Over the years, Grinnell College has actually experimented with lots of different summer programs that aimed to serve students and alumni, locals and academics, even leading reformers in the Progressive Era, who flocked to George Herrons’ Summer Institutes (a kind of summer camp for the Social Gospel). In the 1950s, Grinnell embarked on one of the more interesting of these summer experiments when it launched its Summer Theatre Program in Okoboji.
Led by Theatre Professor, Kent Andrews, the College decided to purchase an abandoned aircraft hanger on the shores of Lake Okoboji (in Northwest Iowa) in 1952, turning the structure into a modern theatre and fine arts center. Up to 10 Grinnell students would spend the summer in residence, performing a series 8 plays over the course of the summer (each one running from Tuesday through Sunday nights). The students lived in a nearby house, and the college even purchased the local Jersey Dell Tea Room, which was used as a dining hall to provide food for the students and staff, and refreshments for evening theatre goers. By 1954, the program had become credit bearing: students received 8 credits for completing the 10 week Summer Theatre program in Okoboji.
While the program seemed to be quite successful, the college decided to sell the property after a few years, ending this unique experiment. But that was not the final curtain call. Stephens College, in Columbia Missouri, purchased the theatre from Grinnell in 1958, and has been running a very successful summer theatre program there to this day.
