The Online Newsletter of
Volume 7, Number 1 July / August, 2000
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“CHARLOTTE’S WEB” PLAYS TO SOLD-OUT AUDIENCES!
The first production of the 2000-2001 season, produced by ACT I STAGE!, directed by Shirale Hanson and Marcy Horst, and sponsored by John’s Quik Stop, opened at the Palace Theatre on July 8. The show drew sold-out crowds for more than one of the performances, including the closing on July 16.
Reviews and feedback on the performances are still coming in, very positive and encouraging! Most importantly, the cast of 80 children and 10 adults all whispered “wish-we-could-do-it again” sighs once the final piece of straw was swept away.
Pictured below are some highlights from the show.
The Geese, Gander, and Goslings
The Baseball Boys
The ACT I Food Booth at the Vinton Cruise successfully cleared
approximately $1,100 thanks to many generous volunteers!
The board of directors of ACT I of Benton County has given tentative approval to a list of job descriptions for all positions within ACT I, including positions specific to productions and other support staff positions. Among the positions the board is seeking individuals to fill are the following:
Property Manager
Wardrobe Custodian
Volunteer Coordinator
Season Ticket Secretary
Membership Secretary
Librarian
Anyone interested in filling any of these positions should contact President Pat Lyons or any member of the board, or e-mail act1ofBC@aol.com. To see the complete list of job descriptions, click the link below to read more about these and the other positions that have been established.
Palace Gems, 2000-2001
John’s Quick Stop, John Ketchen
Farmers Savings Bank (**they will sponsor “Harvey”)
Theisen’s, Scott Zimmerman, Manager
Cedar River Ink
Horst Family Players
Expressions, Lori Smith
Cooling Dance Center, Joan Cooling
Frazier Nursery, John and Carolyn Frazier
Michael and Dowd, Ron and Kay Dowd
State Farm Insurance, Stan and Rhonda Westergard
Clingman Pharmacy, Inc., Jon Clingman
Three Rivers Insurance, Dave Vermedahl
LaGrange Pharmacy, Inc., Mike LaGrange
Davis Photography, Lisa Coots
The Solutions Store, Rick and Betsy Hadley
Cardinal Motors, Inc., Vicky Hunter Vice President
Vinton Family Practice
* $3,950 as of July 29, 2000
Act I wishes to thank its season sponsors, our “Palace Gems.” Your generous donations will help to make the theatre experience possible for all our performers and patrons. Thank You!!
For Information on how you or your organization can become a Palace Gem, please contact Joan Cooling. Sponsor Chairperson, 472-4551. Sponsors benefits include recognition in all of our mainstage season programs.
For those of you who have been patiently awaiting the next ACT I production, following the summer's smash run of "Charlotte's Web," wait no longer! More talented Benton County performers are currently training their vocal cords, dusting off their dance shoes, and perfecting their comedic timing for
ACT I's annual Variety Show.
This year's variety show, Encore! Encore!, promises to please your ears, delight your eyes and tickle your funny bone, as residents from 5 cities in Benton County prepare to entertain you with their many talents and antics.
Appearing on the Act I stage for Encore! Encore! will be several very impressive debut acts that you'll not want to miss, as well as some of your favorite ACT I veterans with new material to charm you yet again.
You're in for an additional treat this year, as Act I of Benton County sponsors an exhibition of wonderful photographs , full of visual and emotional appeal. Come discover why talented local photographic artists have been lurking in the darkroom!
If you wish to be a part of Encore! Encore! (and we'd love to have your participation), we are looking for persons to donate goodies for intermission and act as ushers for the three performance dates. To offer your help with food or ushering, please contact Julie Long, House Manager for the production. For you photography buffs, there's still time to enter your own photos! See the auditions page of this website for more information or call the Variety Show director, Mary Horst, at 319-454-9021 for details.
New!!…. In conjunction with our Variety Show for 2000, Encore! Encore!, ACT I will be sponsoring a photo exhibition of quality photography taken
by local enthusiasts. Photos will be displayed in the lobby of the Palace Theatre during performances of the ACT I Variety Show, Encore! Encore!, September 28 - October 1, 2000.
This is not a competition, but space is limited. Photographs will be
selected for display based on overall quality, originality in subject matter and/or background, and interesting use of light.
WE ARE LOOKING FOR INTERESTED EXHIBITORS! You don’t need to be a professional to take great photos! Enter a favorite landscape or vacation photo, or
special photo of a loved one.
Include a 3 x 5 card with each photo entered, including: Name, Address, Phone, Photo Title.
Photographs may be dropped off at the Palace Theatre, Vinton, Iowa or mailed to Mary Horst, P.O. Box 101, Blairstown, IA 52209. Entries must be received by September 15, 2000.
Photos may be color or black and white.
Minimum size: 8” x 10” including matting. Maximum size: 16” x 20” including matting.
Matting your photograph is recommended. Photographs can be mounted on foam core or other mounting material; however, all photographs must be unframed.
Limit of three photos per exhibitor.
If you have questions, call Mary Horst at 319-454-9021.
July/August Trivia Quiz
(Great Lines From Act I Shows)
This month we repeat a quiz theme from last season, but with all new clues. Identify the show in which the following lines were spoken:
Careful readers will notice that this month’s quiz is, indeed, last month’s quiz. As not one member
responded, I thought I’d give you another chance to answer.
Please submit new entries to Marcy Horst, 1307 C Ave, Vinton 52349 or g.horst@www.mebbs.com
Message from the Editor
This month I bow to the experts, and, instead of a message from me, below you will find a column written by John Carlson that was printed in the Des Moines Register on Sunday, June 23, 2000. Mr. Carlson generously emailed me permission to reprint it in our little newsletter. I’m sure many of our members will smile, laugh out loud, and appreciate his sentiments concerning his first community theatre experience.
The note from my former high school teacher, Harold Cross, came a couple of months ago. He reintroduced
himself and told me about a theater company he’d formed in Louisa County nearly a decade ago.
“The Old Keck Theater Players” puts on shows each spring, and some are musicals Cross himself has authored.
That’s nice, I thought.
Folks get together and spend a couple of days learning a few songs. They rehearse once or twice and put on their show.
Like I said. Nice.
And very naïve on my part.
My education began when a friend asked me to be in “Guys and Dolls,” the play the Carousel Community Theater group in Indianola was planning for the
summer.
This, I quickly decided, would be a very bad idea. I’ve never been on stage in my life. As in not ever.
My friend said it didn’t matter. They needed some characters to play gamblers. I could stand behind somebody. It’d be fun, he said.
Then my kid nudged me. Try it, she said. It’d help me
understand why she likes the theater so much.
I buckled.
Rehearsals began in late May – 15 or so men singing in the middle school music room.
I was the one who didn’t read music. Gayla Tighe, the show’s musical director, asked what part I sang. Tenor? Baritone? What?
I shrugged and mumbled. We settled on tenor. First tenor. Which, I discovered, is where you have to hit the high notes. And I actually hit one, too. I think
it was on June 2.
Two weeks later, my friend, the one who talked me into this in the first place, reported a crisis had developed. The
guy who was playing the role of “Big Jule” (pronounce it Julie) dropped out. It’s only a couple of lines, he said. You’ll have a
blast.
What follows is pretty much a blur, beginning by coming to grips with stark, gasping stage fright.
A couple of lines? It was 48 lines. Ever have a panic attack? Ever sweat through a shiny blue suit? Or wake up at 3 a.m., and blurt, “Let’s shoot crap” (one of my lines).
Or having a song so embedded in your brain, that when you go to church, you hum “Luck Be a Lady” while everybody else is singing “A Mighty Fortress is Our God?”
Then, when the experience is over, realize it’s maybe the most fun you’ve had in years?
That is my lesson for the summer of 2000.
A stage production is unbelievably detailed, hard work – particularly for the people in charge – in this case, Tighe; Michele Larche, the show’s
director; and Rich Rogers, the technical crew boss.
I learned that a musical director has to be a remarkable musician, good-natured and demanding, and that the director of a play is a coach and a leader,
every bit as much as the person in charge of an athletic team.
I learned that there is wonderful talent in Indianola, and if that’s the case, most certainly in dozens of other towns in Iowa.
In this play, start off with the friend who talked me into all this. His name is Dr. Joel Hade, a physician whose job is saving people’s lives. He’s also one of the nicest, funniest guys I’ve ever been around.
Marie Herring, one of the female leads, is a really fine actress who, incredibly, never seems satisfied with her performance. Ann Oliver, who next month will take her first job, teaching school at Prairie of Gowrie, has a terrific voice. Gowrie is very lucky.
Randy Stone, head of the high school drama department in Indianola, was opposite me in my crap shooting scene. He
offered gentle, useful advice and smiled in dress rehearsal when I said, “I see no reason.” Which was his line. Not mine.
Stephe Larche, a special ed teacher at Southeast Polk High School who was an all-American linebacker at Graceland College, is funny all the time – a
talented, delightful guy. His nephew, Jason Larche, is a singer, actor and composer who could work on the stage anywhere he wants – and probably will.
Then there are the three dozen others – teenagers, retired people, men and women – average folks – who spend their evenings doing this because they
love it.
They were all very nice to a stumbling, bumbling rookie, a novice who was thrilled at the chance to see it close-up.
So I’m sorry for not getting back to you sooner, Mr. Cross. I admire what you are doing with the Old Keck
Players Theater in Wapello, and what community theater companies are doing all over Iowa.
Too bad I took so long figuring it out.
Can you relate?
Marcy g.horst@www.mebbs.com
472-5518
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