Grease Paint Online; January, 2003

Our holiday vocal recital Intermezzo III, Silent Night, got ACT I in the holiday mood with two performances at the Ray House of this very charming and beautifully performed Events Series production. From the carolers in the hallway and dining room greeting audience members with festive tunes prior to the actual performance to the beautiful holiday table of hors d’oeuvres following the hour long music presentation, this was an enchanting presentation dedicated to the Christmas season in general and the favorite carol Silent Night in particular. At the beginning of the program, vocalists Gerald Horst and Rob Glass, accompanied by Rob on the guitar, recreated the first performance of Silent Night from its humble beginnings in an Austrian mountain village in 1818, created as the result of a broken organ. The program ended with a much different modern adaptation of the same carol. In between, audience members were treated to a variety of musical treats, including a vocal performance by Elise Dickerson accompanied by her father Ed on the guitar; a vocal solo by bass Kevin Bookmeier; a woodwind ensemble performed by students at Tilford Middle School; a vocal solo by Rob Glass; performances of several numbers by Sonshine, an adult vocal group representing several different congregations of local churches; a vocal solo by Jenny Janssen with percussion accompaniment by her young sons Daniel and Jeremiah; a vocal quartet by Erin and Clare Horst with Gerald Horst and Rob Glass; a piano duet by Erin and Clare Horst; and vocal solos by Lori Ferguson.

Ed and Elise Dickerson perform a vocal / guitar number in the program of Intermezzo III, Silent Night.

Accompanists for the program were pianists Lori Ferguson, Clare Horst, Nancy Jorgenson, Mary Ann Welchel, and Laura Zamzow. Sonshine, the popular local ensemble, is directed by Nancy Geiken and accompanied by Mary Ann Whelchel. The members are Stan and Nancy Geiken, Lori Ferguson, Marcy and Gerald Horst, Denny and Kathy Hummel, Alan and Janet Woodhouse, Dick Kerdus, Pat Lyons, Lois Martin, Susan Parker, and Dan Wiley.

Our thanks to directors Marcy and Gerald Horst for assembling this fine program. The concluding production of this season’s Events Series, Intermezzo III, Silent Night filled the Ray House parlors for each performance. For additional information about this production go to the Intermezzo III, Silent Night page of this website at www.act1.org/intermezzo3.htm.

Opening next month at the Palace Theatre in Vinton will be the charming operetta The Reluctant Dragon, written in the style of those British masters of the genre, Sir William Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan. The Reluctant Dragon, was adapted from the Kenneth Grahame children's story by Steven C. Anderson, with music by Dana P. Rowe and lyrics by John Dempsey. Grahame's original story was itself an adaptation of the legend of Saint George and the Dragon, the subject of numerous literary presentations. The production is sponsored by Cedar River Ink. Directors Marcy and Gerald Horst are pleased to announce the cast and accompanist of the upcoming ACT I Main Stage production.

Mort (Townsperson)........................................................... Brian Larkin

Beaulah (Townsperson).................................................... Julie Canaday

Aggie (Townsperson)....................................................... Sheila Monson

Fran (Townsperson)........................................................... Marcy Horst

Boy.......................................................................................... Rob Glass

St. George........................................................................... Gerald Horst

Felicity (Dragon/Townsperson)........................................ Nancy Geiken

Naomi (Dragon/Townsperson)............................................. Lois Martin

Accompanist.................................................................... Laura Zamzow

A boy who “reads too much” encounters a dragon who is most “undragony.” The boy overcomes his prejudices about dragons when he discovers that this one would rather write poetry than breath fire. Their secret friendship flourishes until St. George comes to town. The townspeople, hungry for some excitement, tell the noted dragon slayer some very tall tales about the dastardly deeds of their local celebrity. The valiant St. George swears to kill the foul beast. However, the boy, the dragon, and the knight arrive at a delightful compromise. This new adaptation of Grahame’s classic tale is rich with harmony and musical whimsy.

The Reluctant Dragon company is pleased to recommend this show for ACT I audiences of all ages! Bring the whole family!

The production opens on Friday, February 21 at 7:00 PM, and continues February 22 at 7:00 PM, February 23 at 2:00 PM, February 28 at 7:00 PM, March 1 at 7:00 PM, and March 2 at 2:00 PM. Tickets are on sale now by calling the ACT I Box Office at 472-9957.

For additional information about this production go to the Reluctant Dragon page of this website at www.act1.org/dragon.htm.

The ACT I Ticket information line and Palace Theatre Box Office number is 472-9957. Call now for reservations for The Reluctant Dragon!

Director Steve Arnold and Assistant Director John Blix have announced auditions for the final production of Season 2002 - 2003: A Cast of Outcasts. The show is Neil Simon's Pulitzer Prize winning play Lost in Yonkers, billed by the author as a "comic drama," first performed in 1990.

Auditions will be held Sunday, February 16 at 2:00 PM and Monday, February 17 at 7:00 PM at the ACT I Studio above Clingman Pharmacy.

The play is a coming of age story about two Jewish boys living with their German immigrant grandmother in Yonkers, New York during World War II.

Seven performers are needed for the production, including two boys to play characters aged 15 1/2 and 13 1/2. Three women are needed, two for characters in their 30s and one for a character in her 70s; and two men are needed for characters in their late 30s - early 40s. Six of the roles are sizeable.

For additional information about this production go to the Lost in Yonkers page of this website at www.act1.org/yonkers.htm.

During the past year, one of ACT I’s charter members has once again become active with us. Nancy Geiken, who helped inaugurate ACT I as assistant director for our very first production, You Can’t Take it with You in 1980, is back with us again in our two most recent productions. As director of the vocal ensemble Sonshine, her talents were an integral part of our recent Events Series production Intermezzo III, Silent Night. And she also has a role in our upcoming Main Stage musical, The Reluctant Dragon. For this edition of Grease Paint, Nancy is featured as ACT I’s member of the Month for January, 2003.

Nancy Geiken is a long time employee of the Vinton-Shellsburg Community School District, serving currently as the media specialist for Washington High School. As a behind the scenes member of our historic first production company, Nancy designed the set as well as served as assistant to director Howard Blanning. Nancy returned to ACT I again with our fourth production late in 1981, the comic melodrama Deadwood Dick, as a vocalist. Nancy contributed her musical talents to ACT I next as a member of the cast of our January, 1998 variety show Be Our Guest, as a member of the celebrated Sister Act chorus. She returned in September of that year performing as part of our pre show entertainment for our outdoor musical Bye Bye Birdie. Nancy returned for performances in our variety show I’ll Be Home for Christmas in November of 1999, ACT I’s first production to be performed in the Palace Theatre, which had opened a couple of weeks earlier.

Nancy’s husband Stan, an area farmer, appeared with ACT I for the first time as a vocalist with Sonshine during I’ll be Home for Christmas, and also appeared with us last season as part of the ensemble for Words and Music by Skeet Powers. Stan also appeared in our recent Intermezzo III, Silent Night. Stan is also a Benton County Extension Director, in addition to farming. In The Reluctant Dragon, Nancy will appear as Felicity and also double as the alto voice of the Dragon.

Nancy Geiken appeared for the first time on the ACT I stage as a vocalist as a member of the cast of Deadwood Dick, pictured above, ACT I’s fourth production, staged in 1981.

Nancy organized Sonshine about five years ago. As the director of her church choir, she wanted an opportunity to sing part of the time, too. Sonshine usually sings only in the summers, while many church choirs are taking a break, and the group tries to sing for all of the churches to which Sonshine members belong. It is loosely organized, and Nancy says she is not really the director so much as the organizer and music selector. She loves to sing gospel arrangements that have a good bass part and a "swingy" rhythm, and is always searching for good arrangements for the group to sing. Several professional musicians are in the group and usually keep them "on track" musically.

Nancy and Stan have three children - Doug and his wife Becky (in CR), Matt (in Tempe) and Melissa (a senior at Luther). Nancy directed plays and musicals at WHS for several years (in the 70's), including The Diary of Anne Frank, Camelot, You Can't Take it With You, The Music Man and others. She was also the Extracurricular Speech Coach for many years. (71-77 and 82-89).

Many thanks to Nancy Geiken and her husband Stan for her contributions to ACT I through the years, and we look forward to further musical performances by them in the future!

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 have been updated to make the members' accomplishments current! To visit the Member of the Month Archives, go to www.act1.org/mom.htm.

Our annual "Great Lines from ACT I Shows" quiz tests your knowledge of some of the more memorable words spoken from our stage. Name the show from which each of these lines is quoted:

2. “Do you know that when I was ten years old and I did something wrong, my mother used to hit me with a copy of Time magazine with my father’s picture on the cover.”

6. “Cold capon?? COLD CAPON??? For a sit down dinner? You think I’m some kind of BARBARIAN?”

8. “Well, I thought nothing of that, because when you’ve lived in a town as long as I have lived in this one, you get used to the fact that everybody knows your name.”

9. "He's four years old and he's double jointed, but he could probably scrunch up."

10. "All that money that people all over this country lose in Wall Street must go in somebody's pockets."

The next meeting of the Board of ACT I of Benton County will be Monday, February 10, 2003, at 8:30 at the Cooling Dance Studio.

Members and visitors are always welcome at board meetings!

Minutes of meetings of the ACT I board from July, 2000 on can be accessed from a link on the "Everything You Need to Know About ACT I" page, or on the "Minutes" page of our website, www.act1.org/minutes.htm.

Answers to Last Month’s Quiz Great Songs from ACT I Shows

Answers to Last Month’s Quiz

Great Songs from ACT I Shows