Perhaps because the summer review includes an "in memoriam" section on Montana poets, I've been thinking about the playwright I studied under at the University of Oregon, who also was from Missoula, Montana, Dean Regenos. Dean was a recent MFA from the University of Pittsburgh, and I was a returning vet, so he wasn't all that older than I. He was a theater man, not a literature man, which may be why the English Department didn't give him tenure. He ended up working at the public library in his home town, unable to find another teaching job. But he was a hell of a teacher and exactly what a lit guy like myself needed. He was a nuts & bolts theater guy, perfect for a virgin playwright.
He also weighed over 300 lbs. One term our class was on the 4th floor of an historic building on campus that had no elevator. Man, it was a question of whether he was going to recover in time to hold a class. He finally started coming half an hour early so he'd catch his breath before the bell rang.
Dean directed the first play I ever had produced, a one-act, and I learned so much from him. My second mentor, Leland Starnes (former head of the Yale Drama School), would come in a few years, and between the two of them I got my education in playwriting.
Dean died in the 80s, I believe. I kept in contact with him for a while. He always sounded so depressed after he returned home, probably feeling like his tail was between his legs. He was a fine teacher. He also was a decent playwright. I especially remember a verse play about his father called "Shadow of a Great Rock."
(I just did a search for this title: over 7000 entries. How nice if one were his script, but I very much doubt it. He died before desktop computers became common.)
Dean Regenos was good people. I miss him.
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3 comments:
I had a Drama professor at Guilford College with this name...a very large and wonderful man...he was there in the 70's...could this be the same man? He is most definitely good people...the best.
onerainywish1973@yahoo.com
In April of 1968 I was the production stage manager for "Reade," a play by Dean. I was an undergrad in the drama program at Syracuse University and he was a Shubert Fellow, playwright in residence. He was a very generous, intense fellow. I don't think he liked being "East" -- he always talked about real life in the "West." He was good people for sure.
I knew Dean,& his wife Connie when he was attending Syracuse. They were "house parents" at an unofficial student apartment complex in Auburn, N.Y. where I was attending community college. He regaled me with stories of the "real" West and his experiences as an adopted member of the Blackfoot tribe. He was one of the reasons I became a theater major, & one of the reasons I traveled west after college. I cherish the memories of sharing home-cooked meals & bottles of jug wine, admiring his Blackfoot regalia & discussions of the state of American theater at the time. He was a big man, both in stature knowledge and sharing. I'm sorry to hear of his passing, but shall always remember how he made me a fuller, better person from knowing him.
Joe Fort
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