Theatre UAF has changed drastically since its modest beginnings half a century ago. Exactly 50 years to the day after the department's first production, "Bell, Book, and Candle," a performance of Anton Chekov's plays and love letters entitled"Four Farces and a Funeral" opened this Dec. 2, followed by a slideshow of pictures of productions from years past.

“UAF theater and (Lee) Salisbury got me to Alaska and kept me here," said

Paul Quist, 63, who attended the slide show. Quist came from Minnesota in 1966 to do work-study in the theater department.

Before the show began, Salisbury, the father of theater at UAF, spoke about the metamorphosis that the department has undergone, including several name changes, relocations, and the addition of more staff.

“For a long time, it was just me," said Salisbury, the department's first faculty member. Salisbury, 78, is the namesake for Theatre UAF's current home, the Lee H. Salisbury Theatre.

On December 2, 1955, the first UAF play,"Bell, Book, and Candle" was staged in Signer's Hall, which was the campus gymnasium at the time. On Friday night after the performance, the theater staff had to take down the entire set, the lighting, and all of the audience seating to make way for ROTC exercises on Saturday morning. They then had to set it up again in the afternoon for the play Saturday night. The balcony that usually served as a basketball viewing area turned into a lighting area. Half the gym became a makeshift stage while the other half became audience seating.

At the first play, said Salisbury, the audience consisted of several hundred people. It was a challenge to find enough chairs around campus to accommodate them. Many audience members were delegates from the Alaska State Constitutional convention. At that time, Alaska was still a territory and Fairbanks was home to the only University of Alaska campus.

Salisbury moved to Alaska on the recommendation from a relative who worked at the university. The relative informed him of an opening in the theater department, so he drove north from California in a Volkswagen bus with his wife and six-week-old baby. Salisbury said he originally did not intend on staying but decided he liked Fairbanks and settled down.

In the early days, as is probably still the case, theater was a community event and Fairbanks's aspiring actors would participate to escape the monotonous months of cold winters. During the early years, the plays would travel down to Juneau to perform for the legislature and to the International Drama Fest in Whitehorse.

Through the years, the university's young theater department expanded, and after moving from Signer's Hall to Schaible Auditorium, the challenges expanded as well. The auditorium was originally supposed to have a stage, but a cut in funding at the last minute made it a classroom. Salisbury explained the difficulty of setting up horseshoe shaped sets and having to use his office as a dressing room. Despite logistical obstacles, he said they"continued to limp along with occasional triumphs."

In 1970, the Fine Arts Complex was built and Salisbury convinced the administration to hire more staff members. Salisbury said that he always thought the theater department would grow. He retired in 1988 but kept teaching a few classes because the faculty was shorthanded. After he retired, students petitioned to have the theater in the Fine Arts complex named after him.

Currently, Salisbury is looking forward to Spring 2007 when he will direct"Picnic" at a Theatre UAF reunion.