Temple is for theater, but it wasn’t built that way
By Biiocft \¥endlandt
Staff Writer
In 1904, ground was broken on the comer
of 12* and R Streets., ami much to the demise
of many University ofNebraska-Lincoln
administrators of die time, work began on a
three-story brick building that would become
the Temple Building.
Originally designed as a “social and reli
gious building,” the Temple housed a band
room, a spa with kitchen, a banquet hall and a
locker room. It was the predecessor to the mod
em day Student Union.
John D. Rockefeller, who had donated
$66,666.67, two-thirds of Temple’s cost, insist
ed that one of the building’s major social func
tions be to house a theater. This request met
great opposition.
“Many people in’the early 1900s looked
down upon theater arts,” said Pat Overton,
Temple’s theater manager from 1970 to 1995.
“There was a two year battle before Temple
could actually be built, and eventually a com
promise‘was struck so that its location would
be outside the UNL gates (the boundary that
separated the southern edge of campus from
the rest of Lincoln).”
When the curtains opened for the first pro
duction in 1908, George Bernard Shaw’s “You
Never Can Tell”, UNL became the fourth uni
versity in the country to have a functioning the
ater program.
Alice Howell, the theater’s first manager,
was a Midwestern pioneer for theater arts and
was the driving force behind the Temple
Theater in its early years, Overton said.
“The theater department took shape with
the go-getter attitude of Alice Howell,” she
said.
After the Temple Theater underwent a
major renovation in 1954, the theater was
rededicated in Howell’s name. It became the
Howell Memorial Theater as a tribute to the
efforts of its first chair.
Today, the Howell Theater is a 380-seat
proscenium theater located on the first floor of
the Temple building.
“The thing that makes Howell a classic the
|
ater is the fact that it was simply engineered to
be a theater,” Overton said. “In the early days,
many university theater departments used
forums for music for their productions instead
of ones specifically for theater.”
The traditional theater style of the Howell *
Theater creates a certain ambiance for its audi
ences, said Dorothy Benes, accounting clerk at
Temple for 26 years.
“The patrons and actors together form a
more personal relationship in the intimacy of
the Howell Theater,” Benes said.
Overton agreed that the Howell Theater is a
place for the audience to connect with the on
stage presence before them, but she hinted at
another, less apparent connection that is made
at the theater.
“There are ghosts that inhabit Temple,” she
said. “They are the ghosts from plays that have
been performed throughout the years. Nobody
cared for them when their plays were through,
so they’ve stayed at the Temple because she is
the only one who cares for them.”
This constant presence is what has made
Temple endure throughout the years, Overton
Photos
(clockwise from far left)
SENIOR THEATER MAJOR BECKY KEY
is fitted for her costume for the
Nebraska Repertory Theater1* pro
duction of "The Princess and the
Pea,11 which runs from July 22 - 25.
JENNY D1 ACOSTA, a senior Theater
Arts Major, trims a support for a set
for the Repertory Theater1* produc
tion "Division Street.”
CYNTHIA PETTIJOHN, a senior
Spanish Major, works on a costume
for "Divison Street.” The show runs
from July 28th - August 7th.
u—
There are ghosts that inhabit
Temple. They are the ghosts
from plays that have been
performed throughout the
years. Nobody cared for
them when their plays were
through, so they've stayed at
the Temple because she is the
only one who cares
for them.''
Pat Overton
Temple theater manager, 1970-1995
Thursday, July 8,19991 Daily Nebraskan Summer Edition j Page 7