2/10/2011:
The Little Country Theatre of the North Dakota Agricultural College was dedicated on this date in 1914, well before the Agricultural College became NDSU in 1960. Since 1968, this popular theatre has operated out of NDSU’s Askanase Hall.
In a way, theater had always been a part of the college; informal plays were often put on by students as a form of entertainment. In January of 1907 however, an organized drama club was founded by mechanical arts professor Edward Keene. Lacking a theater space of their own, students of the club put on their first play, Captain Racket, on June 6th, 1907, in the downtown Fargo Grand Theatre.
When Alfred Arvold arrived in the fall of 1907 to teach English and Oratory, he took over the club, renaming it the Edwin Booth Dramatic Club in honor of his favorite actor. Arvold strongly believed that theater brought “life to rural America,” and he was devoted to expanding the theater department. In 1913, Arvold began looking for a permanent campus theater location. He realized that the college chapel in Old Main had not been used in many years, and it had the potential to make a great theater space. He petitioned the State Legislature for funds to create such a theater, and was granted permission by the college to use the chapel. Using the $3,000 appropriated by the legislature, he converted the chapel into a theater, complete with a 30-foot stage and 200 seats. Decorated in gold and green, the country’s first Little Country Theater was born.
NDAC students put on over 650 plays in the theatre, and Scandinavian playwrights were heavily emphasized in the early years, including many productions by Ibsen and Björnson. The popularity of the theater demanded an expansion in which 83 seats were added.
Encouraged by the success at NDSU, the residents of Kensal, North Dakota, raised $2,500 to build their own ‘Little Country Theater,’ and another was constructed on the upper floors of a grocery store in McKinley County. Soon after, the Ohio Agricultural College established one as well. Arvold’s original motivation to use theater to bring “life to rural America” appears to have been a rousing success.
Dakota Datebook written by Jayme L. Job
Sources:
Arvold, Alfred G. 1923 The Little Country Theater. New York: Macmillan.
Mackay, Constance D’Arcy. 1917 The Little Country Theater in the United States. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
http://www.fargo-history.com/ndac/ndac-lct.htm
http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsu/main/directory/bldg_details.php?choice=9
http://www.ndbison.com/htc/didyouknow.php