Members of the MSU theatre department alumni — all graduates of the eighties — decided to stage a three-day reunion, gathering alumni from around the country and meeting in East Lansing.
About a year ago, 1984 graduate Brian Veit created a Facebook group to get the troupe back together, roughly 30 years after they took their exit from MSU’s stage.
The group hit up all their old hang-outs, including having dinner at The Peanut Barrel and viewing productions at the Summer Circle Theater.
“We were there back when you could still throw peanuts on the ground,” Veit said. “(The) Peanut Barrel was an excellent place to hang out and socialize.”
Many of the alumni in the group stayed in touch over the years, and Veit said they didn’t really have to get reacquainted.
“They tend to clique; they tend to stick together,” Veit said. “Whether good or bad, you’re a big, dysfunctional family.”
Andrea Salloum, 1989 graduate, who now lives in Chicago, Illinois, said it’s important to spotlight the sense of community among members of the theatre department by having a reunion.
“We’re so old school, the people of the eighties,” Salloum said. “When we graduated, we had no way to reconnect.”
Though the reunion reconnected old friends, it also was reminiscient of the early days in Wharton Center, with which some of the alumni share an anniversary.
Many of the alumni who attended the reunion were part of the inaugural performing arts company in 1982, Wharton Center’s opening year.
They were the first class of students to work and perform in the newly constructed building and 1981 graduate Bruce Hart said one thing that hasn’t changed since the eighties is MSU’s beautiful architecture.
“It was nice seeing all the young theater folks coming up and knowing that they were going to have the opportunity to perform in such a great facility,” Hart said.
Leslie Kaye, 1986 graduate, said she loves the history of MSU.
“I felt like a movie star,” Kaye said. “It was brand new; beautiful.”
The alumni got to experience theatre in a building so new, with so many memories to make — and what continues to connect them is their love for the arts.
“It just made me laugh to remember all those happy times,” Kaye said. “Doing a play, you get thrown together and you get very close very fast. This reunion feels like we’re doing a play.”
The reunion brought the group back to their roots, Salloum said. She said it was kind of like a rebirth for the passion and dedication of theatre.
But that’s not the only remaining tie the group has, they all lived out their passions at MSU and took the skills they acquired into their later lives.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I’m not grateful for what Michigan State taught me,” Salloum said.
