FVCC's popular theater program was a showstopper from the beginning
RON DANKO, who founded the theater program at FVCC in 1969, is still active in theater today at age 81 in Medford, Oregon. (Courtesy Ron Danko)
TROY EVANS grew up in Kalispell, was class president at Flathead High School, then went to Vietnam in the late 1960s. When he returned he bumped into Ron Danko of FVCC, who cast him as Oscar in “The Odd Couple.” After his start at FVCC, Evans went on to a decades-long career in Hollywood, where he has appeared in 60 movies.
TROY EVANS is seen at the top of this cast photo for the Silver Ripple Players, one of the many configurations under which the early drama program at FVCC presented plays.
TROY EVANS, holding unicycle is seen with the traveling tour of the cast and crew of his first play at FVCC — "The Odd Couple." Kneeling beneath the man lying down at right is director Ron Danko, founder of FVCC's theater program.
JILL EVANS, seen her ein a 2010 file photo, was one of the performers in the FVCC theater program in the 1970s, along with her brother Troy. Her daughters both participated in the program years later.
Flathead Valley Community College’s student newspaper painted Ron Danko as a bit of a hippie when he arrived at the college in the fall of 1969 to head the new theater program.
The student reporter told how Danko had left Southern California because he decided to “’drop out’ of the establishment, ‘tune in’ to the unknown and ‘blow his mind’ on the challenges that a new college will be offering for those who have had a ‘bad trip’ like Southern California.”
Danko was no beatnik of the ’60s, though. He and his wife Therese arrived in the Flathead with their four young children and he worked tirelessly to create a theater program that became the talk of the town.
This much was true from that early article in the Mnemosyne (which was published in the Inter Lake): “I wasn’t a fan of Southern California,” Danko recalled with a laugh.
At 81, he’s still going strong directing the Madrone Theatre Co. at Rogue Community College in Medford, Oregon. He retired from teaching in December.
Being able to create a community college theater program from the ground up was a heady task for a guy who had first tried his hand at acting in Hollywood and then moved on to teaching at a private school for girls.
“It was exciting. I could see the potential,” he recalled. “The college was one year old and the president at the time was very positive about having a theater program. People were starving for theater in the area.”
A 150-seat theater was created in the second-floor ballroom of the Elks Building and named Theatre 51. The first play was “The House of Bernarda Alba,” which received a modest review by the Mnemosyne. The reviewer declared the play was “well-attended and generally well liked,” but questioned whether the use of Spanish dialects was effective.
There was community support for the fledgling drama program from the get-go.
“We did all kinds of plays. The town got behind it,” Danko said. “That first year was incredible … the times were very busy. I was the only paid person; very exciting times.”
Hollywood actor Troy Evans remembers those early days of FVCC’s theater programs and how he rather inadvertently got drawn in.
“I was home from Vietnam, wandering around Kalispell as a confused knucklehead,” Evans recalled. “I was on the street one afternoon and there was Ron Danko with a blue and white seersucker suit, with a bow tie and a beret. He said ‘Hey, buddy, I want to talk to you.’”
Danko was scoping out talent for his upcoming production of “The Odd Couple,” and needed someone to play the role of unkempt Oscar. He began regaling Evans with the benefits of the theater — “it’s booze and broads, it’s wonderful,” Evans recalls Danko saying.
At that point, though, Evans had no acting experience and told Danko as much.
“I already have an actor,” Danko told him. “Now I’m looking for a slob.”
Evans caught the acting bug playing the slovenly Oscar Madison.
“We had huge success with it,” Evans said. “We toured in Lethbridge and Fernie [in Canada]. It was quite an adventure.”
Evans, perhaps most well-known for his recurring role in the television series “ER,” enrolled in FVCC on the GI bill, and while he didn’t complete his degree, he has a lot of college credits in that arena. He acted in upwards of a dozen plays at FVCC, including one, “The Lower Depths,” in which his sister, Jill Evans of Whitefish, was cast as well. Troy played a gambler; Jill played a prostitute in the searing social drama by Russian playwright Maxim Gorky.
“Without FVCC there’s no conceivable way I would have become an actor,” he said. “That opened the door. I was at loose ends and it showed me where I belonged in the world.”
Evans moved to California in 1976 and at age 69 has had roles in 400 TV episodes and 60 movies. Right now he’s involved in an Amazon-produced show called “Boss,” in which he plays a cop called Barrel.
Though mostly retired, Evans also still performs in his traveling show, “Troy Evans’ Montana Tales & Other Bad Ass Business.”
Jill Evans, who is the director of the Stumptown Historical Society in Whitefish, said attending FVCC also changed her life.
“Professors told me I was smart, which I didn’t know,” she said. “I don’t know if any of us [Evans siblings] would’ve gone to college without FVCC.”
Jill earned her associate degree at FVCC before completing a liberal arts degree at the University of Montana. Her daughters also are FVCC graduates. Daughter Jess E. Owen earned an associate of arts degree with an emphasis in theater in 2000.
Now a successful author of young-adult fantasy novels, Jess said the theater experience “gives you a versatile set of skills.
“You learn specific things, communicating ideas, compromising to fit the director’s vision, learning to bring something to the table as well as following directions,” she reflected. “Everyone is bringing something of equal value to the table. It’s really a special art form.”
Jess’ FVCC theater experience led her to the University of Montana, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in technical theater with an emphasis in stage management. She worked in the theater industry for seven years before turning to writing full-time.
Jill’s other daughter, Jennifer E. Owen, also was cast in a play during her time at FVCC, keeping the family tradition going.
An early milestone for FVCC’s theater program was a 13-day Shakespeare festival — the first of its kind in Montana — that was billed as the largest single dramatic effort ever produced in the Flathead. The mega event featured three Shakespeare plays in 14 performances, a special lecture on The Bard, street carnivals, a massive period party, folk singing, madrigal singers and minstrels.
There was a Shakespeare village set up in the downstairs of the Elks Building. It was the feast, though, that was perhaps the most memorable part of the Shakespeare immersion.
“It was a very authentic feast where we had a roasted pig,” Danko reminisced. “We found an old inn outside of Libby that had a fireplace at each end and no heat or electricity. We built big fires, brought in tables. The art department made all the mugs … we brought hunting knives [with which] to eat.”
In the early morning hours of that raucous evening, the Highway Patrol showed up, having gotten word of the rural revelry, and escorted the whole lot of them, a caravan of about 80 vehicles, back to Kalispell because of the black ice on U.S. 2.
The Shakespeare festival continued for another couple of years, though it’s likely the inaugural event was by far the most memorable for Flathead folks.
After getting the FVCC theater program solidly on its feet, Danko left, lured back to California to establish community theater programs in Monterey and Salinas.
“They hired me partly because of the FVCC success. We built quite a program,” he said about his years in California.
Last fall Danko directed “Spoon River Anthology” at the Rogue Community College theater, a production he first directed at FVCC in the early 1970s. He took “Spoon River” on tour to various Montana universities.
Danko also reinvented his Shakespeare festival in Monterey and Salinas, California, more evidence that the success he built at FVCC was well worth replicating.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.