SUNY Buffalo, Fall 1974

In the Fall of 1974 I was off to SUNY Buffalo, UB.
UB is a huge school, even back then, with 30,000 students, several campuses and lots of snow.
I had to deal with all the normal things that any freshman does, living in a dorm with unknown roommates, learning where everything is, and a variety “Mystery Meat” meals from the food service.

The first days before my first Theatre class I spent exploring the campus, looking up friends from summer orientation and thinking about what adventures may lay ahead.
In my first Theatre class I was surprised to meet others just like me.
Four or five of us, all had done lots of Theatre in High School, thought we knew a lot and now we had to start at the bottom.
The Technical Director/Lighting Designer was new that year too.
Along with the older students he had inherited some “Extra” people who sometimes worked on the plays.
I went to school with many talented people and many of my classmates from UB, and later Grad School at Michigan, would go on to have successful careers in Theatre.
I will talk about them in later posts.

Another surprise when I got to UB was the Department was a Department of Theatre and Dance.
A Dance Department meant dancers and skin tight leotards.
I always enjoyed working on the Dance concerts.
I was eighteen, need I say anymore.

My first semester I served as a general crew person working on several plays and Dance concerts, building sets and hanging lights.
In November I was scheduled to work on a Dance concert, but not planning very well, I had booked a ride home the Friday before Thanksgiving.
Students still try to take longer vacation breaks today, no surprise there.
The big problem was I did not bother to find out that there was a second weekend of performances.

The Lighting Designer for the Dance concert was one of these “Extra” people.
I never really knew who he was, why he was there and what was his relationship to the Department.
He was neither a student nor a faculty member, but some how he got to work there.
I will call him “Dave” for this story.

Anyway I got my friend “Matt” to cover for me and I thought things would be fine.
It was simple, we had already set the cues and ran the show the week before.
I really do not know what happen, but somehow all Hell broke out and somehow it was Matt’s fault.
Now I know for a fact it was not “Matt’s” fault, but somehow he got the blame.
All the blame should have gone to “Dave” who let his little kids run around the Theatre during the show, one of them fell, split a lip, blood everywhere, a trip to the hospital and more.

I am the guy who split, took off early for Thanksgiving, and somehow I came out of this smelling like roses.

Lucky me.