The ACT I Ticket information line and Palace Theatre Box Office number is 472-9957!  Make your reservations now for Meredith Willson's The Music Man!

Children's Theatre Series Concludes ...

The Princess Plays
Ends Successful Run

This season’s summer children’s theatre series came to a delightful conclusion at the end of July with The Princess Plays, produced by our Stage One theatre camp at the Palace Theatre.  The three one act plays opened with The Princess and the Princess, directed by Marcy Horst and April Ahrenholz; about two Princesses who meet on a bridge, each refusing to step aside for the other. The second offering was Twice Upon a Time, directed by Sheila Monson and Shirale Hanson, about a magic spell gone awry, in which every time the magic word was spoken, another famous literary princess appears mysteriously.  The final play was The Lost Half-Hour, featuring the age old plot of a simpleton who proves far more wise than his expectations.  That show was directed by Joan Cooling and Alice Means.

The Princess Plays was performed July 27, 28, and 30 and was sponsored by the Kevin and April Ahrenholz family.  In addition, the ACT I STAGE! summer camps were supported in part by grants from the Louise Gilchrist Charitable Trust, the Kirkland Trust, and Frontier Natural Products Co-op.

Performance Photographs

The Princess and the Princess

A group of Princess Twinkleberry's pint sized royal guards attempt to arrest Princess Popplepea by politely asking her to put on handcuffs.

Princess Popplepea breaks into song.

Twice Upon a Time

Far from being fading, demure beauties, the three witches have to deal with outspoken princesses with attitude, who are totally "prince crazy."

With the witches' cave now filled with princesses and dwarves, a frog -- really an enchanted prince -- suddenly appears.

The Lost Half-Hour

Bobo the simpleton, who leaves the court of Princess Patty to go in search of her lost half hour, meets Father Time and his dancing hours.

Returning to Princess Patty's court with the lost half hour given him by Father Time, Bobo releases it so that he has time to rescue Tilda the kitchen maid, who had been abducted by the vicious dragon half an hour earlier.

For additional information about this production, including rehearsal and performance photographs, a complete cast list by character, go to The Princess Plays show page of this website at www.act1.org/princess.htm.

Members of the Cast of ACT I's The Music Man Visit Meredith Willson Birthplace in Mason City, Iowa 

Several members of the cast and crew of the ACT I production The Music Man traveled to Mason City in August to visit the birthplace of composer Meredith Willson and other places of interest relating to his life and The Music Man.  The restored 1985 Queen Anne style home where Meredith Willson was born in 1902 was the highlight of the visit.  The three story, five bedroom home provides a fascinating glimpse into the childhood of Iowa’s most famous composer and the man who immortalized his home state with the ever popular musical that was first performed forty-eight years ago.  Next door to the birthplace is a multi-million dollar facility called the Music Man Square, which contains a museum, meeting facilities, and a recreation of downtown River City as seen in the 1962 film version of the play.  A short distance away can be seen the footbridge which was the inspiration of the footbridge scene in the show, as well as the Congregational Church where Meredith’s mother served as Sunday School superintendent for thirty-three years.  We also viewed some important examples of the Prairie School of architecture which date to the time when Meredith Willson was a boy.  It was a very enjoyable trip for those who were able to make it and gave us more insight into the story of The Music Man!  It’s well worth a visit for those who want to learn more about this important Iowa native!

This statue of Meredith Willson outside his birthplace and Music Man Square commemorates a parade through Mason City at the time of the premiere of the film of The Music Man in 1962. 

Meredith Willson was born in the upstairs front bedroom of this Mason City house on Pennsylvania Avenue.  The restored home is now a museum.

The front parlor of the Willson home contains the piano played by Meredith as a child.  Above the piano is a photograph of a boys band from Mason City in which Meredith was a flute player.  Music was an important part of the Willson home.  The three children also loved putting on plays on the third floor of the house, which can be seen by visitors.  All three of the Willson children achieved national prominence as adults - Meredith as a musician, his older sister Dixie as a screenwriter, and his older brother Cedric as an engineer and executive of an aggregate concrete company.

Adjacent to the birthplace, The Music Man Square, which opened in 2002 for the centennial of Willson' birth, is a multimillion dollar facility that recreates Main Street of River City as portrayed in the 1962 film version of The Music Man.  The film, which starred Robert Preston, who created the role of Harold Hill on Broadway when the play premiered in 1957, also starred Shirley Jones as Marian, Ronnie Howard as Winthrop, and Paul Ford and Hermione Gingold as Mayor Shinn and his wife.  In addition, other members of the original Broadway cast featured in the film were the barbershop group "The Buffalo Bills" as the quartet and actress Pert Melton as Mrs. Paroo.  The film had its world premiere in Mason City, and all the stars of the film as well as many other famous Hollywood personalities descended on Iowa for the event.

Inside Music Man Square, a vintage automobile sits outside Ewart Dunlop's grocery store.  Mr. and Mrs. Dunlop are played by Dave and Sue Gates in the ACT I production.

Mrs. Paroo's house in Music Man Square serves as a gift shop.  Here, Linda Merritt, who plays Mrs. Paroo in the ACT I production, sits in on the front porch.  Linda is an attorney from Cedar Rapids, and has also played this role for the Starlighter's Community Theatre in Anamosa.

The livery stable, owned by Jacey Squires, serves as the front for a museum of Meredith Willson memorabilia in Music Man Square.  Jacey Squires and his wife are played for ACT I by Alan Nebola and Sherry Stout.

Mayor Shinn's billiard parlor is featured, complete with a pool table inside!  Mayor Shinn is played by Brian Larkin and his wife by Jill g. Lockard Bopp.

Also on view in Mason City is the footbridge, spanning one of the cities two major creeks.  In her lifetime, Meredith Willson's mother campaigned unsuccessfully to have them re-classified as rivers - possibly one reason her son chose to call the town "River City" in his play.  The footbridge is a featured location in The Music Man.

As a child, Meredith Willson attended the Congregational Church in Mason City, where his mother Rosalie served as Sunday School superintendent for thirty-three years.  She instilled her religious faith on Meredith.  In the 70s, a $500,000 educational wing was added to the church named in Mrs. Willson's honor, funded largely by a gift from Meredith.  Rosalie Willson had a habit of telling her children good-bye with the phrase "May the Good Lord bless and keep you."  Meredith honored his mother by writing a hymn by this title which was a staple on his weekly radio shows in the 1930s and 1940s.

Several fine examples of the Prairie School of architecture which were in place during Meredith Willson's childhood can be seen in Mason City.  In addition to the Willson properties, ACT I members visited the Stockman house, a century old home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  A hotel designed by Wright in Mason City is currently under restoration and another neighborhood features several homes of this style built by one of Wright's associates.

September has become ACT I's traditional time for staging our big musical each season, and this year is no exception!  And for the past several seasons, our musicals have included the talents of Sherry Stout, who moved to Vinton with her family five years ago.  This year, Sherry plays Mrs. Squires in The Music Man, and so we feature her as our Member of the Month for August!

Sherry Stout grew up on an Iowa farm and went to Ackley-Geneva High School (now Ackley-Geneva-Wellsburg-Steamboat Rock) where she enjoyed participating in drama.  During this time she also played Gladys McGlone in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (also by Meredith Willson) at the Iowa Falls Community Theatre.  After graduation and marriage she moved a great deal as a Navy wife, living in Millington, Tennessee, Pt. Mugu, California, and Whidbey Island, Washington.  After her husband retired the family lived in Wellington, Kansas for six years, and Sherry worked for the Federal Government and the postal service.  It was then that she got back into community theatre, but only when her daughter Stephanie wanted to audition for The Sound of Music and needed a ride.  Stephanie ended up as a postulant and Sherry was initially cast in the chorus but ended up as Sister Berthe - when the original ‘sister’ became a little too pregnant to hit the high notes! (This has been a recurring theme for Sherry,  who seldom plays the part she was originally cast in!)  The following year Sherry played Yente in Fiddler on the Roof; the following year meant another move, this time to California, and the year after the family ended up back home in Iowa.

"Although I didn’t actually choose Vinton because of its community theater, I was very pleased to ‘discover’ it, and joined in as soon as possible, along with all three of my children at various times," Sherry says of her involvement with ACT I, which began with our February, 2001 production of My Fair Lady.  Sherry played Henry Higgins' mother (not her original role in the production!) and her daughter Stephanie was in the chorus.  Several months later, in October of 2001, Sherry was next seen in the role of Gynmasia, one of the courtesans in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.  Her daughter Natalie played one of the Proteans.

In the fall of 2002, Sherry was back in our next musical, Kiss Me, Kate, this time in the leading role of Lilli Vanessi.  Her daughter Natalie was in the chorus again for this show.  The role was actual a dual one due to the nature of the show - Sherry played both Miss Vanessi, and that character's onstage role, Kate in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.

Sherry Stout played the lead in Kiss Me, Kate in 2002, which remains to date ACT I's only show to feature motor vehicles.  As actress Lilli Vanessi, Sherry arrived at the theatre each night in a vintage car as the audience watched from the lobby.

Kiss Me Kate is a play within a play, a comedy about a group of actors rehearsing a musical version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.  Here, Sherry as Lilli Vanessi in the guise of Shakespeare's Kate, confronts the director in one of their many onstage arguments.

Sherry has been back for three more ACT I musicals, including Annie in 2003 in which she played Mrs. Greer and in which daughter Natalie played a maid, The Sound of Music in 2004 (her third time for this show) in which she played Frau Schmidt and sang in the nun's chorus, and our current production of The Music Man, in which she plays Mrs. Squires (which, incidentally, marks her third time playing opposite Alan Nebola).

Meanwhile, Sherry's son Nicholas,  currently a fifth grader this year at Shellsburg Elementary, has appeared in three of our ACT I STAGE! summer children's theatre productions.  He made his debut in The Good, the Bad, and the Ogre in 2002 and then appeared in American Hysterical in 2003, The Adventures of Beatrix Potter in 2004 and The Princess Plays in 2005.  He appears as one of the River City Boys in The Music Man, his first Main Stage production.