This weekend the Hillsdale theater program will perform “Much Ado About Nothing,” and Professor of Theatre Dave Griffiths will direct his last play at Hillsdale.
“It’s been just about 40 years,” Griffiths said. “We’ve been rounding it off a lot, but it does not make a huge difference –– it’s been a long time.”
Griffiths has worked in the theater program –– designing sets, directing, and teaching –– since 1974. He came to Hillsdale as a student and graduated in 1971. In his time away from Hillsdale, he moved with his wife to Ohio and then back to Michigan for graduate studies. He received his Masters in Theater with an emphasis in scenic design from Michigan State.
Ever since, he has working in theater, watching and helping the program grow from the sparse stage in Phillips Auditorium to Markel Auditorium in the Sage Center for the arts.
“When I was a student here, there was very little technical theater,” Griffiths said. “We were working on the stage of Phillips and often with nothing but the curtain in the background and a bit of old furniture laying around. We didn’t have design; we didn’t build things; we didn’t paint things; we didn’t have any lights –– it was a very minimal sort of a program.”
Steve Casai, who has worked in the dining service since it was in the Curtis Dining Hall, described Griffiths’s office as the “cubbyhole across from Phillips Auditorium.” It is now used as a closet.
“I would go downstairs sometimes, and we would talk about the theater,” Casai said. “We both like the theater a lot. He knew a lot about it.”
Casai was surprised to hear Griffiths was retiring.
“I thought he was going to go on forever –– he loves the theater. I’m sure he will stay active in some way, in Sauk [Theatre] or something,” Casai said.
From the mid-70s to the early 90s, Griffiths would contribute his design and directing experience to the Jonesville community Sauk Theatre. He did two or three shows every summer and was the President of the board for a few years. Since the early 90s, he has not volunteered as much time.
However, it is not unusual to find Griffiths in the college set workshop on a Friday afternoon doing the detail work usually reserved for students.
“Dave is one of those people in the program that you just expect him to be there,” senior light specialist Mattie Butaud said. “He’s just such an integral part of the theater. We are excited for him that he’s retiring, we are excited for the new gal that is coming in, but it’s weird to think of the program without Dave. We have all worked with him in one capacity or another and he is just a familiar part that will definitely be missed.”
His students say Griffiths intentionally makes the theater fun. A favorite show of his is “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” –– a production he has been a part of three times –– and he also enjoys Oscar Wilde’s “Importance of Being Earnest” and Moliere’s “Tartuffe,” though he said it is hard to choose favorites.
Griffiths said he does not have any major plans for his retirement. He said he will probably work with the Sauk Theatre, but he is also excited for the time to read and learn for the fun of it.
“My student keep on telling me about various and sundry television programs that I am unaware of,” Griffiths said, “so sooner or later there will be lots of binge watching, too, just to see what they’ve been talking about all this time.”
