By Tom Pantera
The Forum

It all started at Concordia College.

English lessons

With short academic terms geared to agricultural work, only one or two plays were produced a year, always in mid-winter.


Norma Gooden Ostby Gilbert, a drama teacher at Concordia College, declared that every student would be a member of the school's drama club. Concordia College Archives

In the 1930s and 1940s, the face of Concordia theater changed with the arrival of Norma Gooden Ostby Gilbert, a drama teacher better known affectionately as "Ma" Gilbert.

Concordia theater moved to its present home, Frances Frazier Comstock Hall, in 1969. Before that, productions were held in a 600-seat theater in Old Main.

Busy summers at MSU

Hansen also created the Straw Hat Players, Fargo-Moorhead’s popular summer stock program. Summer theater at MSU started with just one play in 1959. By the early 1960s, students were doing eight plays a summer.


Actor Dustin Hoffman directed two plays for the Red River Playhouse during the 1963-64 season.

Block solid: Fargo's unique Block 6 boasts rich history

By Jonathan Knutson
The Forum - 04/24/1999

They don't make 'em like they used to.



Looking east on what is now Main Avenue in Fargo, in the mid-1920s, the Block 6 building is shown at center. For roughly 70 years, the former deLendrecie's store operated there. Forum File Photo

At least not like Block 6, the five-story commercial/residential building at 624 Main Ave., Fargo. Block 6 has about 15 commercial tenants and 130 apartments.

"There's a real sense of history," said Bev Wilson, building manager. "It's a very unique building."

The Fargo landmark, which is on to the National Register of Historic Places, has had a distinguished history.

In 1894, a year after fire destroyed most of Fargo's business section, a building consisting of a full basement, two stories and mezzanine was built at the Block 6 site. In 1904 the store was expanded to five stories.

The expansion reflected the growing popularity of Fargo's deLendrecie's department store, which had set up shop in the building.

A little background on deLendrecie's:

O.J. deLendrecie arrived in Fargo by ox cart in the summer of 1879. By the end of his first day here he had selected the store's site and drawn up building plans. His store, originally known as the Chicago Dry Goods Store, was soon up and running in a small one-story frame building in downtown Fargo.

In the late 1890s and early 1900s deLendrecie's moved into what's now the Block 6 building.

DeLendrecie's had a long, successful run at the site. The store and building were so firmly linked that some long-time Fargo residents refer to Block 6 as "the old deLendrecie's building."

But shopping patterns changed, and big shopping malls became increasingly popular. In 1972 deLendrecie's moved to Fargo's West Acres mall. Most of the records of deLendrecie's long stay in the downtown Fargo building apparently were lost or destroyed during the move.

DeLendrecie's operated at West Acres until last year, when the store and its parent company were purchased by the Dillard's Inc. department store chain. DeLendrecie's was converted to the Herberger's banner.

With deLendrecie's gone to the mall, there was public concern about the future of its former downtown building.

But a new use for the building was soon found. In 1975 it was renovated and a commercial complex known as Block 6 of the Original Townsite was created.

Though popular at first, Block 6 fell on hard times in the 1980s. But in 1987 Block 6 got a $7.4 million facelift. To great fanfare, it was renovated into retail space and apartments.

The apartments were popular immediately. They boast an old-fashioned charm - high ceilings, big windows, lots of wood - and an always trendy sense of being near the action in downtown Fargo.

"There's a waiting list to get into some of the most unique apartments," Wilson said.

The commercial space in Block 6 proved a tougher sell. The building's street access isn't particularly good, and many merchants preferred to set up shop in rapidly growing southwest Fargo. But Block 6 reached full commercial occupancy in 1993 and has stayed at or near it ever since.

"We're very pleased about that," Wilson said.

Despite Block 6's success in attracting tenants, however, its owner, International Center Ltd. Partnership, fell behind in mortgage payments to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD.

In the summer of 1995 HUD held a foreclosure sale of Block 6. It was purchased by an out-of-state investment group, which continues to own it. By all accounts, the building's operation has been smooth under the new ownership.

Under the previous ownership, Block 6 was known officially as the International Centre, though most everyone continued to call it Block 6. Wilson said the official International Centre designation was dropped by the new ownership.

MSU boasts possibly the most successful graduates of any of the local theater programs. They range from Kristin Rudrud of "Fargo" and Jan Maxwell of television’s "All My Children" and Jerry verDorn of "The Guiding Light" to Bill Hultstrom, who has won three Emmys for his set design for "The Young and the Restless" and Donna Larson, who has won several Emmys as lighting director for "All My Children."

The log cabin remains

North Dakota State University’s Little Country Theatre began in 1914.

And a bit of Little Country Theatre history remains on campus.

Plays were first performed on the second floor of Old Main, in a space that once was the campus chapel.

The original stage area was long ago converted to offices. But on the next floor up, the Lincoln Log Cabin still can be seen. A.G. Arvold, the first head of NDSU theater, got logs from Itasca State Park in Minnesota and lined the interior of that space, using it for a technical shop and a place to entertain performers and audience members after productions. It hosted such famous names as Marian Anderson and Agnes Moorehead.

Arvold even started a lending library of play and pageant scripts, which were made available to people in the surrounding area. He staged a number of outdoor pageants both on campus and at what now is El Zagal Golf Course.

After years of productions at Old Main and Festival Hall, Little Country Theatre moved to Askanase Auditorium in 1968. That building, the first public one in the state built mostly with private money, was spearheaded by Fred Walsh, a power in NDSU theater for nearly a quarter century. Among his other accomplishments, Walsh established the Burning Hills Amphitheatre at Medora, N.D., and took NDSU students there to perform during the summer in a play he wrote about Teddy Roosevelt, "Old Four Eyes." He also created Prairie Stage, a traveling show that toured the state from 1971-76. Don Larew, Little Country Theatre’s current artistic director, who has been with NDSU for 30 years, says the aims of the school’s theater department really have not changed over the years.

North Dakota State University's Little Country Theater offered "Peer Gynt" in 1976. Courtesy of Little Country Theater

"The philosophy is truly educational theater, works that educate our students both as actors and technicians, as well as our student body," he says.

Little Country Theatre now does three or four productions a year.

FMCT 53 years old

The lack of theater opportunities in the area, NDSU student Bev Halbeisen and teacher June Dobervich called a meeting in 1946 about starting a community theater. Within four months, the Fargo-Moorhead Community Theatre was staging its first production, "My Sister Eileen." It was a time when Fargo was more of a small town and local residents rallied around the new theater. Even the rehearsals were open to the public. The first production was presented in Moorhead Junior High. Through the years, the company performed in schools, colleges, churches and the Red River Playhouse, a former vaudeville theater. They moved into their current home, the Emma K. Herbst Playhouse, at 333 4th S., Fargo, in 1967. Over the years, FMCT has often brought in guest directors - including one who would make a big splash in the movies just a few years later. During the 1963-64 season, Dustin Hoffman directed two plays at FMCT.

"My Sister Eileen" was the first production at the FMCT. Courtesy of FMCT

Fargo native Peter Schickele, now famous as a composer and musical satirist, acted at FMCT.

FMCT has branched into community outreach programs, including the Prairie Theater Academy and the Silver Follies, an annual production showcasing local senior citizens.

The Babe plays Fargo

The oldest venue for live theater in Fargo-Moorhead still in operation today is the Fargo Theatre, which opened in March 1926.

A combination movie/vaude-
ville house, The Fargo was a stop on the regular vaudeville circuit through the 1920s. Babe Ruth was the headliner in November 1926, appearing in uniform and hitting a ball that hung from a wire on a string. Silent screen cowboy Tom Mix appeared with his horse, Tony.

Vaudeville faded in the late 1920s and early 1930s. But in the 1940s, live shows returned to the Fargo as it became a stop for touring theatrical companies. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne played the Fargo and Boris Karloff appeared with the original New York cast of "Arsenic and Old Lace" in 1943.

In the 1950s, the theater was remodeled for use primarily as a movie house. But in the 1980s, community arts organizations hosted concerts, dance productions, operas and variety shows in the theater.

In the 1990s, the Fargo has seen a resurgence of national touring shows. It also has become a popular venue for smaller concerts by performers like Arlo Guthrie, Judy Collins, Bobby Vee and Taj Mahal.

High school programs

Two of Fargo-Moorhead’s more popular theater experiences are summer programs aimed at high school students.

The older of the two is Fargo’s Trollwood Performing Arts School, part of the Fargo School District.

Since 1978, more than 5,900 students have spent summers learning theater at TPAS. The program is located in north Fargo’s Trollwood Park.

In 1989, Trollwood started its IMAGINE program, a cultural exchange that has brought young people to Fargo from Russia, China, Hungary, South Africa and Australia.

On the other side of the river, the Gooseberry Park Players approach theater from a more recreational angle.

Run by Moorhead Parks and Recreation, the program started in 1983 in Gooseberry Park. When that area of the park flooded six years ago, the plays moved to Frances Frazier Comstock Theater on the Concordia College campus, where they remain.

The program provides a recreational theater experience, rather than professional training in acting and technical theater like Trollwood.

About 70 students a year participate in the Gooseberry Park Players, half of those in acting and the others in technical areas.