Friend dies

This morning's paper carried the obit of a long time friend and sometime collegue. Hall Diteman was a consummate artist and play director. He was largely responsible for the Billings Studio Theatre building which is on the Rocky Mountain College campus. Years before that building we did plays on the stage at Rocky and then at an abandoned Church near downtown Billings. I remember one play in which I was cast, and the Director chickened out. Hall took over mid-rehearsal. After 2 or 3 nights he asked me to shave my beard, It didn't look right to him. I dropped out. It wasn't that great a play or part. Later when another Director asked me to shave I did it gladly. That was for a major role in The Crucible. After all I'd lived through the McCarthy era.

When the new Theatre was to open I enjoined Hall to let me have at least a walk-on in this historic opening. I was often on the road recruiting for the College and could not be at regular rehearsals. The play was Man of LaMancha. I was cast as the soldier who brought the prisoner down the steps to his cell, and at the end of the play came back down and escorted him out. It wasn't much, but to me it was historic, and I have always been grateful to Hall for his thoughtfulness in this situation. I had better parts in many plays, but this memory will always be with me. May he rest in peace.