You used to see this couple in local television commercials, plays and in movies shot in Utah. Lately, they've cut back on their acting and retired from teaching drama at the University of Utah. Still, Dorothy and Bob Antrim won't let go of their favorite theater work - Salt Lake Community Theatre.
"We have so much freedom here," says Bob."Community theater's like our child," says Dorothy, "We've been with it for so long."
Twenty-one years ago, with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Antrims started community theater at three schools in the Salt Lake District. Two groups were for young people, one for adults. The classes evolved through imiprovisations and readings to the time when students asked to put on plays. The teachers became directors.
Actually, "directing" may be too strong a word for what goes on in the Antrims' community groups.
Bob Antrim says "director" implies dictatorial. Their style is not to "force people into a mold," but rather to work with actors as equals.
Many of those who show up for the free classes are complete beginners, who wouldn't have a prayer of getting a part in a school play, let alone with a professional company. Others have acted before, with the Antrims or even professionally.
"If they stay with us, they'll get a part," says Dorothy Antrim. "We stress this: `You'll get the part best fitted for you.' Some people don't realize they aren't ready for big parts, so they might quit." Those who stay find themselves performing within months.
At the first class session, students read aloud from their seats. Later they stand to read parts - and add gestures. As they begin to move about, Antrim says, he looks for ways to extend the actions and inflections that each person chooses naturally. If one actor starts to move towards another in excitement, Antrim might suggest he walk all the way across the room to confront the other.
After six or eight class meetings, the group is ready to select its own play. And Dorothy Antrim is ready to begin the casting.
Each play is a natural outgrowth of the group's size and interests. "Once we had eight women and one man, so we did `Quilters,' and the man, Sean Thomas, was our stage director," she says.
Other plays recently put on by the Salt Lake Community Theatre include "Greater Tuna," "Dark of the Moon" and a group of one-act plays.
Bob Antrim designs the sets, using props the actors bring in themselves. Actors also do their own makeup - and often provide their own costumes. Such involvement helps them develop their characters, says Dorothy Antrim.
The couple estimate they've worked with several thousand aspiring actors - children and adults - over the past two decades. These days they have a young people's theater group at Hillside Intermediate and an adult group at Bryant Intermediate School. Salt Lake District sponsors both groups.
Dorothy Antrim began acting in elementary school in Fort Collins, Colo. "It was a small school. My sister and I were usually the whole show. We sang, played the piano, did readings."
Bob Antrim, who was born in Kansas, found his calling a bit later. He went into the Navy and joined a touring company on Cape Cod.
The couple met and married 25 years ago in Colorado, where they taught. They came to Salt Lake City so Bob could get a doctorate at the U.
They couldn't pull off the Salt Lake Community Theatre without each other, they say. When she's busy with publicity, he directs. If he's setting up the lights, she directs. When they disagree about some aspect of a play, they hassle out their differences at home. But they don't hassle much. They say their vision of theater is remarkably attuned.
They'll begin another adult group at Byrant Intermediate School, 40 S. 800 East, at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 27 - with a production in April. There's no charge for the Antrims' class, nor do they charge admission for the plays.
"It's true community theater," she says. He says, "It's the most rewarding thing we do." "People blossom," she adds.