by Sue Freet

As ACT I prepares to open its Main Stage Series for Season 2003 - 2004: Better Red than Dead with the musical Annie, we feature one of the featured performers from that production, Alan Nebola, as our Member of the Month for August.  Alan plays the role of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and has been performing with ACT I since 2001.

Little did Alan Nebola know when a friend of his from work dared him to try out for a show, that he would get hooked.  His friend, a Vinton resident, introduced him to Joan Cooling prior to My Fair Lady, Alan's first ACT I show.  His first impressions were that "It was alot of work, but it was alot of fun."  He has since declared that this was his favorite ACT I show in which he has particpated.

Alan originally began his acting career at a very early age, as a fifth grader when he played a ten year old brat named Albert in a play titled Tall Story, performed at Northwest Missouri State College in Maryville, Missouri.  He was later in high school plays and was a member of the National Thespian Society.  However, following high school, Alan put theatre on hold and didn't return to the stage again until his performances in My Fair Lady for ACT I just two years ago.  Since then he has really been making up for lost time.  Although his role in My Fair Lady was a small one, his next ACT I role was anything but small.  In the fall of 2002, he played the central character of Pseudolous in Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.  A few months later he was back on the Palace stage again, this time in a totally different role, as Montague in Romeo and Juliet.  He was back again for our very next production, our reader's theatre presentation of The Titanic Disaster Hearings in April of 2002.  In the Fall of 2002, Alan returned for the role of Senator Harrison Howell in Kiss Me, Kate, and in October of 2002 he was in the performance ensemble of our Events Series presentation, Monster Medley Spooktacular.  And now he's back for Annie.

Alan Nebola, left, as Pseudolus, elludes the Proteans during the climactic
finale of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

Alan grew up in Iowa, graduating from high school in Atlantic, Iowa.  He was a submarine sailor (a Navy Nuke) for nine years in the Navy.  He joined the navy in February of 1970, and was in nuke school for two years before being sent to Pascaglula, Mississippi to be part of the construction of the nuclear submarine U.S.S. Tunny (SSN 682).  Alan explains that at that time all fast attacks were named for fish (tunny is a kind of tuna).  Once the construction of the submarine was completed, Alan served on the crew as an operator in the engine room, operating the nuclear reactor.  After his Navy career, he traveled around the country doing startup testing on new construction nuclear plants, but ended up doing consulting on projects for various nuclear plants around the country.

After the broad comedy of Forum, Alan tried his hand at 
Shakespeare, playing Romeo's father in Romeo and Juliet.

Traveling turned out to be a very good thing for Alan, when he met his wife Angie at the American Airlines baggage claim in La Guardia Airport in 1979.  That was on April Fool's Day.  New York resident Alan, being no fool, traded addresses and phone numbers with Chicago resident Angie after 15 minutes.  Angie has followed Alan all over the country during the 21 years that they have been married.  Angie has a Physics degree, but works for a company that designs web sites, Overcoffee Productions.  One of her work assignments is doing the website for Theatre Cedar Rapids.  To date, Angie has appeared in one ACT I production, the reader's theatre performances of The Titanic Disaster Hearings.  Her role was that of Cedar Rapids native and Titanic survivor Mahala Douglas.   Angie is an excellent photographer and has taken photographs of many ACT I productions that appear on this website, including My Fair Lady, Forum, Romeo and Juliet, It Runs in the Family, and Kiss Me, Kate.

In our readers' theatre production of the Titanic Disaster Hearings,
Alan portrayed Arthur Rostron, captain of Titanic's rescue ship, Carpathia.
Playing a sea captain was a natural role for this U.S. Navy Veteran.

Prior to meeting Angie, Alan was living in Saratoga Springs, New York beginning in 1978.  Following that, they lived in Chicago and California before they were married in January of 1982 in Las Vegas.  (Following his service in the Navy, Alan worked in a variety of nuclear power plants, usually doing start up work for new plants.)  Following their marriage, the couple lived in New Orleans, Louisiana; Burlington, Kansas; Pennsville, New Jersey; London, Arkansas; Berthid, Colorado; then back to Kansas before moving to Omaha, where they lived for ten years.  During that time, he worked occasionally at the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo, commuting from Omaha.  During 1994, Alan lived temporarily at the Hummel Apartments in Vinton while doing work at the Palo plant.

Alan, right, playing a Republican United States Senator in last fall's musical Kiss Me, Kate.
Now, for his latest role in Annie, he switches parties and is elevated to the presidency.

In 1997, the Nebolas moved to Atkins, Iowa with their two dogs when Alan started working full time at the nuclear plant in Palo.  (Being a regular for ACT I keeps him in Vinton as much as he is in Atkins!)  Besides being a regular performer, Alan has also served a year on the Board of Directors for ACT I.

It was in The Titanic Disaster Hearings that Angie Nebola made her ACT I
debut, playing Mahala Douglas of Cedar Rapids, one of the Titanic survivors.

Since Alan has played politicians twice, when asked about his political ambitions, he notes that perhaps he should run for Governor of California!

Alan says of his involvemt in ACT I: "The show must go on!  ACT I has been kind of a family for us and we really enjoy it!"  Might we add, Alan and Angie, that we really enjoy your involvement, too -- and we hope that you settle down now and stay with us for some time to come!

Alan as President Roosevelt with his cabinet in Annie.

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