Christopher Roberts BA ’80

01/30/2023

Christopher Roberts BA ’80 reminisced: “As the Class of 1980 was processing our impending graduation and the scary next episode in our lives, Fir Acres Theatre was presenting the first production, post-U.S.-premiere of Sam Shepard’s play Curse of the Starving Class. James Ostelhoff was the theatre’s director/professor and John Maki BS ’80 was the play’s director. His soon-to-be-wife, Kathleen Minifie BA ’80, was costume director. Curse was about a poor California family in the midst of an emotional breakdown and featured a creepy interloper, Ellis, played by yours truly. Those moments, on and off stage, were pure joy for all of us and a perfect way to exit the stage of Lewis & Clark College. But this, of course, was just a sideshow to the main event, ironically best witnessed outside the theatre: Mount St. Helens exploding on our lives. Literally! Talk about a curtain call!”