Occasionally, when I read in Our Town's faithful NewsPress, my mind immediately jumps to my memory lane. This happened again, recently, when there was a story about our live-stage jewel, Stillwater's Town and Gown (T&G) Theatre, about to begin it's 70th season of entertaining our public.
Oh, my, that's a long time, and, yes, I have some vivid memories of this wonderful organization from many, many years ago.
My dear father, the late Col. C.H. Breedlove, moved our small family to Our Town in July, 1953, relocating from Falls Church, Virginia. He had taken the job as the Professor of Aerospace Studies (i.e., the head officer) of the Air Force R.O.T.C. program at then-named Oklahoma A&M College. Back then, 2 years of R.O.T.C. training was required of each male college student for his freshman and sophomore years in school. At Oklahoma A&M, the male student could choose to take either the Air Force, or the Army option. Therefore, there were literally hundreds of young college men enrolled in the R.O.T.C. programs in Our Town. These military classes were a requirement on our campus until the 1965 fall semester when I was a freshman student at the now-named Oklahoma State University (changed in 1958).
So, that's what caused our family to move here, as my father had previously been working in Washington, D.C.'s Pentagon for his military duty station.
Once we arrived, we started putting down "roots", and one of my father's early community social involvements was with T&G. During his younger years, my father had had some experience in volunteering with community theatres, and really enjoyed it. Also, it provided a way for him to integrate himself into Our Town's social structure, in addition to his "day job" as senior, active duty military officer/leader. It is no surprise, then, he took his youngest son (aka, me!) along with him to various activities involved with T&G. In those days throughout the 1950's, he and I made many trips on campus to the Student Union Ballroom where the unique theatre-in-the-round performances were held on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. The plays were unable to be held on the weekend days because the ballroom was in demand for various college student functions that had scheduling priority over T&G. My father was certainly a principal on-stage actor during the 20-year time span from the mid-1950's to the mid-1970's, and had a stage presence in 26 different productions, I believe. Heck, during the 7th T&G season, 1957-58, I had an on-stage bit part in Androcies and the Lion, to be followed 5 years later with another minor, on-stage part in Camino Real. The first play I performed in the original Student Union location, and the second time I performed, it was in the "new" location which has been T&G's present home since April, 1962. I do remember the excitement I felt when I would go on-stage under the lights, and deliver my few spoken lines to the seated theatre audience of about 150 patrons.
My father established deep friendships through his years involved with our T&G. Many individuals would frequent our home, we would go to their homes, and we would, also, go out with them on numerous social occasions in Our Town, during those gentler and simpler times long, long ago. Two of his dear friends were the late Betty and Jon Wagner, T&G icons for many, many years. Each time my bride, Lady Deborah, and I have attended a delightful T&G production since we moved back home almost 40 years ago, my mind has retraced memories of hours I spent in the two T&G facilities,
I have had an absolute passion for attending the live theatre my entire life. Most of those early passion seeds were sown by Our Town's T&G Theatre. It certainly has met the test of time!
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