If he hadn't considered bailing on the first show he saw at St. Paul's History Theatre, Ron Peluso might never have been hired as its artistic director.
Peluso, who is stepping down at the end of this month after 27 years at the helm, went to see friends act in "Entertaining Strangers" in 1988. He didn't love it.
"At intermission, I was thinking maybe I'd seen enough," said Peluso, who will be succeeded by Richard Thompson. "A staff member saw me and said, 'Hey, Ron, we just lost our director for "A Servants' Christmas." Would you mind hanging out and I'll introduce you to Lynn [Lohr, one of the founders of the theater]?' I had written them a bunch of letters, looking for an in. So I stayed."
He ended up directing that show and, when Lohr and co-founder Lance Belville left seven years later, was hired as artistic director. A former high school teacher who minored in history at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, Peluso said the educational aspect of History Theatre — believed to be the nation's only venue entirely dedicated to history-based shows — suited him. So did "Servants' Christmas," since it was not just the first show he directed at the theater but, in a revival that closed Dec. 18, also the last.
We chatted with the New Castle, Pa., native, who earned a master of fine arts degree in directing from the University of Minnesota, about his nearly-three-decade tenure.
Q: When did you realize your life would be in theater instead of education?
A: I thought I'd get a degree and get a teaching job at a small college somewhere and live happily ever after. I just feel amazed and blessed I could be part of this really talented theater community. Lynn Lohr, our founder, and Lance Belville came up with a neat idea and I've been lucky to be the caretaker of that and expand it.
Q: With plays about everyone from the Andrews Sisters and Judy Garland to Gordon Parks, more than 100 commissioned in your tenure, you must have become a wiz at Minnesota trivia?
A: I have learned a ton. When playwrights suggest an idea for a new play, about half the time I say, "We've done that already but come back to me with something else."
Q: You talked about working to remove the covenant on the house you and wife Sue Scott have in St. Louis Park when the theater staged housing discrimination drama "Not for Sale." Do those personal stories often hit close to home?
A: There are so many "History Theatre moments." In 1995, I was listening to MPR, driving to work, and there was an interview with Linda Back McKay who wrote the book "Shadow Mothers," about giving her child up. I was intrigued, so I commissioned Lily Baber Coyle to write a play. We do the show and 'Watermelon Hill' is a big hit — I have a diary on my desk of stories people wrote us. I thought I'd do the play again a few years ago and this young woman, Liz, a former high school student, calls and says, 'I'm living in Sioux Falls, married. I am looking for my son [who had been given for adoption], and I'd love to visit with you.' I asked if she'd be willing to come and talk to our audience. She did. And when the show closed, we were in the lobby having drinks and McKay mentioned that laws have changed so she could probably find her son. Six weeks later, I get a call and she found him and he's a theater director in Pittsburgh. So "Watermelon Hill" is a special play.
