Wig Celebrates 125th Birthday

Wig Celebrates 125th Birthday
October 12, 2013 Donald Fisher

By Don Fisher ’75

LOOK!!

College Men Take Notice!!!

That’s how the iconic poster put up in College Hall in 1889 began, calling for the formation of a new dramatic club at Penn. The Mask and Wig Club is now in the middle of celebrating 125 years of comedic success beginning with its 125th show in January of 2013, followed by a re-enactment of the original posting in College Hall in April and culminating with a Black Tie gala at Zellerbach Theater this November.

“It has been fascinating going through the archives and seeing the contributions we’ve made over the years to the University community,” noted Club historian, Steve Goff ’62. “We’ve donated an ambulance, a crew shell, a dormitory and a whole lot more. And just as importantly, many of our members have gone on to important careers, both in entertainment as well as business and other fields, bringing ‘Justice to the Stage; Credit to the University’.”

With a rich visual heritage and 125 years of productions, the Club’s archives are bursting with evocative images, music and video. As part of the celebration, the Club is in the process of creating a series of video programs to present various aspects of its history, including kick lines through the years, program covers, famous people and so forth. The programs will be on display at the Gala and then installed at the Club for theater-goers to enjoy.

“We have so much material, the challenge is sorting through it and getting it in digital format,” commented Goff. “We’ll probably end up with multiple programs that we rotate among our panels. I think it will be a good way for our patrons to get a better sense of our history, particularly of the last 20-30 years.”

The Club’s fall show premieres October 16th on Campus and the Annual Production is slated to open January 24th at the Clubhouse. Be sure to check out the Tickets page to get your tickets for the Fall show and join our mailing list to keep up to date on the latest news. As the poster concludes:

“Defer no time; delays have dangerous ends.”