Creators

Roger Cornish, lyricist
Roger was teaching playwriting in the Theatre Department at Penn State when he joined the writing team for the Wagon Train Show. During the Bicentennial he also wrote a full-length play/review entitled Unruly Children which was produced in the Pavilion Theatre, co-directed by Roger and Doug Cook. Roger went on to have a very distinguished teaching career at Rutgers University and was very active in various theatres in the Philadelphia area. Roger Cornish's thirty-five produced and/or published plays include Open Twenty-four Hours (Actors Playhouse, New York); This Way to the Rose Garden, a musical with Don Tucker (Alliance Theatre, Atlanta); Fat Men on Thin Ice, developed at the National Playwrights Conference; and the widely produced. A Class "C" Trial in Yokohama. Off-Shore Signals premiered at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company commissioned his Last American Hero, and his Slapton Sands was a National Archives World War II Playwriting Competition Winner. With his wife, Violet Ketels, he edited the anthologies Landmarks of Modern British Drama, The Seventies and The Eighties. He's written daytime drama, and was Head Writer for Pennsylvania's Wagon Train Show, which played 48 states during the Bicentennial. He was educated at the University of Connecticut, Catholic University, and the University of Minnesota. He co-edited an Actors Theatre of Louisville 10-minute play collection for the Spanish theatre journal, Art Teatral. The memory of Roger Cornish is honored by an award administered by the Brick Playhouse in Philadelphia. "The Roger Cornish Memorial Award for Outstanding Writing is given annually to a Philadelphia area playwright in honor of our friend and colleague, Roger Cornish. Roger was the former head of playwriting at Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts, and a Brick Playhouse Participating Playwright when he passed away July 27, 2000. His tempered guidance and benevolent critical appraisals contributed greatly to the development of literally hundreds of area writers."

Bruce Trinkley, composer
Bruce Trinkley is Professor Emeritus of Music at The Pennsylvania State University, where he taught composition, orchestration and opera literature in the School of Music, and conducted the Penn State Glee Club in more than 700 concerts over 35 years. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in composition from Columbia University, where he studied with Otto Luening and Jack Beeson and conducted the Columbia University Glee Club. His first musical, The Bawd’s Opera, with book and lyrics by Michael Feingold, won the BMI National Varsity Show Award for the best original student musical in the United States. Other shows with Feingold included The Pill, Little Do We Care for Riches, and The Red Shoes. With John Litvack, Trinkley wrote Feathertop, another Columbia Varsity Show production. Trinkley began teaching at Penn State in 1970 and was music director for Centre Stage until 1995. The composer of incidental music, songs and choruses for over twenty theatre and dance productions, Trinkley has also written extensively for choral ensembles. Mountain Laurels, a choral symphony based on texts by central Pennsylvania poets, was performed to celebrate the centenary of State College, Pennsylvania, and involved nearly 1000 singers and instrumentalists. Recent works include Santa Rosalia, a cantata inspired by paintings of the Colombian artist, Fernando Botero, which was filmed for PBS presentation; Cold Mountain, Seven Shih for piano trio, based on poems by the Tang Dynasty poet Han-shan, commissioned for the Castalia Trio’s concert tour to China in 1998; and One Life: The Rachel Carson Project, a cantata for women’s voices about the life of the founder of the environmental movement. He has twice won the National Opera Association’s Chamber Opera Competition: for Eve’s Odds in 1997 and Cleo in 1999. York: The Voice of Freedom, a full-length opera based on the life of the only African-American on the Lewis and Clark expedition, was premiered at Penn State in November 2002 and has been seen on PBS stations around the country. The Prairie Dog That Met the President, an opera for young people, is based on a true incident from the Lewis and Clark expedition and was given its Pennsylvania premiere by the Penn State Opera Theatre in March 2005. His most recent works include another children’s opera, Chicken Little, and a monodrama for soprano, The Winchester Widow. He has just been commissioned to write a new piece for the Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra for the opening of the State Theatre in State College. Trinkley’s choral works are published by Oxford University Press, Augsburg Fortress, Lawson-Gould, Alfred Music, GIA, Hinshaw, Alliance, Carl Fischer, G. Schirmer, and Yelton Rhodes Music.

$Don Tucker, composer and lyricist Don Tucker was invited to join the Wagon Train Show writing team because of his extensive experience writing both music and lyrics for the professional stage. He is probably best-known for Red, White, and Maddox, a satirical musical review that played at the Cort Theatre in 1969. Don was writer, lyricist, composer and director for the production. He wrote and directed Merry Go Round, a full-length review which demonstrated his brilliant comedy writing. Merry Go Round premiered in 1976 at the Sea Ranch Dinner Theatre in South Florida and won one of the first Carbonell Awards for best new work. Merry Go Round played successfully for nine months in Chicago, and a second company for ten months in Las Vegas. Merry Go Round received brilliant critical acclaim and was the recipient of the Florida Critic's Award as Best New Musical. During the nine month run in Chicago, Merry Go Round was also nominated for the Joseph Jefferson Award as Best Musical. By popular demand, another company of Merry Go Round played Fort Lauderdale. The Good News website describes Merry Go Round as “an adroit, delightfully engaging, and cleverly devised parcel of thirty songs which creates a fresh form of musical theatre. It is similar in basic concept to "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and living in Paris." However, its added ingredients propagate style and aura which surpass "Brel" making it unique and creatively more effectual. It is two hours worth of Composer/Lyricist Don Tucker's satiric comedy in song. There's something for everyone and about everyone! An ingenious parody of torch songs in "fractured Francais," turning thirty, charity balls, wishful ballads about first love, and biting commentaries on Americana. It is today!” Merry Go Round was revived in June 2005 as a benefit for American Cancer Society's Bronx Relay for Life. Staged by Robert Scott Lucas with musical direction by Tony Award Nominee, Larry Hochman of Spamalot, it played at Pianos on Ludlow Street in New York City. Don Tucker’s work lives on.$

Manuel Duque, director
Professor Emeritus of Theatre Arts Manuel Duque taught undergraduate and graduate acting classes in the School of Theatre at Penn State from 1970 to 1981 and again from 1989 to 1996. In the interim and after retirement, he taught at the Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory for Professional Actor Training in Sarasota, Florida. In addition to the Wagon Train Show, his PSU directing credits include Hedda Gabler, The House of Bernarda Alba, The Balcony, The Inmates of the Convent of St. Mary Egyptian, Children's Hour and Blood Wedding. Currently he is working on his second dance/drama project for the Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana company based in New York. Preparation for this production took him to Madrid in January to collaborate with the choreographer, composer and dancers from Spain. Manuel and his wife Gale are living in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, with their Bichon Frisé therapy dog, Milo, who is a hospice volunteer along with them.

Montez King, costume designer
 As costume shop supervisor for the Pennsylvania State University School of Theatre, Montez was in charge of construction for all URTC productions. She was the costumer for Pennsylvania Center Stage and designed costumes for many URTC and Center Stage Productions. Montez retired after 29 Years at Penn State, and along with her husband, Hagan, resides in State College and Emerald Isle, North Carolina. (Note from the webmaster: Just as Del Boarts kept the Theatre Department shows running smoothly backstage, Montez was responsible for what everyone wore onstage - and they always looked fabulous!)

Douglas Maddox, designer
A member of the faculty of the Theatre Department, Doug and his wife Carol took early retirement from Penn State in 1989. They both taught at the University of Missouri for four years before returning to Penn State and living in McAlevy’s Fort where Doug opened Home Images, an architectural design firm. They are now at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. “Some of my best stories at dinner parties are based on Wagon Train experiences.”

Del and Vonny Boarts, technicians  Del Boarts worked as the Penn State Department of Theatre Arts technician and sound person from 1964 until his retirement in 2000. In 1975 he designed the sound systems for the five Bicentennial Wagon Trains Show troupes. Del visited all five Wagon Train companies to trouble shoot the sound systems. Del worked with the Secret Service at Valley Forge to prepare for the July 4th arrival of the five trains and the visit of President Gerald Ford. Del’s wife Vonny also worked in TAPS (Theatre Arts Production Studio) scene shop helping to build the sets and sound systems. Vonny went out with four Wagon Train Show companies to get them started and make sure the sets and equipment were working properly. Vonny stage managed and traveled with Company #1 on the Ohio River from the state of Indiana to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and then overland to Valley Forge. Both Del and Vonny spent most of the summer at the Valley Forge Encampment assisting with the daily Wagon Train Show performances and local and state entertainment groups.  (Note from the webmaster) Del was the indispensable master of all things technical in the School of Theatre for many decades. He is now the audio, photo, and video archivist for The Wagon Train Show. He and Vonny live in State College.

Douglas Cook, producer
Before coming to Penn State as Head of the Department of Theatre and Film and Producer of the summer Festival Theatre, Doug was Chairman of the Theatre Department at the University of California, Riverside, and Associate Producer of the Utah Shakespearean Festival.  Soon after arriving at Penn State, Doug was approached by a state committee planning the Bicentennial Celebration in 1976 at Valley Forge, asking if we could prepare an entertainment production for each wagon train traveling to Valley Forge from various places in the  country. The brave team from Theatre and Music said, "Yes!" and the rest is history.  Since retiring from Penn State in 1991, Doug returned to work with the Utah Shakespearean Festival as Producing Artistic Director. In 2000, the theatre was awarded the Tony for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Doug and his wife Joan retired recently to his family home in Phoenix, Arizona.

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