Being something of a history buff, I often wonder about the history of theatre in Huntington. As far as I know, no one has ever assembled any definitive catalog of the shows presented here, or what the first community show might have been. There's not much to be found on the subject on the Internet.
Touring shows have probably been presented in Huntington virtually since the city was founded, and certainly local schools have put on shows since the first teacher or parent walked through the door who was willing to take on the challenge.
The newest section of Marshall’s Old Main - the part with the auditorium in it - was built in 1907, and students staged their first show there on March 13, 1908.
Although I don't have any research to back it up (and I trust you'll correct me if I'm wrong, dear reader), it seems safe to assume that Marshall has the longest continuing tradition of putting on shows in Huntington.
I have wonderful memories of seeing great shows in that auditorium. When I was a student in the late ‘70s, one of the outstanding performers was a guy named Joe Johns, who is well known today for his work on CNN (and NBC before that).
Marshall has other famous acting alumni, including the Oscar-winning Brad Dourif, Conchata Ferrell, who stars on TV's Two-and-a-Half Men, and Peter Marshall, the legendary host of the Hollywood Squares. Billy Crystal also attended for a semester, but he was on a baseball scholarship.
My hero Soupy Sales is probably the most famous alumni, though I'm not sure if he ever acted on the Marshall stage.
These days Marshall has a new theater, and it’s a beauty. The Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center is a state of the art facility, and the Department of Theatre uses it to maximum effect. The shows they’ve staged in recent years certainly live up to (and often surpass) the ones from the past. They stage at least four shows a year, most of them directed by professors Jack Cirillo or Eugene Anthony - and they do amazing work.
In recent years they’ve done shows like The Foreigner, which is one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen on a stage, the outstanding To Kill a Mockingbird, which should be required viewing for every student everywhere, and the phenomenal Hair (to name just a few). Almost every year they tackle a Shakespeare play, like the excellent Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar and The Tempest - you owe it to yourself to see these.
Really, if you’re not checking these out on a regular basis, you’re missing some excellent work - not to mention the chance to see the potential stars of the future!
So if Marshall has been putting on shows the longest, who's next on the longest-running list? That's the topic of the next post, which we'll call: History Part 2 - The Musical Arts Guild.
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