EUGENE–The first gift of this year’s 50th Anniversary Season in the University of Oregon’s Robinson Theatre will be the return of Horace W. Robinson to the theater named for him.

To launch the 1999-2000 season, the Horace Robinson Readers’ Theatre Group will give two performances at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 1—2, at the Robinson Theatre in Villard Hall, 1109 Old Campus Lane on the UO campus. Plenty of free parking is available nearby at East 11th Avenue and Kincaid Street.

The Robinson Theatre opened on Dec. 2, 1949 as the University Theatre with a production of "Winterset." Until that time, UO drama students performed plays in the Guild Hall Theatre on the first floor of Johnson Hall, as well as at numerous other campus sites.

Horace Robinson, who had joined the UO theater faculty in 1932, was the chief consultant on the design and construction of the new theater. It boasted revolutionary new architectural design, as well as state-of-the-art technical equipment. Theater professionals from all over the country came to the University of Oregon to see the new theater.

In 1976, the building was renovated and given a "face-lift," inside and out, with new technical equipment replacing the original. It was at this time that the theater was renamed in honor of Robinson who was retiring as a professor of theater arts.

Robinson’s last production in this theater was in 1987 when he directed "The Cherry Orchard."

Since Robinson established the Readers’ Theatre Group in 1991, it has given 877 performances for 83 different organizations involving more than 16,000 audience members. Most audiences are people who are unable to get out to the theater such as residents in retirement centers or hospitals.

The Readers’ Theatre Group presents a delightful and dramatically different style of theatrical production. They bring to life characters and scenes from short stories, novels, poetry and plays, including traditional lore, contemporary writing and personal reminiscences.

Simple and straight-forward, the staging places primary emphasis on characterization and the story being told. It is like gathering around the parlor for familiar stories among family and friends.

The Readers’ Theatre Group has a large and diverse group of performers. Many of them are stalwarts of other theater venues in Eugene. During eight years of performances, nearly 50 different readers have been featured and 11 have played more than 100 performances.

Tickets for the Oct. 1—2 event are $10 for the general public, $8 for senior citizens, UO faculty and staff, and non-UO students, and $5 for UO students. A special offers two tickets for "Robinson in the Robinson" for the price of one when ordering season tickets to the 1999-2000 Robinson Season. Tickets are available at the ticket office in the Erb Memorial Union, 1222 E. 13th Ave., (541) 346-4363, and will be at the University Theatre Box Office, 346-4191, beginning Tuesday, Sept. 28.

For more information, call the University Theatre Development Office at 346-4190, browse http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~theatre or call 485-2000, the 24 hours-a-day GuardLine, from a Touch-Tone phone and select extension 2287.

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