Biographical:
Dr. West was born in Chicago in 1907.  Her family moved to Moorhead, Minnesota and graduated from Moorhead High School.  She attended Moorhead State, but transferred to North Dakota Agricultural College (NDAC) where she received her bachelors' degree in 1931.  She received her masters' degree from Northwestern University and her doctorate from the University of Minnesota.  She taught school in Ayr (1926-1929), Davenport (1929-1930), Beach (1931-1937), and at Fargo Central High School (1937-1944) before coming to NDAC.

Dr. West came to North Dakota State University (NDSU), then called NDAC, as an instructor in speech in September 1944.  She retired as a professor of Speech and Drama in June of 1977.  She was named Professor Emeritus of Speech and Drama by the Board of Higher Education on July 1, 1977.  Dr. West passed away in May 1994.

In 1991 she was inducted into the North Dakota Speech and Theater Association Hall of Fame.  She was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma, Zeta Phi Eta and the Drama Section of the Fargo Fine Arts Club.

Scope and Content:
This collection consists of material that was salvaged by Professor Don Larew, Theater Department, and Michael Robinson, Archivist, NDSU, prior to the demolition of Dr. West's former home in the summer of 2001.  It also consists of material that Dr. West's sister (Gloria) had kept and turned over to Professor Larew.  This collection represents but a sampling of the career of Dr. Connie West.  The collection is arranged in three series: the first is a general series with correspondence, courses taught, scrapbook pages, and reader's theater; the second deals with the productions she directed at Fargo Central High School (some photos); and the third with NDAC/NDSU productions she directed.

Separations:  Photographs from the following productions were dispersed into the NDSU Photography Collection in the APl 29 section: "Androcles and the Lion" (1952), "Blood Wedding" (1970), "East Lyne" (1949), "Joan of Lorraine" (1947),  "King Lear" (1965), "Romeo and Juliet" (1952), and "Years Ago" (1948).
 

BOX 1

1 Finding Aid and personal information

General

2 Professional Correspondence - Fargo Board of Education - 1944-1945
3 Personnel Correspondence
4 NDSU - Little Country Theater - Scrapbook pages - 1944-1946
5 NDSU - Classes Taught - Speech  391 & 209 - Poetry; additional unidentified - n.d.
6 NDSU - Readers' Theatre - material - n.d.

Fargo Central High School

7 Clippings & Play Photographs (unidentified) - c. 1933-1944
8 The Patsy - clipping, program - May 1942
9 Three One Act Plays: The Trysting Place, Manikin and Manikin, Until Charlot Comes
  Home - program - December 1942
10 Sun-Up - clippings, program - April 1943
11 Midsummer Night's Dream - clippings, program- May 1943
12 She Stoops to Conquer - program - December 1943
13 Letters to Lucerne - clippings, program - April 1944
14 The Admirable Crichton - clippings, program - May 1944
15 Imaginary Invalid - ticket, photographs, clippings, program, watercolor costume designs
- November 1944

North Dakota Agricultural College/North Dakota State University

16 Is Life Worth Living - program, flyers - March 1945
17 Our Town - program - November 1945
18 The Skin of Our Teeth - program, poster - January 1946
19 Wild Duck - clippings - May 1946
20 State of the Union - program, clippings, small poster - November 1946
21 The Far Off Hills - clipping, program, small poster - January 1947
22 Ghosts - clippings, program - March 1947
23 Twelfth Night - program - April 1947
24 Joan of Lorraine - program, clippings, small posters - November 1947
25 Years Ago - clippings - February 1948
26 Up in the Air - NDAC Faculty sketch, Bison Brevities - clipping - April 1948
27  The Playboy of the Western World - program - December 1948
28  Ah, Wilderness - program, clipping - May 1949
29  East Lynne  - program, clippings - November 1949
30 Candida - program, postcard flyer, clippings -  February/March 1950
31 The Heiress - program - April 1950
32 Antigone - program, postcard flyer, clippings - December 1950
33 What Every Woman Knows - program, clippings - March 1951
34 Hamlet - program, clippings - May 1951
35 Gold in the Hills - program, clippings - November 1951
36 Arms and the Man - program, clippings - February 1952
37 Romeo & Juliet - program, clippings - May 1952
38 Androcles and the Lion - program, clippings - October 1952
39 Hedda Gabler - program, clippings - April 1958
40 Death of a Salesman - program - 1963
41 King Lear - program, clippings, stage set-up, music, notes - February 1965
42  Blood Wedding - program copy, program, color photographs, clippings, Forum review,
"Blood Wedding Music," script notes - February 1970:
43  Antigone70 - script notes, scene layout, rehesal agenda, program, program copy,
Spectrum review - November 1970

BOX 2

1 Tartuffe - program, program copy, set layout, script notes, general notes - April 1972
2   "the effect of gamma rays on man-in-the-moon marigolds" - July 1972:  play notes,
program copy, program - July 1972
3  The Birds - February 1973: program copy, congratulatory letters, notes, drawings,
program, layout, script notes
4 As You Like It - program, clippings, music - February 1974
5 Desire Under the Elms - program, clippings, script notes - April 1975
6 Peer Gynt - program, flyer, permission to stage, clippings - February 1976
7 Pygmalion - program, program copy, clippings, flyer copy - February 1977 (last
production by Connie West)
 
 
 

8/2001; 12/2001
 

univarchives@www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu University Archives, 701-231-8914 Published by the University Archives, NDSU Last Updated: 5/19/04