University Of Texas El Paso Dinner Theatre

History

It all started in 1983 when I was an undergraduate Theatre Arts student here at The University of Texas in El Paso looking for an opportunity to direct a musical. Jimmy Legarreta and I were attending the (then) annual Student Affairs Thanksgiving luncheon in the Tomas Rivera Conference Center on the 3d floor of the East Union. I mentioned that the room would be suitable for staging a musical in a dinner theatre setting. Jimmy suggested we approach Dean of Students Joe Avila about finding funds and he steered us to Sonny Castro who was the Director of the Union. He put us together with the Special Programs and Activities Committee of the Student Programs Office. We were given $1,000.00 and used it to stage our first production of JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT which was presented as a dinner theatre with food prepared by the Union Food Services. The production took place not in the Conference Center but in the old Union Ballroom, which in 1983 was very rarely used. Having stumbled on it when I went to pick up my financial aid check, I knew it was the best space for this new venture. We opened JOSEPH... on March 10, 1983 and ran for three sold-out performances. It was truly a testament to the old cliché "Let's do a show, I've got a barn and my mom can do costumes!" because we did do the show in what was then basically a big barn and my mother did make the "dreamcoat" for the show. The production was such a success that we approached the Student Programs Office for additional funds and presented JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR the following summer, once again to sold-out houses.

After the success of the first two shows, Sonny Castro offered me a 15 hour a week workstudy position to keep the dinner theatre concept going. I immediately picked a four-show season and named us The Union Dinner Theatre (changed to The UTEP Dinner Theatre in 1998). We have continued with full seasons ever since.

From the start the UTEP Dinner Theatre has enjoyed a special relationship with Tim Rice, the lyricist of JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, EVITA, CHESS, BLONDEL, TYCOON and THE LION KING. The UTEP Dinner Theatre presented the American Premiere of BLONDEL in 1985, the Amateur Premiere of CHESS in 1989 and the American Premiere of TYCOON in 1994. All of the Tim Rice shows we have staged have been so successful that they have all been reprised two or three times since. Our production of CHESS was a National winner of the American College Theatre Festival in 1989 and was performed at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington DC.

After 30 years and over 130 productions the UTEP Dinner Theatre is now a part of the UTEP Department of Theatre, Dance.