University of Albuquerque. Theatre Dept.

The University of Albuquerque Theatre Department, conceived when the institution was known as the College of St. Joseph on the Rio Grande, was directed by Jim Morley from 1957 until his retirement in 1984. The University of Albuquerque closed in 1986. Productions were first staged in the boiler room and later in the gymnasium at the College of St. Joseph. In 1972, the Theatre Department moved to the newly built Fine Arts Learning Center.

From the guide to the University of Albuquerque Theater Department Photograph Collection, 1942-1981, (University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research)

The Theatre Department, conceived when the institution was known as the College of St. Joseph on the Rio Grande, was directed by Jim Morley from 1957 until his retirement in 1984. The University itself closed in 1986. Productions were first staged in the boiler room and later in the gymnasium at the College of St. Joseph. In 1972 the Department moved to the newly built Fine Arts Learning Center.

From the description of Records, 1942-1991. (University of New Mexico-Main Campus). WorldCat record id: 32632658

The history of the University of Albuquerque spans 66 years from 1920 to l986. First known as the St. Francis Summer College for teaching sisters, the institution was affiliated in l939 with the Catholic University of America and changed its name to Catholic Teachers College of New Mexico. By 1952, after a period of building and growth, it became a liberal arts college known as the College of St. Joseph on the Rio Grande. From l966 to l986, the institution gained a new cosmopolitan image as the University of Albuquerque.

This latter period was one of numerous presidential resignations and hirings but one noted for the addition of the Fine Arts Learning Center to the West Mesa skyline and home to legendary theater in New Mexico.

The University's Theatre Department, conceived when the institution was known as the College of St. Joseph on the Rio Grande, was directed by Jim Morley from 1957 until his retirement in l984. (The University itself closed in l986.)

Productions were first staged in the boiler room and later in the gymnasium at the College of St. Joseph. By l958, after Morley's arrival, the theatre had evolved to a quonset-type building with a 40-foot front stage and a rear stage with an upper level suitable for classic drama. It was known as the "Tin Hut." With the building of the Fine Arts Learning Center in 1972, the Department moved into new facilities, a multipurpose structure with two auditorium areas, a drama theater, and a music-lecture hall.

The history of the University of Albuquerque can be compared to the history of a boom town: the sweet and secret discovery, the growth, the building, the mining, the overmining, and the consequent ghost town remains when the vein was spent or abandoned. Her history spans the years 1904, when she was known as the St. Francis Summer School for nuns to 1986, when we saw her as a cosmopolitan college (the University of Albuquerque) making every effort to stay above the flood waters of lost and found leadership and huge indebtedness. Her name-changes listed below are like strata of a mother lode:

This sweet and secret discovery was exemplified by a dedicatory speech of the College of St. Joseph in 1952: "The basic commodity of education is truth....In these classrooms in their glorious setting of mountain and plain will come in years to be hundred(s) of young men and women eager for the unadulterated truth." And so she grew and built and mined "the truth" until she, in quiet agony in 1986, ended her search for it.

One very important part of the University of Albuquerque's history, conceived during her flowering and weathering the storms until her final closing, was the Theater Department under the direction of Jim Morley.

Born and raised in Wisconsin, Morley enrolled at UNM after World War II. He had heard that the university offered an excellent anthropology program, but after realizing it was really the historical drama of past civilizations he sought, Morley embarked on a career in theatre. After earning his bachelor's degree (BFA) at UNM in l949, Morley completed a master's degree (MA) at Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. After teaching for one year at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas and after a short acting stint in New York, he returned to Albuquerque. He took a job at KGGM-TV as a talk show host and puppeteer for a show called "The Treasure Chest." In l955 the Sisters of St. Francis hired him to teach English at the U of A. He decided the university needed a theatre department as well. The history of the now legendary Theatre Department mirrored the boom town-like history of the University itself.

A large room in a heating plant, a stage, tiered platforms for folding chairs to rest on, dressing rooms, lighting and sound control panels...The now legendary Theater Department built its foundation on these, one school term in 1953. (l955?)

A quonset-type building, a 40-foot front stage, and rear stage with an upper level suitable for classic drama...So from humble "boiler room" beginnings did the theater evolve to this in 1958.

A multipurpose facility, two auditorium areas, a drama theater, and a music-lecture hall...14 years of "Tin Hut" theater was rewarded in 1972 with a building that is a landmark on the West Mesa.

Morley taught phonetics, voice and diction, directing, acting, theatre history, and film criticism, and directed U of A theater productions for almost 30 years, while serving as friend and mentor to countless students who studied theatre with him. He survived the adminstrative changes through the years, while his theatre progressed from its humble beginnings in the gymnasium to a tin quonset hut he built almost single-handedly, to the intimate Stage I in U of A's Fine Arts Center.

Morley's mission in theatre was to portray the measure and dignity of man. He chose as an emblem for this mission Leonardo da Vinci's famous illustration, "Human Figure in a Circle," which defines the proportions of a man with limbs outstretched to the edges of a circle. It greeted students and theatre goers on an outside wall of the Fine Arts Center and it appeared as part of a logo on the theatre stationery.

As a director, Morley courted controversy. He produced a play with what is recognized as Albuquerque's first nude scene, and he transformed Gertrude Stein's play, "Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights," into an original rock musical.

One of Morley's special loves in theatre was ritual and ceremony, and one of his directing trademarks was his Fellini-like ability to block action on stage so that, at any given moment, all movement was frozen, and the audience saw a still scene of impeccable composition.

Catholic sisters ran the U of A during most of Morley's tenure, and they gave him complete artistic freedom. "When I started out, my nuns told me all they required from and my plays was the truth, and that's what I gave them.

The University of Albuquerque Theater Collection reflects this sweet and secret discovery of truth in education. Future explorers of Camelots like the University of Albuquerque will agree with Shakespeare when he said, "The play's the thing!"

From the guide to the University of Albuquerque Theatre Dept. Records, 1942-1991, (University of New Mexico. Center for Southwest Research.)