Superior State College Theater

In two years at Superior State College, Lauren Ekroth moved from the back of a chorus to the headline of a fifty-person production. The arc was rapid and documented at each step by his hometown newspaper.

In March 1953, during his freshman year, he played Benvolio in the SSC Players’ production of Romeo and Juliet under director Pacey Beers. The Evening Telegram reviewer — who complained that several cast members were barely audible — singled out Ekroth by name: “Lauren Ekroth, who played Benvolio, dominated every scene he was in.” The praise was specific; it spoke to stage presence and vocal projection, not merely adequate work. Two months later, in May 1953, he was inducted into Alpha Psi Omega, the national honorary dramatic fraternity, on the strength of his freshman-year work. He had participated in two major productions in the span of one academic year and earned the recognition of a national theater honor society before his sophomore year began.

That fall he was cast as Marchbanks — a co-lead — in George Bernard Shaw’s Candida, directed again by Beers. The rehearsal photograph published in the Evening Telegram on November 21, 1953 shows Lauren first from the left in a six-person cast. By February 1954, Beers had cast him as the Witch Boy, the male lead in Dark of the Moon, a folk fantasy with a cast of more than fifty. The headline read: “Cast of 50 Headed by 2 Superiorites” — Lauren Ekroth and his co-star Mary Hanlon. A reviewer of the March performances noted the production’s strength; Beers had appeared in the same play himself at the University of Minnesota in 1950, and he gave his most trusted student the central role.

In May 1954, still a sophomore, Ekroth added directing to his credentials. The SSC Players presented two original one-act plays written by graduating senior William P. Sahlsteen; the Evening Telegram announced: “Lauren Ekroth, Superior, a sophomore, is directing the plays.” He was simultaneously listed in the cast of one of the two plays. The dual role — directing others while also performing — anticipated the pedagogy he would practice for the rest of his life: teaching by doing, coaching by example. Pacey Beers supervised but trusted his student to run the stage. At nineteen, Lauren Ekroth had already passed through the full cycle: chorus, featured player, co-lead, solo lead, director. The trajectory traced by five productions in two years was one of the most compressed ascents in the SSC Players’ documented history.