Michigenda was the first production of the Michigan Union Opera, an all-male troupe founded in 1908 to raise money to build the Michigan Union. It opened on February 26, 1908, at the Whitney Theater.

Sources

U-M students—and college students in general—have been known to do things that are considered just a little crazy. But in 1908, it was unusual even for college students to have men dress as women and sing to raise money. That is what happened when a group of students began one of the longest-standing traditions on the Michigan campus. They began raising funds to build a student union by selling tickets to the first Michigan Union Opera Production, “Michigenda.”

"Michigenda," Michigan Union Opera's first production, was staged at the Athens, formerly Hill's Opera House, in 1908.

The MUO’s first show, 1908’s Michigenda, set the tone for ensuing productions. The plot concerned efforts to keep a rich donor, Mr. Moneyfeller, from finding out that his nephew wasn’t actually on the U-M faculty. The “real” professors—students impersonating well-known faculty members of the time—were hidden away in a tunnel, which eventually exploded from all the hot air. Meanwhile, the student characters were transported to the magic land of the title, a place where there were no professors and where Granger’s, a then-popular dance hall on Huron Street, was open six nights a week.

Edit tags