Edgar R. Loessin . . . In pursuit of professionalism

Biographical sketch of Ed Loessin and summer theatre. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.

The citation for this article is: "Edgar R. Loessin . . . In pursuit of professionalism," Pieces of Eight, July 1, 1984.

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Last month Messick Theatre Arts Center was the scene of the liveliest action on campus, as 100 cast and crew members began work on the East Carolina Summer Theatre's 1984 season. In charge of all this activity -- singing, dancing, painting, sawing and stitching -- is the company's producer, Edgar Loessin, who after more than three decades in professional theater, still feels a nervous thrill on opening night.

During the academic year, Loessin wears other hats -- those of chairman of ECU's Department of Theatre Arts (formerly known as the Department of Drama and Speech) and producer of the East Carolina Playhouse, the department's performance wing which stages student productions. It's a hectic life, requiring an enormous amount of energy as well as ability. Fortunately for eastern North Carolina audiences and ECU drama students, Ed Loessin is blessed with an abundance of both.

His personal accomplishments and the achievements of East Carolina's theater program under his leadership may be largely due to his insistence that everybody concerned give his or her very best efforts.

"You don't make excuses for where you are," he tells his faculty and students. "You try to go to the top. Of course, there are limitations, but never say, 'Oh well, these are just students, so they can't do much,' or 'This local audience won't know any better.'

"Even if a show is a sell-out, with rave reviews, there's always more that could be done with it. Whether the production is at Kennedy Center or in Pitt County, we must not become complacent."

Involvement with Drama

Edgar Loessin's dedication to the theater began during his boyhood in Texas, where his first theatrical experiences were acting in a children's musical about pirates and seeing all the traveling "medicine shows" that came to town. While still a lad he saw Helen Hayes and Raymond Massey perform at the Houston Music Hall and worked backstage in many Houston area dramatic productions.

Later, as his involvement with the stage grew, he abandoned an earlier ambition for a "secure" career as a petroleum engineer to study drama instead. This led him to UNC Chapel Hill where he was awarded the Kay Kyser Scholarship in Drama and to the Yale Drama School.

Then followed a series of professional engagements as stage manager and director of outdoor dramas, summer stock productions, cabaret shows and off-Broadway theater. Even during his Army service, Loessin remained involved with the stage, as a part-time instructor at a Baltimore theater school.

He came to East Carolina from New York in 1962, at the urging of then President Leo Jenkins, who wanted someone to establish a separate drama program and professional summer theater on campus. Whether or not to accept this offer required some very serious thought. On one hand, Loessin loved working on Broadway and had just concluded important engagements as production stage manager for Gypsy and for a Carol Channing musical, Show Girl. However, the chance to teach, establish a new department and direct his own choice of serious plays as well as musicals proved enough of a temptation to lure him to Greenville.

From the start, Loessin's drama program here stressed practical preparation for theater careers.

"The pursuit of professionalism should be the goal in teaching students who want to work in theater, whether they're going on to Broadway or need to learn how to direct high school plays," he said. "W must push and fight to get the students to go as far as they can." His early Playhouse productions were ambitious in scope, challenging the students' capabilities. Among these were major musicals -- Once Upon a Mattress and West Side Story, Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, and with the music school, the premiere production of Carlisle Floyd's opera, The Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair, with New York City Opera conductor Julius Rudel as music director.

Loessin's first Summer Theatre ventures were both artistic and economic risks, with much ventured and much gained. The 1964 initial season resulted in a little financial profit for the company, recognition for the campus, and increased enrollment in the East Carolina drama program.

Since then, plays of nearly every type of drama in the western tradition have been performed at ECU, most of them directed by Ed Loessin, and many of them musical comedies. However, contrary to what many local theater fans might suspect, Loessin does not necessarily prefer musicals to other theatrical forms.

"Musicals are an important part of our commercial theater; they are a medium through which things can be accomplished that are not possible in straight theater," he explained. "In the hands of a good composer and librettist, musicals are great theater." He does like to use the large casts most musicals call for, enabling many students to take part, and refuses to produce "diluted" versions of Broadway musical comedies for Summer Theatre.

Past Highlights

Loessin's productions are lavish in scale, comparable to their New York counterparts, with elaborate sets and costumes, complex choreography and full orchestra. Performers are hired in auditions held throughout the eastern United States. "When we began, nobody else in North Carolina was doing musicals on this scale; nobody is doing them now," he says proudly.

Over the years, there have been numerous dramatic achievements at East Carolina. Loessin looks back with special pride on new works he premiered here, in particular the Martin Mailman opera Moby Dick -- Rehearsed and two Romulus Linney plays, The Sorrows of Frederick (an episodic drama about the life of Frederick the Great) and Holy Ghosts (a play about a Southern snake-handling religious cult). "Sometimes it's tempting to repeat a really good production, but maybe they're best left to memory," he said.

Also noteworthy have been engagements of professional stage and television actors who have come to East Carolina to work with ECU students as guest artists, among them noted character actor Sidney Blackmer and stage actor Kevin Kline, who has since starred in the films Sophie's Choice and The Big Chill.

One of these visiting professionals came in 1967 and has never left; Loessin married actress Amanda Meiggs a week after he directed her in the title role of Racine's Phaedra. She has become an important part of ECU's drama team, as teacher, promoter and perfomer.

A cherished goal was achieved just two years ago, when extensive renovations were completed in the drama building, making it a first-class theater arts center with some of the finest stage, studio and shop facilities in the south. The renovation was celebrated at a gala formal opening and a Playhouse production of Show Boat, which drew former drama students from as far away as New York and California.

Future Developments

Now that his department has grown to include a faculty of 20, Loessin no longer directs a dozen plays a year. "Having other faculty to direct gives me a breather," he said. At least two of next year's Playhouse productions will be directed by other members of the faculty, and two of this summer's productions will be guest directed by a director from New York.

With the growth of the department has come the development of new degree offerings, such as the major program in dance and a professional training program in acting, designed to prepare students for all phases of an acting career.

The minimal leisure time Loessin permits himself is usually spent with Amanda at their Kitty Hawk cottage. Trips out of town usually wind up as "busman's holidays" -- seeing new plays or auditioning actors for the Summer Theatre. This year, Loessin auditioned some 1,200 performers, including 80 local children trying out for roles in Annie, the 1984 Summer Theatre opener.