Since 1970, Harding has been putting on a Homecoming musical. The first one, “The Apple Tree” was performed in the Little Theatre, which no longer exists.
“The Apple Tree” was one show made up of three musical playlets based off three different books, “The Diary of Adam and Eve,” “The Lady or the Tiger?” and “Passionella.” It was performed in a black-box theater.
“The Little Theatre was on the second floor of the Administration Building,” said Robin Miller, chair of the theater department. “The area just housed a little two-story black box theater.”
After the Little Theatre the shows moved into the Administration Auditorium for several years. In 1980, the musicals moved to the Benson Auditorium beginning with “A Midsummer’s Night Dream,” which Miller helped direct.
Miller has been involved with the Homecoming musicals since his freshman year at Harding, which was in ’73. The musical was “My Fair Lady” and Miller was in the ensemble and worked on the set construction. He said some of his fondest recollections of theatre come from that year.
“The set was designed with things that rearranged and moved around on stage, so that was really neat to be a part of,” Miller said. “I have a lot of memories from that show.”
Since Miller’s first musical he has been involved in nearly every Homecoming show, including Harding’s production of “Annie” in ’86, which is the same show that will be performed for this year’s Homecoming musical.
He was the director of the first production of “Annie” and is also directing this fall’s performance.
“This year we’ve approached the show very differently,” Miller said. “It’s a very visually based performance style with lots of sets and effects. It’s all the same words, the same script, but it’s very different.”
Another show that stands out to Miller from the past is “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” from 1999.
“All the brothers needed to look similar, so we gave them all hair in a shade of red,” Miller said. “We just had a lot of fun with it and made an arrangement with the salon and it was just a big party [getting their hair dyed.]”
