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Alumni Profile Darcey
Engen ’88 and Luverne Seifert ’83: When Darcey Engen and her husband, Luverne Seifert, were theatre majors at Augsburg in the 1980s, the theatre arts department made its home in a space known as Stage II. Although Engen and Seifert did not attend Augsburg at the same time, they share a similar fondness for the old theater. "It was originally the music building, and before that, a church," says Engen. "But when I was a student, it was our own little space, and we took care of it. We really learned how to create something out of nothing—how to make a costume, how to build a set, how to do lighting, how to work with the fire marshal, how to be a janitor—we learned everything," says Engen.
Both Engen and Seifert credit Augsburg with helping to shape them into the performers they are today. "I came out very well-rounded; it wasn't just about performing, it was about this group of people," says Engen. "We were a community and a collaboration, we pushed each other and we supported one another—we created art. It was incredibly beneficial." Since graduating in 1988, Engen's performance experience in Minneapolis includes work with Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Red Eye Collaboration, and Dudley Riggs' Brave New Workshop. This past summer she co-wrote and performed in Floating Mothers with Augsburg theatre professor Martha Johnson, a two-person production that deals with the funny and poignant moments of being a mother. After receiving her M.F.A. in acting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she specialized in voice and movement training for the stage, Engen was a theatre professor at the University of Kentucky-Lexington, and later a professor at the University of Northern Iowa. Seifert, who teaches theatre part time at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, spent time in both New York and California after graduating from Augsburg in 1983. He first headed to New York, where he soaked up the culture, took classes, and worked as a salesperson at Alexander's, a store at the bottom of the World Trade Center. "I lived in an old hotel that was cheaper even than the YMCA—it was awful," he says, chuckling. "The tub in the shared bathroom was always filled with brown, murky water, and there were cockroaches everywhere. But it was a great experience; I was just out of college, and I had never been anywhere." When he returned to Minneapolis, he started a theatre company with a group of fellow Augsburg alumni called City Stock Theater, which operated for several years. He later performed with the Red Eye Collaboration, Frank Theatre, Children's Theatre Company, and Theatre de la Jeune Lune, where he was an artistic associate for 10 years. Earlier this year, he received a McKnight Theatre Fellowship, with which he plans to study clowning in Switzerland and to develop artistic work. Although Engen and Seifert didn't meet as students, Augsburg still played a role in bringing them together. They met through a member of Augsburg's theatre faculty, Gary Parker, who hired them to perform at a festival he organized called Summer Star, an offshoot of the Renaissance Festival, in Shakopee, Minn. The performance eventually led to marriage in 1992. Today, Engen and Seifert live in Northeast Minneapolis with their two sons, Severin, 5, and Simon, 4. In 1997, Engen returned to Augsburg's theatre arts department—this time as faculty. Engen is an assistant professor, teaching several courses and directing one production each year. The theatre department is now located in Foss Center, with Tjornhom-Nelson Theater serving as the main stage. The benefit of Augsburg's current theater space is that the high artistic quality of the performances is now paired with a polished technical presentation, including professional lighting, sound, and costume design. "I think we are now a showcase for the College," says Engen. "There are productions on the Augsburg campus that are truly of professional quality—and beyond. It has really been a wonderful transition."
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There
was also another theater on campus, the Little Theater. "But I primarily
remember Stage II," says Seifert. "It was great because you could
do so many things with the space—I can remember being there until five
or six in the morning, working through the night. There were no restrictions,
you could really create with your imagination."