Volume 12, Number 2 July 27, 2005
Children's Theatre Series Continues ...
The
Princess Plays
Open July 27
Barely
will the applause have died down in Van Horne when the lights come up at the
Palace
Theatre in Vinton for the second children's theatre production of our new
season. There, ACT 1's 94th production is being staged by a company of eighty-one students ranging in age from five to thirteen, with several adults and high school students helping to put the three one-act plays on stage.
The Princess Plays, written by Colleen Neuman, consists of The Princess and the
Princess, directed by Marcy Horst and April Ahrenholz; Twice Upon a Time, directed by Shirale Hanson and Sheila Monson, and
The Lost Half-Hour, directed by Joan Cooling and Alice Means. The show runs July 27 - 31 at the Palace Theatre in Vinton. All tickets are $5.00.
The show is produced by our Stage One summer theatre camp, which is part of our
ACT I STAGE! youth program and which serves elementary students in the northern
half of Benton County. Marcy Horst is the camp director.
Two
princesses lock horns on a narrow mountain bridge, each refusing to give way to
the other,
in The Princess and the Princess.
The
casts for the three plays feature several new faces in addition to returning
regulars. (ACT I debuts are marked below with an asterisk.) In the
cast of The Princess and the Princess are Megan
Horst
Five yucky, icky, gooey, gummy princesses (wait, take that back, that's four princess and one commoner with potential), all heavy with attitude, are inadvertently conjured by three witches who have no idea how to make them go away in Twice Upon a Time.
Twice
Upon a Time features Sara
Jorgensen*, Katie Hanson, Willow Huber, Kaia Monson, Rachel Monson, Emma Horst, Maddie Springer,
Kali Timmerman, Ben Akers, Bethany Stainbrook*, Paige Timmerman, Jennifer Akers*,
Sydney Monson, Hunter Vogt*, Elizabeth Fischer, Annie Meyer, Emma Clingman
A Simpleton uses the wits no on suspected he had to rescue a princess from a dragon in The Lost Half-Hour.
Appearing
in The Lost Half Hour are Matt Walston
The cast of The Princess Plays assembles on stage for curtain call.
The
technical and backstage crew consists of Patrick Horst, Justin Nelson, Jackson
Tranel, and Gerald Horst; the set crew is Gerald Horst, Corey Cooling, Tony Meyer, Kirk Monson,
and Chad
Riffey
Orientation directors for Stage One Summer Camp were April Ahrenholz, Joan Cooling, Blake Hansen, Abby Hilton, Clare Horst, Erin Horst, Marcy Horst, Patrick Horst, Kaitlin Karrick, Matt Meyer, Sheila Monson, Jackson Tranel, Sara Walston, and Brittney Werner.
The Princess Plays will be performed on July 27, 28, and 30 at 7:00 PM and July 31 at 2:00 PM. It is sponsored by Kevin and April Ahrenholz. In addition, the ACT I STAGE! summer camps are supported in part by grants from the Louise Gilchrist Charitable Trust, the Kirkland Trust, and Frontier Natural Products Co-op.
For additional information about this production, including rehearsal photographs as they are obtained and (later) a complete cast list by character, go to The Princess Plays show page of this website at www.act1.org/princess.htm.
The ACT I Ticket information line and Palace Theatre Box Office number is 472-9957! Keep this number handy all season and remember to call ahead for reservations! Call now for reservations for The Princess Plays!
Let Your Hair Down, Rapunzel Enjoys Successful Run
The
Prince is amazed by Rapunzel's long, golden hair as he approaches her tower in
the ACT I production of Let Your Hair Down, Rapunzel which ran July 8 -
10 at Benton Community High School.
ACT
I's new season, "You Can Fool All of the People ... Some of the Time" got off in
fine style
with a three performance run of our children's
theatre production, Let Your Hair Down, Rapunzel by Karen Boettcher-Tate
with music and lyrics by Scott DeTurk, produced by our Second Stage Theatre Camp
at Benton Community
High School in Van Horne on July 8 - 10. The show, with a cast of 38,
presented an age old fairy tale with some neat new twists. The show,
directed by Mary Horst, was sponsored by the
Benton County State Bank and the Coon Creek Telephone Company. Our season
theme was well served by this delightful script, which features a dishonest
witch and her cronies who manage to fool the others in the story, but only up to
a point! The show
played performances to three large and appreciative audiences who appreciated
both the show's very talented cast, made up mostly of students from the Benton
Community School District, and the innovative staging with a set designed by
Mary Horst that included a fourteen foot tower.
Director Mary Horst greets her opening night audience with the traditional director's curtain speech.
Prior to the birth of their daughter Rapunzel, Mrs. Shwartzenbuckle urges her husband to steal her green vegetables growing in the garden of the neighboring witch.
The Shwartzenbuckle's celebrate Rapunzel's 16th birthday.
After their daughter is kidnapped by the witch, Rapunzel's parents appeal to the king and queen for help.
The king holds the portrait of Rapunzel, causing his son to fall in love with the girl's image.
Sage Parsley, Sage Rosemary, Sage Thyme, Coriander, Ginger, and the Chili Peppers try to figure out how to rescue Rapunzel from the Witch.
The evil witch cuts Rapunzel's hair, which has quickly and mysteriously grown quite long.
All ends happily by the final curtain!
For
additional information about this production, including more photographs and a
complete cast list by character, (as well as performance photographs) go to the Let Your Hair Down Rapunzel show page of this website at www.act1.org/rapunzel.htm.
To
learn more about ACT I's youth program STAGE!, including our Stage One and
Second Stage Theatre Camps, visit the ACT I STAGE! page at www.act1.org/stage.htm.
Additional Casting Announced for Meredith Willson's The Music Man
Main Stage Series Opens September 15
The Music Man is currently in rehearsal
Cast
members of our upcoming musical, Meredith Willson's The Music Man, have
been
forbidden to say "I'm just in the chorus" of the popular 1957 musical
that comes to the Palace Theatre in Vinton this September. The chorus in
this show is of the utmost importance to the plot, and the directorial concept
begins with the idea that the chorus is the "central character" of this
show about River City, Iowa, which is based on Meredith Willson's hometown of
Mason City.
In
this issue, we introduce the cast members appearing in our all important chorus.
In addition to those cast members who were announced last month, our chorus
includes Kevin
Ahrenholz, Katie
Akers, Kevin Bookmeier, Allison Canaday,
Emma Clingman, Camille
Fank, Rachel Gustafson, Katie Hancock, Mark Hancock, Will Hancock, Aric Hanson, Alyssa Hanson, Blake
Havran, Cassie Hines, Ivy Huber, Nick Hyland, Gina Lahue, Wesley Lyons, Rachel Monson, Mark Noe, Tess
Noeller, Luke Owens, Josh Shafar, Kimberly Shafar, Ben Stainbrook,
Nicholas Stout, Sherry Stout, Molly Ternus, Jackson Tranel, Greg Walston,
Brittney Werner, Suzie Westlund, Hayley Jo Wombacher, Jordan Yessak
Members of the production crews and the pit orchestra will be announced in our next issue!
For additional information about this production, including a complete cast list by character, go to The Music Man show page of this website at www.act1.org/musicman.htm.
New Officers Elected at Board's Organizational Meeting
At a meeting of the ACT I Board of Directors held recently, Joan Cooling was elected by that body as our president for the coming season. Joan begins her third non-consecutive term in this office. She served last year as secretary. The new Vice President is Kevin Ahrenholz. Elected as the new Secretary is Sue Freet. Greg Walston, Treasurer last season, was re-elected to that post. The board also welcomed two new members who were elected by the membership in June, Mike Modrow and Alan Nebola. Ed Cardwell is the seventh member of the board. Five of the board members are from Vinton; Alan Nebola is from Atkins, and Ed Cardwell is from Newhall. Congratulations to our new officers and thank you all for serving as board members!
Member of the Month
Sue Freet
Have you ever wondered who is on the ACT I Board and what exactly it is that they do? Well, wonder no more. All seven members of our board are currently involved in our upcoming production of The Music Man. (This is the first time in my memory that the entire board has been involved in one production at the same time.) Board President Joan Cooling is the choreographer for the show, member Ed Cardwell is the show's Technical Director in charge of Set Construction; Treasurer Greg Walston, Vice President Kevin Ahrenholz, and member Alan Nebola are all in the cast, and new board member Mike Modrow is one of the assistant directors and the Stage Manager. Rounding out the board is Sue Freet, newly elected Board Secretary and the other Assistant Director for The Music Man. Unlike last year, when our Member of the Month feature was focused on members who were involved in ACT I's early years, for Season 26 we'll be looking at current members whose arrival within ACT I has been far more recent but who have become very involved in the operation of the organization. And Sue seems a good place to start! So this month we honor Sue Freet as our Member of the Month for July, 2005!
Although Sue Freet may not be someone all of our patrons may immediately know, those of us involved in production have come to rely on her expertise and dedication in all things theatrical. Sue is currently serving as Assistant Director with us for the fourth time (including Life with Mother in 2000, Kiss Me, Kate! in 2002, and Noises Off in 2004) and she will also be our Assistant Director for Lend Me a Tenor in March. She was appointed to a vacancy on our board earlier this year.
Sue has lived in Vinton since June of 1999 when she became the Human Resources Specialist for the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton. In that capacity she handles hiring of personnel not only for the local campus but for services provided to visually impaired individuals throughout the State of Iowa. Sue is single and from the Waterloo area. She is a graduate of Don Boscoe high school in Gilbertville (where she played Alma Hix in The Music Man) and has a B.A. in Speech Pathology and an M.A. in Elementary Education, both from U.N.I. Her Mom is long time Black Hawk County Treasurer Barbara Freet.
Sue has been active in theatre from her school years on, and has remained active though different job changes. She spent two years as a speech therapist on a Navajo Reservation and during that time was Assistant Director for The Marriage at the Red Mesa (Arizona) High School. She then returned to the Waterloo area where she taught at a Cedar Falls preschool. A summer job with an engineering firm led to a job offer in the Human Resources department a year later and she has remained in that field ever since. Sue was also on the staff of the Waterloo Community Playhouse for six years, and was very active in that organization in a variety of productions. She was a frequent Stage Manager for WCP productions (Dracula, Fiddler on the Roof, Sketches of a Family Portrait, Godspell, Johnny Blue - How Do You Do? and Charlotte's Web). Sue also did crew work on costumes (Sound of Music, Noises Off, Witness for the Prosecution), makeup (Once Upon a Mattress), sound (Johnny Appleseed, A Christmas Carol, Tribute), lights (Snow White), and props (A Servant's Christmas, Barnum). At WCP she appeared onstage in Oliver!, a show she also did in high school.
In addition to work at WCP, Sue was Stage Manager and did props for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf at Theatre Cedar Rapids and she had a stint as Drama Director at Marion High School, where she staged Snoopy, South Pacific, Grease, Cinderella, and Bye Bye Birdie.
In addition to theatre, Sue enjoys quilting, cooking, scrapbooking, traveling, and spoiling her nieces and nephews. She is also active on "Team Communicate" at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Vinton. She was also involved with the Cedar Rapids Jaycees while living there and was on that organization's board of directors.
Sue's organizational skills are readily apparent to any ACT I member who has done a show with her and her importance to the success of the shows with which she has been involved. Sue says of ACT I: "Benton County is so lucky to have a theater of this quality locally. I've seen some really good shows at ACT I and some extremely talented actors and actresses."
ACT I is very fortunate to have Sue's talents available to us and to have her involvement in the organization expand. We look forward to her continued involvement with us!
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.
ACT I TRIVIA QUIZ
"Once Upon a Time"
ACT I STAGE! has provided
theatrical opportunities for young actors and age appropriate children's theatre
for young audiences in Benton County since 1999. The thirteen productions
(including three triple bills, bringing the total number of plays to
nineteen) which have been presented by STAGE! have taken place in a
variety of settings, from the vague fairy tale world of "Once upon a
time" to stories with a very specific time and place. How many of
these ACT I STAGE! productions can you name?
1. What are the only two plays ever produced by ACT I STAGE! that did NOT feature kings, queens, witches, fairies, ogres, talking animals, or any element of the supernatural?
2. Which three ACT I STAGE! productions featured actual historical characters?
3. Which two productions were based on stories which drew inspiration from farms owned by the authors?
4. What is the only ACT I STAGE! production which took place in part during the twenty-first century?
5. Though kings and queens are frequently a part of children's literature and children's theatre, royalty has been far less frequently portrayed in ACT I productions that have not been a part of our STAGE! program. What is the only ACT I production NOT produced by STAGE! in which a queen appears?
6. Which is the only production to take place entirely in a forest?
7. What was the only STAGE! production in which a scene took place on the moon?
8. What was the only STAGE! production to portray a television talk show?
Submit answers to: act1ofBC@aol.com or mail to:
ACT
I of Benton County Trivia
Quiz
Box 222, Vinton, Iowa 52349
REMEMBER:
You do NOT need to have all the answers in order to submit an entry!
Deception is afoot this season in our Main Stage, Children's Theatre, and Events productions. Yet some things you'll see on stage this year seem strangely familiar, because similar stories and situations have already been staged by ACT I. How many past ACT I productions can you name based on the clues below?
1. In which play does a mysterious con man come to a small town with bold promises, stealing the heart of the leading lady, but NOT The Music Man? The Rainmaker
2. In which play does a witch lie to trick and trap a young man as her prisoner, but NOT Let Down Your Hair, Rapunzel? The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
3. In which play do a pair of gentlemen attempt to deceive a crowd of people into believing that someone is not who they say they are, but NOT Lend Me a Tenor? My Fair Lady
4. In which play does a character scheme to not pay his taxes, but NOT Love, Sex, and the IRS? You Can't Take it with You
5. Which production was a themed triple bill with three plays about one type of character, but NOT The Princess Plays? The Good, The Bad, and the Ogre
6.
Which play was a new twist on a Biblical story, but NOT The Diary of Adam and
Eve?
The
Best Christmas Pageant Ever or The
Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
7. In which play is the action dominated by a "professor" with the initials H. H., but NOT The Music Man? My Fair Lady
8. In which play does a man dress as a woman to attempt to deceive an officer of the law, but NOT Love Sex, and the IRS? It Runs in the Family
Message
from
the Editor
July has been a busy month for ACT I! Three productions have been in rehearsal, with casts totaling 38, 50, and 81. (And those figures don't include crew or directing staff!) And now we're ready for our second opening night in one month. Congratulations to ACT I STAGE! for two successful productions in one month involving over 120 Benton County students! Please support our hard working student actors and their equally hard working adult mentors and join them for a delightful evening (or matinee) of entertaining theatre!
A reminder, if anyone would be interested in assisting with the production of Grease Paint this year, e-mail me at act1ofbc@aol.com!
THIS PARAGRAPH IS BEING ADDED the morning after the opening night performance of The Princess Plays:
Make no mistake, this is a show you need to see! Those who attend this show will NOT regret it! It is well worth an evening. This is delightful two hours, well prepared and very well performed by a young cast. The script is a hoot, fast paced and laced throughout with snappy humor. Kudos to all for a splendid job well done! This show shatters all stereotypes about princesses, you'll never look at a tiara the same way again!
Steve
That's Grease Paint for July 27, 2005!
To look back at previous online issues, visit our Grease Paint Archives page by clicking here!
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