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.
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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.
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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.
- Michigenda, review in the Michigan Alumnus, March 1908
