The extensive and diversified career of Vern Adix can be summed up in two words:
Longevity and versatility.In nearly 40 years at the University of Utah, until his retirement in 1982, he designed nearly 300 productions (everything from plays and musicals to operas and ballets), directed some 50 plays for children's audiences, adapted and produced a dozen other children's plays, published six textbooks and acted in 18 plays and three films.
He also taught at the U., starting as a teaching assistant in 1943 and became a professor in 1964.
In formal acknowledgment of his remarkable accomplishments in theater, puppetry and education, Adix will be inducted into the Utah State Theatre Hall of Fame in the Pioneer Memorial Theatre building on the U. campus at noon on Thursday, May 26.
Adix is credited with developing the U.'s award-winning Young People's Theatre program and the Afternoon Players.
From 1943 until the 1962-63 season, Adix supervised the design, execution and staging of all University Theatre productions. Until 1968, Adix shared these duties with Ariel Ballif, who died last month of a heart attack.
Some of the popular "Summer Festival" productions in the U. stadium he designed included "Carmen" and "Aida" (each twice), "South Pacific," "Kismet" and more than 30 other Broadway musicals, operettas and operas.
Thousands of Utah children enjoyed his productions of such shows as "The House at Pooh Corner," "Who Wants Wings?" and "Treasure Island," as well as stage versions of several beloved fairy tales and children's classics.
The complete list of all of the productions Adix directed, designed, adapted or was otherwise involved in fills nearly five single-spaced pages.
The 129 major "mainstage" productions he designed range from such epics as "Antony and Cleopatra" and "War and Peace" to such comedies and dramas as "Guys and Dolls," "Private Lives," "Teahouse of the August Moon," "Witness for the Prosecution" and "Funny Girl."
He also performed in such productions as "George Washington Slept Here" and "The Royal Family."
When Adix retired in 1982, the late Keith Engar, writing a brief tribute in the playbill for a Pioneer Memorial Theatre production of "Damn Yankees" (which Adix had designed previously in 1858), said "he has set an example for all of us with his dedication, unselfish service and modest, unassuming manner. His output has been truly prodigious, and he is truly a theatre man for all seasons."
In a profile on Adix in the same playbill, writer Lesly Herbert said, "His bright, bubbling personality, white beard and twinkling blue eyes that exude a Santa-like warmth will be missed as a regular sight in the halls of Pioneer Memorial Theatre, but the delightful contributions of his creative imagination will always remain in the hearts of his co-workers and friends."
In a 1970 profile on Adix in the Deseret News, Engar was quoted as saying "A special breed of man is needed to direct children's theater productions. He must be kind; he must like children and they must like him."
Engar noted then that Adix "is one of the most kindly of men."
His popular "Creative Theater for Young People" classes during the 1970s stirred the imaginations of countless Utah youngsters. These classes got young actors involved in such activities as pantomiming taking imaginary things out of grandmother's trunk - with others in the class trying to guess what the items were.
His contribution to children's drama - a legacy spanning 30 years - can be seen today in the Theatre School for Youth, which is now part of the U.'s continuing education program.
The school's motto is "Building character on and off the stage," and Xan Johnson, who now directs the TSY, notes the slogan "not only reflects the school's purpose today, it recalls the philosophy of its founder."
Adix injected a variety of games into his children's classes, including the "mirror" game, in which pairs of children would face each other and attempt to mirror each other's actions, and "the machine game," where one child would mimic a moving piece of machinery and others following suit until the entire class seemed to fit together as a giant, single piece of noisemaking machinery.
Many of the children in the classes went on to perform in the Afternoon Players' productions - plays presented on weekday afternoons and Saturdays for young audiences.
When the late Howard Pearson, then entertainment editor for the Deseret News, asked Adix about changes in audiences over the years, he replied:
"They seem to be getting younger, or I'm getting older. . . . No, I have seen changes. I think youngsters are more blase now than they used to be. Television has shortened their attention span . . . sometimes they'll come late and they think they can see the show over again, like a movie."
Until Pioneer Memorial Theatre was constructed, most of Adix's productions were performed in Kingsbury Hall, which will shortly begin an extensive, $9.5 million renovation and expansion.
His office on the U. of U. campus was frequently filled with colorful monsters, dogs, princesses and witches - examples of some of his clever puppetry projects, or those of his students.
Vern Adix was born May 3, 1912, in Boone, Iowa, and received degrees from the University of Iowa (1937) and University of Minnesota (1945). He came to the University of Utah in the fall of 1943 at the invitation of C. Lowell Lees, longtime chairman of the U.'s theater department (and the man for whom PMT's Lees Main Stage is named).