John David Lutz, father of University of Evansville's renowned theatre program, dies
EVANSVILLE – It was Eric Altheide’s big moment.
As an undergraduate at the University of Evansville, he’d waited three years to do a show with John David Lutz – UE’s renowned theater professor, chair and director. Now here he was playing John Proctor in “The Crucible,” delivering one of the play’s most dramatic moments.
I have given you my soul, Proctor says as he refuses to sign a confession of witchcraft. Leave me my name.
“Just from the pressure of it, I got really emotional,” Altheide said. “Afterwards, (Lutz) came up to me, put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘That was really, really good. And really, really honest. And really, really believable. Now tone it back because he wouldn’t be that much of a wuss.”
Altheide laughed at the memory because that was the kind of director and teacher Lutz was: a man who allowed his students to reach the emotional places they needed to go, all while being ready to steer them back to what was best for the production.
“He had this parental stature in everybody’s lives,” Altheide said. “He was that person you always wanted approval from.”
Now a theatre professor in his own right at the University of Southern Indiana, Altheide is one of countless students reminiscing about Lutz, who died at his Evansville home on Sunday at the age of 83. Services will be announced “at a later time,” UE said in a news release Monday.
Lutz helped transform Evansville into a national theatre powerhouse, with scores of notable actors and theatre professionals streaming through the program during his tenure. They include Oscar-winner Rami Malek, Emmy-winner Carrie Preston, and TV stars such as Ron Glass and Jack McBrayer.
Then there was “Roseanne” creator Matt Williams, who donated $300,000 to the university in 2004 to help establish the John David Lutz Distinguished Professorship in the Theatre Arts.
“John David is one of the most influential teachers,” Williams told the Courier & Press then. “No – he is one of the most influential human beings who has shaped me into who I am.”
John David Lutz's career
Born in Indianapolis and raised in Boonville, Lutz enrolled in what was then Evansville College in the 1960s. Even as a student, he left a sizable impression.
He became the first student to direct a full-length production, taking the helm for “The Playboy of the Western World" and winning the William A. Gumberts Award for most outstanding dramatic achievement.
After graduating in 1964, he returned as an instructor a year later. One of his first productions was a staging of “The Chinese Wall” – starring Glass.
He went on to direct more than 75 plays at UE before retiring in 2018, putting on productions both on campus and in national events such as the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. He also branched into regional theatre and even helmed the Off-Broadway production of Matt Williams’ play, “Between Daylight and Boonville.”
All the while he loomed over the program – even if you didn’t interact with him directly. Sometimes he would teach the first class of your freshman year but not have you in class again until the last course of your senior year. And since he whittled down his directing schedule, you may not work with him for years at a time.
Yet he seemed to know his students well.
“You’d pass him in the hallway and he’d look at you and say, ‘You’re taller than I thought you were,’” Altheide said. “That was an indicator of the person he was – that he would remember the smallest of details about every single student that he had.”
'Dedication to the students'
And they never stopped being students, said Sharla Cowden, chair of UE's theatre department.
Lutz recruited her to the school in 2000, and she was “immediately struck by what a magical place he had created in the middle of Indiana.”
“What really showed through was his love and dedication to the students,” she said. “And to the alumni."
Lutz would keep up with his former pupils long after they graduated, supporting them whether they went into theatre arts or not.
After graduating from UE, Altheide enrolled at New York University, and when he’d go to auditions, casting directors were often more impressed by his time at UE than at NYU.
Eventually, though, he decided to move home to teach at USI. At first he was worried Lutz would see him as a failure, but Lutz was supportive and proud.
“It was at some random point of having this conversation with him that I was like, ‘You know, I think we’re friends now,’” Altheide said. “To me it seemed monumental, but to him it was obvious there wasn’t a change. It was how he always viewed his relationships with his students.”
In 2010, UE simultaneously celebrated Lutz’s 70th birthday and his 70th production at the university. He scoffed at the attention – “I joked that I’ve never been so glad for another birthday to come so I can stop celebrating the last one,” he said – and admitted that sometimes he had to drag himself into rehearsal.
But despite it all, his love for his work remained.
“As soon as I’m here it kind of infects me all over again,” he said. “Two and three hours have gone by and I realize I’ve really enjoyed the whole experience.”
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville theatre legend John David Lutz dies at 83
