Jean Gist Trepp spoke the first words on an OVST stage in Androcles and the Lionin 1951: “I won’t go another step!”
Professor Emeritus of Theater, Bob Winters
Bob joined the Ohio University School of Theater faculty in 1962 and began working with OVST during the summer of 1963, first as a designer and later as primary director of summer productions.
Beginning the moment he joined the faculty of Ohio University's Theater and Speech department in 1962, Bob became the primary voice for theater (and later, all art) in Athens County. Bob served as Acting Director of the School of Theater from 1977-1978 and then Director from 1978-1986.
As part of his faculty assignment in the School of Theater, Bob held the position of OVST Managing Director from 1970-1987.
He first hit the OVST stage in 1969, when he danced the Tango under the assumed name of Luis de Inviernos (translation: Louis – his middle name) in The Boy Friend
The first major role (in which the community was able to see him) was when he was Fagin in Oliver -1982.
In 1987, the OVST board presented Bob with a special award recognizing his 25 years of service to OVST.
For the 1990 OVST production of Mama’s Mirror, widely known local musician Pat Light was strongly encouraged by Bob, for whose playwriting class she had done the original story.
In 2000, Bob was one of the first three persons inducted into the Ohio Community Theater Association’s newly established Hall of Fame.
Bob holds the distinction of being the most active director in OVST’s history. His contributions, and those of his family, were instrumental in establishing a rich OVST tradition.
Bob Directed the following shows with OVST:
Boy Friend-1969
Stop the World, I Want to Get Off -1969
Oklahoma -1970
Bye Bye Birdie -1971
The Odd Couple -1971
The Great White Hope -1972
Fiddler On the Roof -1972
Hello, Dolly! -1973
Appalachian Green Parks Project -1973-76
Brigadoon -1974
Naughty Marietta -1975
Gerswhin Tonight -1976
Rhythm Rhyme and Romance -1977
Love and Other Nonsense -1978
Anything Goes -1978
Richard Rogers Review -1980
Damn Yankees! -1980
30 Years 30! -1981
Murder a la Carte -1982
New Places or Faces -1983
Peter Pan -1984
Quilters -1987
Once Upon a Mattress -1989
Mama’s Mirror -1990
Brigadoon -1991
Oklahoma! -1992
Sweeney, Todd -1993
Man of La Mancha -1994
Fiddler on The Roof -1995
The Music Man -1996
West Side Story -1997
Huckleberry Finn -1998
Wizard of Oz -1999
Grease -2000
All that Glitters (50th Anniversary Musical review) 2001
Damn Yankees (female cast) 2002
Annie 2003
Annie Get your Gun 2004
Peter Pan 2006
Music Man 2007
Huck Finns’s Story (Special December show at Arts/West) 2007
The Secret Garden 2008
