played Sneaky.
Cast for Sneaky Fitch, 1977
George Bernard Shaw took the stage in 1978 with professor Tony Abbott directing the usual mix of town and gown actors.
Program cover for Shaw’s Major Barbara
Cast list for Major Barbara
Summer 1979 had book-end productions. The serious Diary of Anne Frank in July and the light-hearted Hay Fever in August.
Publicity for Hay Fever, 1979
Can you identify the actors? Bob Manning is in the middle and that’s Zack Long perched on the sofa arm with Lou Green at his side. Who are the others?
Cast list for Hay Fever
DCP’s ambitions grew in 1980 with 3 productions. The Cherry Orchard in June, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf in July and Step on a Crack in August.
Summer season announcement for 1980
We don’t have a program for Cherry Orchard, so no cast list. It looks like Casey Jacobus and James Swisher in the scene below but who is the bearded gentleman?
Scene from The Cherry Orchard
If you are in town, you are welcome to visit the archives and look at the years 1981-1998 and if you have extra programs from the 2000’s, we love to add to this piece of Davidson history.
Speak Your Mind