Grease Paint Online - August, 2004

On Thursday, September 9, the Season 2004 - 2005 Main Stage Series for ACT I of Benton County gets underway with our revival of The Sound of Music, first presented in October and November, 1995. This production is part of our celebration for our 25th Anniversary season. The popular Rodgers and Hammerstein musical is sponsored by Farmers' Savings Bank and Trust, and by Expressions. The Sound of Music is based on the lives of the Trapp Family singers, an Austrian family who escaped the Nazis shortly before the outbreak of World War II. It focuses on the romance that develops between Baron Georg von Trapp, a retired submarine captain from the Imperial Austrian navy, and Maria, a 21-year old novice nun from Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg, who arrives to become the twenty-seventh governess to the Captain's seven children. Maria's love of singing charms the children and captures the captain's heart. The von Trapps escaped Austria shortly after the German invasion of their homeland in 1938. After leaving Austria, the von Trapps eventually came to America where they became professional concert singers and operators of an inn located in Stowe, Vermont. The Sound of Music, a heavily fictionalized account of their story, features music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, with a book by Howard Lindsey and Russel Crouse. It premiered at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York City on November 16, 1959, with Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel as Maria and the Captain, and opera star Patricia Neway as the Mother Abbess. In 1965 the feature film of the show premiered with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.

Featured in the cast of our production are David Canaday as Captain von Trapp and Jody Nekvinda as Maria. Lois Martin is the Mother Abbess. Portraying the children are Abby Hilton as Liesl, Jesse Bunge as Freiderich, and Jackson Trannel as Kurt; with Brittney Werner and Molly Ternus alternating as Louisa, Ivy Huber and Meghan Owens alternating as Brigitta, Clare Cooling and Tess Noeller alternating as Marta, and Alli Canaday and Katie Hancock alternating as Gretl.

The show is directed by Eric Upmeyer, with musical direction by Julie Canaday and choreography by Joan Cooling. Judy Trygstad is in charge of the orchestra. Ed Cardwell is the technical director, with lighting design by Eric Upmeyer.

This production will be covered in more depth in our opening night edition of Grease Paint Online which will come out September 9. We will include in that edition a complete cast list, crew list, and more photographs!

The Sound of Music opens at the Palace Theatre in Vinton on Thursday, September 9 at 7:00 PM. It continues with evening performances on Saturday, September 11, Thursday, September 16 and Saturday, September 18 at 7:00 PM and matinee performances on Saturday, September 11, Sunday, September 12, Saturday, September 18, and Sunday, September 19. Curtain times for the four matinees is 2:00 PM.

Leisl, the captain's sixteen year old daughter, enjoys her first taste of romance with
the handsome young Rolf, a telegraph delivery boy, unaware that he is a part of the
growing Nazi movement in Austria, which her father hates.

Returning home with his intended fiancée, a wealthy businesswoman,
the captain is overwhelmed by a song of greeting his children have prepared.

After realizing she is in love with the Captain, Maria frantically returns to the convent
where she begs the Mother Abbess, played by Lois Martin, not to send her back.

The family escapes the Nazis after a concert in which they perform,
hiding in the convent garden as storm troopers search the building for them.

ACT I TAKE II 25th Anniversary Statistics for The Sound of Music: This play will be ACT I's 88th production, and our 25th production in the Palace Theatre. The opening night performance for this show will be our 129th performance at the Palace Theatre, and our 384th performance altogether. On Broadway, this show ran for 1,443 performances in its original run to rank it as the 49th longest running play in Broadway history, one performance behind Arsenic and Old Lace.

For additional information about this production go to the Sound of Music show page of this website at www.act1.org/sound.htm. For pictures and information from our original production, go to www.act1.org/som.htm.

The ACT I Ticket information line and Palace Theatre Box Office number is 472-9957!
Make your reservations now for The Sound of Music, and keep our number handy for the rest of our busy season, ACT I TAKE II!

The Adventures of Beatrix Potter, written by Joseph Robinette, with music and Lyrics by Evelyn Swenssen, the second installment of this season's Children's Theatre Series, ended its successful run on Sunday, July 18 at the Palace Theatre. The children's musical, with a cast of over 70, opened Friday, July 9, and ran for five performances over two weekends. Directors of the children's musical were Marcy Horst and Shirale Hanson, with music director Sheila Monson and choreographer Joan Cooling. The show mixed a chronicle of the life of author Beatrix Potter with mini dramatizations of several of her children's books. The production was sponsored by Kevin and April Ahrenholz.

Annie Moore, a long time friend remembers Beatrix after her death in the opening scene.

Beatrix created her first children's book, The Adventures of Peter Rabbit,
as a gift for young Noel Moore during his illness.

Beatrix finds romance with her publisher, Norman Warne.
Tragically, he died unexpectedly only weeks after their engagement.

For additional information about this production by ACT I STAGE!, go to the Adventures of Beatrix Potter show page of this website at www.act1.org/beatrix.htm.

At a recent meeting of the ACT I of Benton County Board of Directors, officers for the current season were elected. Mary Horst is our new president. Vice president will be Alex Martinez-Vasquez. Secretary is Joan Cooling, and Greg Walston is treasurer. The remaining three board members are Ron Baldwin, Marcy Horst, and Kurt Karr. The board, the governing body of ACT I, meets monthly.

As we celebrate our 25th Anniversary with ACT I Take II and our current revival production of The Sound of Music, here is a quick pictorial look back at all of the major Broadway musical productions ACT I has staged! Each picture is a link to the home page for that production.

The Sound of Music
October, November, 1995
The Old Creamery Theatre, Garrison

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
October, 2001
The Palace Theatre

As ACT I celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary and prepares its current production of The Sound of Music, another twenty-fifth anniversary is being celebrated by ACT I member. Judy Trygstad, who prepared the orchestra for both our current production of this show and our previous presentation nine years ago, is celebrating her twenty-fifth anniversary as band director at Tilford Middle School in Vinton. Judy's daughter, Beckie Stravers, an ACT I regular during her school years, was a member of our original cast. With our revival of that show in honor of our 25th anniversary now in rehearsal, we honor Judy Trygstad's own twenty-fifth anniversary as well as her family's involvement in ACT I by celebrating her and Beckie Stravers as our Members of the Month for August, 2004!

Judy Trygstad, conducting a musical number during a recent rehearsal of The Sound of Music

Judy Trygstad, band director at Tilford Middle School in Vinton as well as the Vinton Community Band, and her husband Tom Stravers have three children, sons Joe and Jason, and daughter Beckie. Like so many ACT I families, participation for the Trygstad/Stravers household began with the younger generation before working up to the adults. Ten years ago this November, Beckie Stravers, then a fifth grader, made her ACT I debut in the role of Beth Bradley, the central character in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, performed at the Old Creamery Theatre in Garrison. Now bitten by the acting bug, in the spring of that same season, Beckie returned to our stage for the role of Martha, a servant girl in The Miracle Worker. In the fall of 1995, Beckie auditioned for ACT I's first major musical production and was cast in the role of Louisa in our first production of The Sound of Music. Beckie's mom, Judy Trygstad, volunteered to take on the role of building the orchestra for the production. She both directed the orchestra and played the flute, an assignment identical to the one she is taking on in the current revival. And the production also featured one more member of the family, Jason Stravers, in his one and only ACT I role as a guard.

Beckie Stravers made her ACT I debut in 1994 playing the major role of Beth Bradley in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. She is pictured with Dan LaGrange, who played her brother Charlie. (If you have been watching very closely, you'll remember this photo was in last month's Grease Paint as well when we featured the LaGrange family!)

Beckie was decidedly hooked. Her next role came the following fall, when the ACT I musical was How to Eat Like a Child, a small scale show and our first show with an all student cast. For that show Beckie worked a backstage crew in addition to being in the onstage ensemble. In the fall of 1997 she was back again as a member of the singing and dancing ensemble in our production of the musical Oliver! in 1997. She also appeared that season in our January, 1998 variety show, Be Our Guest, in which she appeared as part of the "Charlie My Boy" dance quintet. For our next musical, Bye Bye Birdie, presented in September of 1998, the versatile Judy returned to orchestra pit, this time to play trombone, making it their second mother/daughter ACT I experience. Beckie was onstage as a member of the singing/dancing teen ensemble, and acting the role of Ursula Merkle.

Beckie Stravers onstage in ACT I's 1996 children's musical, How to Eat Like a Child

The mother/daughter duo rounded out their ACT I experiences to date when in the summer of 1999, Beckie served as stage manager for the ACT I production of The Velveteen Rabbit. Finally, in February, 2002, Beckie appeared as a dancer in our production of Romeo and Juliet. In 2001, Judy played the flute in our production of My Fair Lady, and in October of 2001 she was again the flute player in the orchestra for our production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. In September of 2002, Judy was back in the director’s role for Kiss Me, Kate; a show which offered its conductor not only a line but a piece of the action as well! Finally, last fall, she played the synthesizer for Annie.

Beckie, now a dance major at Oklahoma City University, where she is a member of American Spirit Dance Company. She has appeared there in a production of Kiss Me, Kate. Beckie also She began her dance studies at the age of eight with the Cooling Dance Center in Vinton, and she was a teaching associate at Cooling Dance Center for two years. She was also a singer/dancer with Celebration Iowa, a touring show choir / jazz band of select Iowa high school students which tours each summer. Beckie was a member of the group the summers following both her junior and senior years. Beckie was also active in music and theatre while a student at WHS, where she appeared in three high school musicals, beginning with Anything Goes as a freshman. As a junior, she played the title role in Calamity Jane and as a senior she played the role of Snoopy in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

Beckie Stravers (front row, right) onstage at Riverside Park in Vinton during the summer of 2003, when she was part of the state wide high school show choir group Celebration Iowa.

Beckie's brother Jason, whose only ACT I role was as a guard in The Sound of Music in 1995, went on the play football and baseball for Luther College and is currently seeking a degree in Forensic Science at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Beckie Stravers (center) onstage in Calamity Jane. At left is fellow ACT I member and Celebration Iowa cast member Aaron Murphy.

"Each show has left so many memories of the trials of rehearsal, the thrill of performance, the camaraderie of cast members, and the emptiness when a show is over," says Judy of the seven musicals she has done with ACT I. "We have put together some incredible musicians in the pit orchestras; it has been a privilege to work with such talent over the years."

"The shows involving children are always rewarding for me as I see current, former, and future students in a stage role. It is also great to see young actors learning from the adult role models in each show. ACT I has always provided a healthy, caring, creative environment for its cast members. I know that Beckie absorbed so much from the adults in the various productions she was involved with and that love of live performance is still with her today."

"Over the years I have seen the interest in ACT I grow tremendously. As families move into Vinton, news has spread, and it is not long before they want to become a part of this theatre group. That keeps the organization fresh and moving forward into ever challenging arenas. I also believe sharing performance space with the Palace Theatre has had the greatest impact in bringing live theatre to Vinton. It is much more accessible than the original OCT in Garrison, although that theatre did have its uniqueness with the intimate stage and outdoor courtyard, and it WAS the home of our first Sound of Music.

Beckie Stravers in her final high school acting role, Snoopy in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

The current production of The Sound of Music is ACT I’s ninth production of a Broadway musical, and Judy was involved in 7 of those nine productions, a record few in ACT I can match. We thank Judy for her involvement as well as that of her family, and hope for many more ACT I musical productions benefiting from her talents!

View the past articles in our Member of the Month series! All previous Member of the Month features (beginning with September, 1998) have been archived and can be accessed in one convenient place. Older articles in this archive section have been updated to bring the members' accomplishments up-to-date! To visit the Member of the Month Archives, go to www.act1.org/mom.htm.

The Sound of Music is based on the true story of the von Trapp Family Singers. Following events portrayed in musical, the von Trapp family eventually arrived in New York with only four dollars between them. Much like the von Trapps, here is another true story of another nearly destitute individual arriving in New York, a story which begins nearly 80 years earlier....

In 1864, a penniless fifteen year old German speaking Jewish boy from Poland ran away from home after the death of his mother, and after an 89 day ocean voyage he landed in New York City. He took a job sweeping floors in a cigar factory for three dollars a week. Within ten years, the boy was publishing a cigar industry trade paper which he had founded and he had patented several cigar making machines of his own invention which helped to revolutionize the cigar making industry. These inventions would continue to provide him with a steady income throughout his life, which he would eventually use to help fund the great passions of his life -- opera and theatre. During the 1880s he began moonlighting as a manager at German theatres in New York City, and in 1888 he built the first of eleven theatres he would eventually own, including nine in New York City, one in Philadelphia, and one in London. He single handedly turned Longacre Square in New York City into the center of the theatrical world. Longacre Square – where Broadway cuts diagonally through Seventh Avenue -- would eventually be renamed as Times Square, and thanks to the six theatres he built and owned in that neighborhood and the dozens more that followed, Times Square became and has remained to this day the center of New York’s Broadway theatre district. Stars such as Al Jolson, Mae West, Will Rogers, Buster Keaton, and Henry Houdini were all regulars on stages which he owned. He even established his own opera company to rival New York’s Metropolitan Opera, which for a time held the upper hand in its competition with the Met. (He was once asked if there was any money in opera. “Yeah. Mine,” he replied.) For thirty years multiple fortunes were made and lost by this theatrical entrepreneur, who lived not to make money but to create art. Although he died nearly as penniless as he had been when he arrived in New York 55 years earlier, he left behind a legacy as the “Father of Times Square” that few titans of the theatrical world could equal. And although he “lost it all,” the day would come when his name would rise again in the lights of Broadway. For, soon after his death, his namesake -- a grandson, began his own career on Broadway and he would eventually become as much of a legend in his own time and in his own right as his grandfather had been. Both men, each in very different ways, played major roles in making the American theatrical scene what it is today. But as differenent as their careers were, they shared a passion for theatre, and they shared a name. Oscar Hammerstein. Oscar Hammerstein I, the theatre builder, manager and promoter, and his grandson Oscar Hammerstein II, the Broadway lyricist, whose final work was The Sound of Music, remain two of the most important men in the history of Theatre in America.

(Information for this article was taken from the article “Oscar Hammerstein,” by Oscar Hammerstein III, and the book Lost Broadway Theatres by Nicholas van Hoogstraten.)

Together, over an seventeen year period, Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960) created nine musicals, some of the best loved shows of all time. Test your knowledge of their works and some of the names associated with them.

1. The names of Rodgers and Hammerstein are almost inseparably linked and are synonymous with the modern Broadway musical. Yet both of these men are also famous for works that they created in partnership with others. As part of the earlier, well-known team of Rodgers and ____ , Richard Rodgers wrote many songs and several Broadway musicals, including On Your Toes, Babes in Arms, The Boys from Syracuse, and Pal Joey with a man he had begun creating songs with at age 16. This friend and partner died in 1943. Name him.

2. Like Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II had also enjoyed artistic success with other creative partners. In 1927, he wrote the book and lyrics for a show that was one of the great milestones in the development of the American musical -- a show which finally made a clean break with the traditions of European operetta to establish a truly new form of musical theatre -- and a show that for its time was highly controversial for its honest portrayal of race relations in the United States. Name the show.

3. A new era of musical theatre began in 1943 when the first show written by Rodgers and Hammerstein premiered on Broadway. Name this Pulizter Prize winning show.

4. Rogers and Hammerstein transformed the American musical out of a strictly comic format, proving that drama could work in a musical theatre format. Their second collaboration, first produced in 1945, was very much a drama, and featured one of their all time hit songs "You'll Never Walk Alone." Name the show.

5. Broadway star Mary Martin created the role of Nellie Forbush in the next Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, South Pacific, in 1949, a show which earned the team its second Pulitzer Prize. Again drama played a key part in the story, which was based on the novel Tales of the South Pacific and set during World War II. Name the famous American author who wrote that book.

6. In 1951 the team opened one of their most loved shows, set in Siam and featuring a role that would forever be associated with actor Yul Brenner. Name the show.

7. In 1959 for their final collaborative effort, The Sound of Music, Mary Martin once again joined the team. At the age of 46, Miss Martin played the role of 21-year old Maria Rainer. Mary Martin was as much a Broadway icon as Rodgers and Hammerstein; yet in the intervening years, her own fame within the popular culture has been eclipsed by that of her son, whose celebrity as a television actor was tied to one role on a long running dramatic series. Name her son and his famous role.

8. Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the music and lyrics to The Sound of Music, and the book to the show was written by another famous collaborative team, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. Among the other shows they are famous for are the musical Anything Goes, written with composer Cole Porter, as well as a show produced by ACT I several years ago, a show which for 57 years has held the record for the longest running non-musical in Broadway history. Name the show.

9. Oscar Hammerstein II mentored a neighbor, a teenage boy who had ambitions of becoming a composer/lyricist. The young man’s first Broadway musicals premiered shortly before Hammerstein's death in 1960. Hammerstein's young friend became one of the dominant figures in the world of the Broadway musical in our own time. Name him.

10. Six months before the New York premiere of The Sound of Music, a musical opened on Broadway starring Carol Burnett, in which the music was composed by Mary Rodgers, the daughter of Richard Rodgers. Name this second generation Rodgers musical, which is still very popular today. (Incidentally, in addition to being a composer Mary Rodgers is also an author of children's books, her most famous of which is Freaky Friday.)

This quiz is a potpourri of ACT I trivia that relates in some way to our production of The Adventures of Beatrix Potter, which ran in July.

1. July seems to be Rabbit Month for ACT I. This July we ran The Adventures of Beatrix Potter, featuring the story of Peter Rabbit, and we are also observing our production five years ago this July/August of The Velveteen Rabbit. ACT I has also staged another very famous rabbit show, but not in July. Name that show.
Harvey

2. The Adventures of Beatrix Potter tells the life story of the author of Peter Rabbit, one of the classics of children's literature, published in 1902. Name another children's literature classic previously staged by ACT I which was first published in the first decade of the 20th century.
The Secret Garden

3. The Adventures of Beatrix Potter is the biography of a real author. Name one of two more ACT I shows that were also biographies of real women authors. The Miracle Worker (Helen Keller) and The Sound of Music (Maria von Trapp)

4. The Adventures of Beatrix Potter was written for stage by Joseph Robinette, who has written many plays suitable for child actors. Name another classic of children's literature previously performed by ACT I which was adapted by Joseph Robinette.
Charlotte's Web

5. Animal costumes abound in this and most ACT I STAGE! productions. What was our first show to feature animal roles? The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

The next meeting of the Board of ACT I of Benton County will be held soon. Check back to this box for the exact date.

Members and visitors are always welcome at board meetings!

WARNING! VACATION PHOTOGRAPHS AHEAD!!!

I hope you'll forgive your editor this slight indulgence. Usually, when ACT I has a performance, I'm in the theatre. But after seeing the opening night of The Adventures of Beatrix Potter, I went home to finish packing for a flight the following day and on Sunday, July 11, just about the time the lights were coming up at the Palace Theatre, I was at a pier in Seattle, boarding the cruise liner Sapphire Princess with my brother and my parents, for a seven day cruise to Alaska. The photograph below I took of the ship from mid air in a cable car, half way up Mount Roberts in Juneau. The half billion dollar ship, which had been in service only 26 days when we boarded, holds 3800 passengers and crew (and was fully booked), has a fifteen million dollar state of the art theatre, and serves 14 tons of food per day.

Although I could write volumes about mountains and glaciers and whales and dolphins and Tlingit Indian lore and the gold rush and shipboard food, I won't. It's that $15,000,000 theatre I want to share with my ACT I friends. The ship's performance troupe staged two different Broadway quality musical productions during our week on board -- song and dance reviews with orchestra, chorus, and dancers, along with elaborate sets and costumes. (Several different shows rotate through the Princess fleet, with two running on every ship. All the shows are original, created especially for the cruise line.) Below is a picture of the auditorium of the Sapphire's 700 seat theatre. The theatre fills a six deck space near the bow of the ship, and cabins for the performers and technicians in the production company fill the space to the end of the bow. (The ship has a total of 17 decks, with the three lowest below the water line.)

The shot below was taken during a performance of Piano Man, a show which showcases the music of several famous popular piano players. This scene is part of an over the top tribute to Liberace.

On the final day at sea, passengers are invited to tour the theatre. Backstage, skilled technicians explain how they operate the shows with a fully computerized, weeks old state of the art system, with every technical detail seen on stage fully programmed to run at the the touch of a button. In the picture below, you can see part of the three deck fly space, with all the sets for the two shows in position ready for use, and the elaborate lighting system. We also toured the three level green room space, which included storage for all the costumes for both productions. In addition, the ship's dance captain and one of the solo dancers were onhand to answer questions.

One of the lead dancers, a 32 year old gentleman from London, had a particularly interesting answer to a question that has great relevance to those of us who love community theatre. He was asked if he hoped one day to become famous. "Dancers don't become famous," he replied, but the woman pursued the question, trying to get him to admit that fame was his goal. "Theatre is theatre," he replied. "It doesn't matter where you are. I'm getting to do the thing I love."

If you saw the appalling series "Show Biz Moms and Dads" on Bravo, with its sickening quest to find happiness nowhere but at the elusive top, it's nice to remember that here in Benton County the attitude is more like that of that very talented dancer. "Theatre is theatre. It doesn't matter where you are." And right here at home, we get to do the thing we love.

Okay, one scenic shot and then I'll stop. On Wednesday morning, July 14, we cruised for several hours in Tracy Arm fjord, a finger of water wending its way through a spectacular gorge of high, glacier clad mountains, sailing gingerly through water garnished with icebergs. I took this picture from the balcony of our cabin. Coming out of the fjord, we passed our sister ship, the Diamond Princess, dwarfed by mountains in the background and with a piece of ice older than recorded civilization floating between us. (Ice turns blue when compressed for thousands of years, so the color is an indicator of age.)

I had no idea seven days could be that packed with never to be forgotten experiences. Okay, back to reality. The Sound of Music. Call for tickets now!

Also: Now playing at the Old Creamery Theatre, don't miss The Spitfire Grill, which runs on the Main Stage through September 26, and Camping with Henry and Tom, which opens at the Depot Stage on September 2 and also runs through September 26! In ACT I's anniversary year, please support the professional company which helped bring our own community theatre to life!

Answers to Our Last Quiz