Allen Lyndrup Obituary

Allen Lyndrup was an inspiring teacher, a knowledgeable, hard-working lighting and scenic design practitioner, a strong director and a good guy. He was also a dear friend, which I want to write about.

I originally met Allen when Department Head Don McConkey introduced him as someone he had just signed up for the new theatre program, despite previously promising me I could do the hiring. Don told I wouldn´t be sorry. I wasn´t sure at first what to make of this big, goofy, always smiling guy except that he had been raised an hour from where I grew up and could hit a softball farther than anyone I´d ever seen. But when the first mainstage show he directed, Williams´ Summer and Smoke, was good, really good I relaxed and in our second year together, when he designed a magical living room set for the Albee A Delicate Balance I directed, saying he had gotten the concept from a house on Ott Street he´d never been in, I was hooked.

No one could stop Allen the force, least of all me. He was good at everything; he was popular with students and colleagues -- and he was the only theatre faculty person who would go to the Daily News Record with projects he hadn´t discussed with the rest of us. But his smiling apologies for this kind of thing were always winning.

Allen, Pam, Tom, Roger, and Phil worked so hard choosing, designing, and building plays, in addition to the weekly production/evaluation meetings of mainstage and Experimental Theatre work, and soon the directing, designing and teching of the new Dinner Theatre. Much of this depended on Allen´s enthusiastic brilliance. (I still think his Dinner Theatre shows with Debbie Laumand and Andy Leech frolicking around the stage were the best we did.)

I loved being with Allen at JMU and came to adore the entire Lyndrup family. When they left in 1991, I felt things at JMU would never be the same for me. But somehow Allen and I became even closer after he left. The Lyndrups visited us in Canada and Harrisonburg. We visited them in Charleston where I saw fine productions for which (surprise, surprise) he did everything as department head, teacher, designer, director, musical eminence gris.

So, to Allen, your artistry, joy in living and friendship remains with me. I will never forget you. None of us will.

Tom Arthur

I met Allen at the beginning of the Fall 1973 semester at James Madison College (now University) in Harrisonburg, VA. It was my freshman year. It was also Allen´s first year at Madison, and I believe his first year as an instructor anywhere. At Madison, I was part of a work-study program, which made Allen my manager.
Like most young adults entering the theatre, I wanted to be on the stage. I quickly found out that I did not possess the skills in this area that many of my peers did. Through my work-study program and the mentorship of Allen, I discovered that theatrical design and production were every bit as rewarding.
Allen was a brilliant stage designer. Through his mentorship, I learned how to read a script and understand both the physical needs and the aesthetic of the work and how the two could be brought together. He set me down the path of lighting design, which I was most attracted to. Through my work with Allen, I gained the experience and trust to light mainstage shows. In my senior year, I was able to do sets and lights for a mainstage show. Finally, I was allowed to direct a studio show in the experimental space.
In addition to the aesthetics of theatre, Allen imparted that theatre is a collaborative venture, and successful production requires discipline. You must show up on time. You must work with the rest of the cast and crew. These are values that have served me well in my theatre and post-theatre careers. Additionally, the life skills (carpentry, electrical, plumbing, painting, etc.) that I also learned through my work-study program with Allen have served me well during my life and have saved me thousands of dollars!
Allen was the only "Renaissance man" that I have ever met and had the pleasure to know, accomplished in all facets of theatrical design, production, direction, acting coach, and more. I have read that his creative work at the College of Charleston included all of this, plus writing a musical and an operatic tribute to Mozart. He knew no creative limits. I will always remember him for everything he imparted to me: his friendly, honest approach to teaching; his ear-to-ear grin when he was amused; his ability to tell a joke well; the cast parties at Allen and Anne´s home, with Allen at the piano, playing songs that we could all sing along to; and his devotion to family, friends, his students, and his craft.

Allen, you have accomplished so much and touched so many lives. You may no longer be with us, but the memory of you will live on in literally the thousands of us who have had the honor to know you.

Rest in Peace, my dear friend.

Bill Bartlett, JMU class of 1977

My name is Bonnie Tholen Mayo. I met Alan long before knowing each other at school because we both went to St. John's Lutheran Church in Danforth, Illinois. We also were in the same confirmation class. So by the time we got to high school, we were acquainted. I remember him as always being so kind to everyone.

For the first few years at Madison, the theatre was understaffed. We all had to do double and triple duty. Allen and I took turns designing and supervising the shop. One semester Allen would direct while I designed scenery and ran the shop. The other semester I would direct while Allen designed and ran the shop. When I started at Madison, Allen had already been around for a year and had begun to know the ropes. The first time I worked in the scene shop, I soon noticed that we needed but did not have a ladder. I asked Allen about it and he beckoned and said, "Come with me." We walked down Grace Street to where Madison had a paint shop near the railroad tracks. We went in the shop and Allen exchanged a few words with the painters with the result that we had the loan of a ladder. I took one end of the ladder and Allen took other and we walked up the hill to Duke. We now had a borrowed ladder for the scene shop. Later we had lots of our own ladders and a truck to haul them with.
Allen had an uncanny ability to accurately judge space without the benefit of tools. It was as if some gnome in the forest had given him special powers. He could look, for example, at a gap in the crown molding at the top of a box set and tell you almost exactly how big a piece was needed to fill it without measuring it.
It often seemed that all of us sometimes had to find ways to do theatre in spite of anything Madison and JMU could do to stop us. One weekend the administration decided to shut off the power to Duke in order to get some repairs made. Since there are no classes on the weekend, the powers that be thought that this should not be a problem. Of course, the weekend was when we got our work done--especially when the Music Department occupied the theatre for many hours of the day during the week. On that weekend, Allen rented a generator so that work on the set continued through the weekend. The university took the weekend off; Allen knew that the theatre did not.
What I remember most of Allen´s tenure at Madison was the scenery for Rhinoceros. Each act was set in a different painting style-Impressionist, Cubist, etc. I still have the plywood cubist clock which he handed me during the Rhinoceros strike. In one scene, Allen decided to have Berenger be in the middle of repainting his apartment. This is not in the script. It was Allen´s idea. Allen had cans of paint and brushes sitting around and the walls were partly painted in the style of the Douanier Rousseau´s jungle paintings-palm trees, giant ferns, monkeys, tigers--which were inspired by Rousseau´s visits to the Jardin des Plantes with its menagerie of exotic animals and its hothouse tropical plant display. Berenger´s walls were partly covered with a rather alarming jungle inhabited by dangerous animals.
And, of course, there was the touch of ancient Greek theatre in Guys and Dolls: scene changes accomplished with periaktoi. Broadway wise guys and Hellenistic theatre machinery.