Reunion

A History of the Shakespeare at Winedale Reunion Plays, 1990-2020

We’re home again

And so are all our friends

And for a time

We’ll have no design

To roam again…

We’re home again….

— Round, taught by Jeff Larsen at 2000 Winedale reunion

The first group of University of Texas students to work and play together at Winedale arrived on a brisk Friday afternoon in November of 1970, led by their young Shakespeare professor, Dr. James B. Ayres. Ever since that first group of students drove away from the Theater Barn two days later to head back to Austin, students have have longed to return to Winedale -- and they often have, as students, audience members, loyal patrons, eventually even as parents of current students. Since the early 1970's, the Winedale grounds have hosted all sorts of reunions, some informal or spontaneous, others organized to celebrate a five-year anniversary. A large group gathered in 1985 on a Saturday to share stories under the "Duke's Oak" over by the new Wagner House dormitory. In 1990, for the 20th anniversary, the first reunion play week was held, culminating in a public performance. The reunion play tradition has continued every five years since then, and carries on in virtual form this August during the pandemic of 2020 with a collaborative film version of The Winter's Tale.

The Shakespeare at Winedale reunion performances are -- to the best of our knowledge -- the only gatherings of their kind for a university course. Former members of the UT Longhorn Band come back to campus to march in the Alumni Band halftime show with the current band, but they don't spend a week living and working together and then perform an entire halftime show by themselves. This unique tradition speaks to the strong sense of community that Winedalers from 1970 on have built and lovingly sustained, even when separated for many years.

1985 Reunion

A reunion gathering for the 15th anniversary of Shakespeare at Winedale was held on a Saturday in the summer of 1985. Stories and reflections were shared at the picnic tables under the big oak tree, and everyone then went to watch the summer class perform Othello. Above left, early Winedale student Donald Britton, in the white shirt, chats with Doc Ayres; above right, Terry Galloway tells a story as only she can while Bruce Meyer and others look on.

1990 Reunion Play -- The Comedy of Errors

"Merchant of Syracuse, plead no more..."

The first-ever reunion class brought together a mix of students from the 1970’s — including Harry Montgomery, who had been in that first group to visit Winedale in the fall of 1970 — and the 1980’s, including Robert Deike, who had been a student there the previous summer. Members of the 1990 class generously shared the Barn with their fellow Winedalers for the week, leading up to a Saturday celebration and an afternoon performance.

It was a classic Winedale challenge:

Create a performance of an entire play in essentially five days. Could it be done? We were all about to find out....

The reunion group arrived joyfully and exuberantly on Sunday afternoon for a fried catfish dinner at the picnic tables and then a sharing of songs and improvisations with the 1990 students (including youngsters Madge Darlington, Don Brode, Tara Kirkland, Jon Watson, Virginia Rufener, and Valerie Malone, who would all in time return for their own reunion class experiences). Then on to the Barn at sunset for improvisations and laughter. Everyone arrived with lines learned (well, ever-busy Bruce Meyer might have still been working on a few...) and then had five days and nights in which to create a performance of an entire play.

Jeff Larsen, as always, came with his instruments and ideas for songs, and taught the group a beautiful round, “Who Will Buy My Roses?,” which sounded lovely and eventually inspired a wonderful mimed ensemble opening moment in the Ephesian marketplace, before the pounding of an ominous drum announced the arrival of a captured prisoner. There was an explosion of energy and creativity beginning on Monday as the then-very-young old-timers worked relentlessly on scenes through the hot afternoons and then deep into the night in the Barn and all around the grounds; at one point early in the week, late into the evening, peals of laughter and shouts of excitement erupted from the glowing Barn; everyone in earshot rushed in to discover that the team performing the “gate” scene had just had a breakthrough and transformed the rhyming verse into an exuberant rap.

The group had elegant sleeping quarters -- mats on the floor of the Winedale classroom. The fire ants liked to sneak in under the carpeting. But no one cared -- roughing it was part of the fun. It was just so amazing to be working together on a play at Winedale.

So much happened in five days: Terry Galloway was a passionate and ferocious Adriana, slapping everyone in sight, and astonishing us all with her ability (pre-cochlear implant) to read the lips of her fellow players and time her double-takes and head swivels and then whip around just as it was time to snap out her next line like a cracking whip; Bruce Meyer, with matching intensity, howled out “The devilllll!” and “Justice!!!” as Antipholus of Ephesus. Doug Dawson was a stern and snippy Duke Solinus, Kathy and Joy were delightful Dromios, Eric Thomas's rumbling bass voice sounded out a soulful Egeon, Patty Mack cast a spell as a weird and mysterious face-painted Pinch; there was Mary Collins’ French-accented merchant, Jeanne McCarthy’s expressive mime-inclined townsperson and her feisty Luce, and Jeff Larsen’s heartily aggrieved Angelo; David Ziegler recreated Terry's classic Balthasar-as-battering-ram sequence from 1980’s Errors, then returned to the stage (with 1990 summer class assistant Clayton Stromberger) as a snarling, wig-wearing assistant to Pinch; and sweet Harry Montgomery, tall and gentleman-like with his Beaumont drawl, charmed as a bizarre and slightly shady local character. Robert Dieke, the youngest of the players, was a hearty Antipholus of Syracuse; Kirsten Kern vamped it up as a sultry Courtesan; Jayne Noble was a headstrong Luciana. Then Teresa Jaynes brilliantly topped it all by emerging from the red curtains in the final scene as the stern Abbess… on stilts that were hidden under her costume. Alice Gordon kept the wild carnival on track as director and jumped in as a Citizen of Ephesus as needed.

The Saturday performance, in a Barn packed with former students and family members and local folks and guests and members of the 1990 class, was as wild and energetic as the week had been. The occasion was dedicated in the program to Gloria Jaster (first and then-only director of the Winedale Historical Center), Angelene Zwernemann (longtime cook), and Verlie Hinze Wegner (longtime docent). Before the performance began, Alice Gordon said from the stage, with tears in her eyes, "Thank you, Doc, for teaching us to play."

Video of 1990 Comedy of Errors

Click “play” on the window here to see a video recording of most of the 1990 reunion play. This recording, recently digitized from an old VHS cassette, ends halfway through the final scene — so you’ll have to imagine Teresa Jaynes coming out from behind the red curtains as the Abbess… on stilts. We are grateful to Thomas Marvin for making this recording (well, Joy was in it, he had to!) and shared it with us long ago. It is a wonderful and valuable record of a special performance.

1995 Reunion Play -- A Midsummer Night's Dream

"I have had a most rare vision..."

The 25th anniversary of the program was celebrated in style with a spirited week and a raucous and inventive performance of Midsummer. The size of the class grew from 17 to 23 players. As before, students in Doc’s summer class helped out and reveled in meeting and getting to know some of the “Winedale legends” they’d heard about or seen in old black-and-white photos on the summer bulletin boards.

"This play is all about sex!" Terry Galloway loudly proclaimed to all...

...during the first bright-eyed morning of work in the Barn. Which led to a unique and occasionally eye-opening session of work on Act One, scene one in which, at Terry's gleeful instigation, everyone had to strip down to their underwear. This experiment was not repeated but soon became part of reunion lore -- and that bold and lusty energy was picked up eagerly by the fairies, who suddenly emerged into the Athenian woods like a punk rock band hellbent on creating some joyous mayhem and messing with the heads of the any townie who crossed their footpaths.

Some of the fairies also inventively came to the rescue of Bruce Meyer, who recalls at that point being "the busiest obstetrician in the hospital, and I was on call the night before I came out." Bruce was struggling to learn Oberon's long speeches as he arrived, and soon the idea evolved that his two henchmen, Kirk Lynn and Jose Hernandez, would follow him everywhere and as needed share some of his lines: "Hey boss, was that the time you sat upon a promontory and saw a mermaid on a dolphin's back...?" "Yes, yes!!!" Oberon had a leather fetish and wild facepaint with a sharp widow's peak and black fingernail and toenail polish. Titania's fairies wore tutus and Doc Martens and were both sweet and scary. The creative energy that rippled out from the ferocious play that week helped inspire a group of friends to form a theater company a few years later -- they dubbed themselves the Rude Mechanicals...

James Loehlin, future director of the program, played a noble and good-hearted Theseus and was asked by Doc to help provide a guiding hand as director; Kirsten Kern, returning for her second reunion play as Titania, was assistant director. Along with Kirsten and Terry, a core of players returned from 1990's reunion week, eager for another go: Jeff Larsen, Joy Howard, Kathy Blackbird, Bruce Meyer, and Clayton Stromberger. Other first-timers were Cindy Williams, Madge Darlington, Lana Lesley, Don Brode, Jon Watson (who arranged beautiful music for the final fairy song), Virginia Rufener, Tara Kirkland, Jeanne McCarthy, Jenny Sporher, Kirk and Jose, Shawn Sides, Jenny Kee, Stephanie Modlin, and Michael Williams.

Every time Terry performed "Bottom's Dream," all within earshot stood and hung on every word with a lump in their throat... and Bottom's death scene was lofty indeed, with each "die!!!" taking place at a different spot in the Barn (including several in the midst of the delighted and standing-room-only audience).

One person experiencing her first Winedale reunion ever was JoAnn Moss Ayres, who had recently married James B. Ayres. "It was an amazing experience," she remembers. "I had been through one or two summers with him, but that in no way prepared me for the outpouring of love and respect from all of the former students. And what an inspirational group they all are -- doctors, lawyers, directors, actors, writers, movie producers, educators... a huge group of consistently adorable and adoring people."

Festivities after the performance included a large dinner and celebration at the Round Top Rifle Hall. Bradley Ayres spoke on behalf of the Ayres family and thanked the former students for all the devotion they had shown his dad over the decades; and Terry Galloway shared wonderful memories of early Winedale legend Donald Britton, one year after his passing.

Video of 1995 Midsummer

Click “play” in the window here to watch a recording of the 1995 reunion performance. This video, recently rediscovered in the Shakespeare at Winedale archives and newly digitized, is a hand-held recording by an unknown videographer.

2000 Reunion Play --
The Merry Wives of Windsor

"By gar, 'tis good; vell said...!"

It was Doc’s final summer as director of Shakespeare at Winedale, thirty years after taking that first class out for a weekend visit. James Loehlin, assistant director for the summer, was ready to take the helm in 2001. The third reunion class was the biggest yet at 25 former students.

Winedale became Windsor

for a week as the eccentric characters of Shakespeare's one domestic comedy set in England sprang to life once more in and around the Barn.

The reunion play performance was dedicated in the program in the memory of four former students: Donald Britton (summers of '71-'75), Stephen Stepan ('76-'77), Greg Higdon ('81), and Alan Fear ('81). In a farewell note in the program, Doc wrote: "This old barn and I are one. Even when empty, it resonates with the sounds of Shakespeare's words and those struggling to speak them. I hear those every time I walk in. My memories are rich ones. And so I take my leave, with a thousand thanks to the courageous students who risked everything to find their way here and to everyone who believed in my dream. I love you all."

2005 Reunion Play -- Scenes

2005 intro….

2005 text

Video of 2005 reunion performance

Click “play” in the windows here to see a video recording of the 2005 reunion performance of scenes from the plays. This is newly posted from the DVD recording that was made by a Round Top videographer for the reunion play group.