In this, our twenty-fifth anniversary month, we honor the organization that first breathed life into ACT I, the Old Creamery Theatre, and the individuals there who worked with us in our early years to establish ACT I as a viable arts organization for Benton County!

Last season, at a performance of Amadeus in the Old Creamery's depot stage in Amana, I struck up a conversation with the woman sitting next to me while waiting for the show to start.  The woman, it turned out, was the mother of the Texas born actress who played Constanze in the production.  She described the surprise she and her husband felt when their daughter decided to major in theatre, wondering what sorts of job opportunities could be had for that field of study.  "And we were really surprised when she told us she was considering an offer from some theatre in Iowa.  We didn't even know they HAD theatre in Iowa!"

Theatre in Iowa?  Do we ever!

And where would be the most likely place to find Iowa's only Equity theatre company?  Des Moines?  Cedar Rapids?  Ames?  Iowa City?  All of those are much better guesses than Garrison, but it was in Garrison, Iowa where in 1971 a group of young, hopeful actors headed by five-year State University of Iowa Theatre faculty member Tom Johnson, purchased a former dairy cooperative building in the tiny hamlet of Garrison, Iowa, with the intention of turning it into a professional theatre company to serve rural Iowa.  Now, thirty-four years later, the Garrison theatre is just a crumbling shell.  The dream of an artists colony in Garrison has died away.  But the Old Creamery Theatre lives on, stronger than ever, both financially and artistically.  In an era when arts organizations are struggling, when theatre attendance nationwide is dropping alarmingly, the Old Creamery is a thriving, vital company, still producing top flight theatre for rural Iowa in their new home in the Amana Colonies.

For over 20 years, The Creamery's main performance venue was the Garrison facility. In 1988, in an effort to attract a larger audience base, the company began performing in the Amana Colonies during the summer months.  At the invitation of The Amana Society, the company opened its first season at the welcome center in Amana. The first season was underwritten by The Society and by many Amana merchants who were members of The Amana Colonies Convention and Visitors Bureau. Over the next nine years, the seasons in Amana grew in length. The company performed its last repertory season in Garrison in 1996 and is now based in Amana.  (I personally attended the final performance by the professional company and the final performance in the building by ACT I several weeks later.  Leaving the building behind was like attending the funeral of a dear friend.)

The Creamery's departure in 1996 left a void for those who love the arts in Benton County, but they also left behind something very special that all of us appreciate very much.  For in 1980, Tom Johnson secured a grant for the establishment of a community theatre to serve Benton County under the mentorship of the professional company.  Now, twenty-five years later, ACT I of Benton County is flourishing on its own, as our parent company continues to do.  And the relationship between the Old Creamery and ACT I continues to this day, as Tom and his staff continue to be a resource for us, and although not by formal design, ACT I members have served continuously on the Old Creamery Board of Trustees  (ACT I members Ron Baldwin, Steve Arnold, Lois Banse, Bob LaGrange, Mary Phillips, Julie Zimmer, Janet Woodhouse, and Marsh Berry are among past and present ACT I members who have served on the Old Creamery Board.  There are surely more!)  And of course ACT I members continue to be enthusiastic patrons of the Creamery productions, 40 minutes away from our new home stage in Vinton.  But without question, the largest Vinton audience for the Old Creamery is that made up of the Vinton Shellsburg elementary school students, who annually enjoy performances by the Old Creamery Young People's Tour, in which members of the .

Since its founding, the company is dedicated to performing high-quality live professional theatre for audiences of all ages and interests and offers a wide variety of plays each season. The company constantly strives to represent the experimental and repertory presentation of both approved and untried dramatic works.

Old Creamery Theatre Producing Director Tom Johnson, 65, now of South Amana, has headed the Old Creamery Theatre since its founding in 1971 right up to the present day, an almost unheard of accomplishment for a theatre administrator.  His wife, Meg Merckens, is the company's Associate Artistic Director and one of the company's leading actresses.

Tom Johnson founded The Creamery in 1971 along with a number of colleagues and former students from Iowa State University. He has served as C.E.O. of the company since its first season. For the past 34 years, he has written, directed, designed sets, and occasionally acted. He will be remembered as the irrepressible Beanhole in many productions of Cowchip Jamboree. His scripts include Playing Doctor, Beautiful Mourning, Home on the Iowa, Lost and Found, Holiday Hijinks, 1963, With All My Love, Bill, Blue Star Mother, and Holiday Hijinks, 2004. The theatre's current season includes two of Tom's new works, Holiday Hijinks, Independence Day, and Mr. Pennypincher Presents. He is currently preparing to semi-retire from theatre after nearly 45 years as a professional. He has recently opened an antique shop, and plans to stay involved with the The Creamery on a part-time basis as a writer, director and scene designer. Tom has two grown children, and one grandson.

Although he never directed an ACT I production, it was Tom who was instrumental in making ACT I happen in the first place.  Tom and his wife, Creamery actress Meg Merckens, whose tenure of twenty-nine years with the company has made her unquestionably the most recognizable personality at the company, have both helped ACT I in many ways behind the scenes, right up to our most recent production, when they attended a rehearsal of You Can't Take it With You and then offered a critique to the company.  Meg, a Cleveland, Ohio native (Merckens Chocolates was the family  business) describes herself as a cheerleader for ACT I, and she put together much of the information for this article.

Three members of the Old Creamery company served as directors for the earliest ACT I productions, Howard Blanning, the late Tom Cunliffe, and Steve Shaffer.  Howard was the company's 25-year old playwright in residence when in 1980 he was tapped to direct the first three ACT I productions, You Can't Take it With You in April, 1980; The Man Who Came to Dinner in November of 1980, and Blithe Spirit, in March of 1991.

Howard Blanning, right, conducts auditions for You Can't Take it With You in January, 1980, with Richard Paulus, who was later cast as Kohlenkhov, reading.  The young playwright in residence at the Old Creamery Theatre directed the first three ACT I productions in 1980 and 1981.

"It more or less got started during the course of our productions down here," Howard Blanning was quoted as saying in a Cedar Valley Daily Times interview on January 23, 1980.  "Inevitably we'd get regular patrons and inevitably somebody would say, 'Boy, we ought to have a community theatre' ... Finally enough people seemed to want to get it started and we  decided to go ahead and give it a little push and offer our facilities."

In December of 1981, another Old Creamery performer took over the mantle as Director for ACT I, an individual whose contributions to ACT I continue to be very fondly remember by all who worked with him.  In writing Member of the Month articles, I have found that when interviewing those members involved in the very first productions, one name is mentioned more often than any other, and all the recollections of that individual aren't simply 100% positive, they are 100% glowing.  When I entered Jefferson High School in Cedar Rapids in the fall of 1967, hoping to find a place for myself in that school's highly regarded drama department, the name of one former student had become legendary.  Steve Shaffer, who graduated from Jefferson in 1965, was the gold standard that every serious theatre student there worked toward.  In early 1971, on the eve of the formation of the Old Creamery Theatre, I was in the chorus of a community theatre production in which Steve played the lead, my one and only chance to see him work.  Over twenty years later, when I became involved with ACT I, once again I found myself working on a stage where the talents of Steve Shaffer had gone before me.  Steve directed five ACT I productions, beginning with Deadwood Dick in December of 1981,  The Curious Savage in March of 1982, and The Murder Room in November, 1982.  Our next production, Woody Allen's Don't Drink the Water, was directed by the third Old Creamery member, Tom Cunliffe, in March of 1983.  Steve Shaffer returned to the director's chair for two more productions, A Thurber Carnival in November, 1983 and Never Too Late in April, 1984.  After Steve Shaffer's final directing assignment, Tom Cunliffe returned to direct twice more; first with See How They Run in March, 1985.  The final production to be staged by a member of the Old Creamery Theatre staff was the February, 1986 Skeet Powers musical Lovingly Yours, which was written by Skeet Powers and Tom Cunliffe and also directed by Mr. Cunliffe.  After Lovingly Yours, ACT I productions were directed from within the organization.  Former ACT I president Tony Bopp recalled "a time when it actually came to a vote whether we should disband the organization or not," as interest had begun to fall off.  But the Powers/Cunliffe production quickly rejuvenated the organization and things took off once again.

Steve Shaffer was a member of the Old Creamery company for over 15 years, serving as Assistant to the Artistic Director in addition to acting.  In addition to appearing with the Old Creamery, he performed for 13 seasons at the Timberlake Playhouse in Illinois, where he later served as Artistic Director.  He toured with the Barn Dinner Theatres in North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.  He appeared at Charlie's Showplace in Des Moines, at the Iowa Shakespeare Festival, and performed in many radio and television commercials throughout the state.  Some of his Old Creamery Roles included Mr. Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank (a role he first performed at Jefferson High School), and Charlie in The Foreigner.

Director Steve Shaffer, onstage during a rehearsal of ACT I's production of Deadwood Dick in 1981.

After leaving the Old Creamery Theatre, Steve Shaffer moved to Minnesota where he has been a full time actor.  "My base has been the Old Log Theater in Excelsior, Minnesota," he told me in a recent e-mail, "and I've also done a couple of shows at the Great America History Theatre in St. Paul.  Presently, I'm taking a break from the Old Log to do a show at the Guthrie Theatre (She Loves Me), which opens next month and runs through the latter part of June.  This fall, both my sons will be in college at the University of Minnesota, Morris. My wife, Mary, (former Creamery actress Mary Woolever) is Director of Theater Ministries at Lake Harriet United Methodist Church in Minneapolis. She also has a furniture re-covering business."

C. Thomas Cunliffe performed with the Old Creamery for many years, in such roles as Lennie in Of Mice and Men and Senex in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.  He returned to the Creamery from Chicago where he performed in several area theatres.  A theatre graduate of the University of Tulsa, his career, which spanned more than 25 years, included work with Joseph Papp in the New York Shakespeare Festival.  In addition he appeared in the feature film On the Right Track and an episode of Hill Street Blues.  Tom Cunliffe died in May of 1989 in Dubuque, Iowa.  In getting additional information from the family, Meg Merckens was able to learn from Tom's son Charlie, who lives in Dubuque, that the tradition continues in the Cunliffe family.  Tom's eighteen year old grandson Rob has just been accepted to the BFA Actor training program at Harrt (affiliated with the University of Hartford.)  Tom's other grandson is a senior engineering student at Iowa State University.

Old Creamery Staff member C. Thomas Cunliffe, who staged three of ACT I's early productions between 1983 and 1986.

ACT I gives its sincerest thanks to the Old Creamery Theatre for helping bring our group into existence and for twenty-five years of support; of being allowed to use their facilities, equipment, costumes, and props; and for the help and support of Tom Johnson, Meg Merckens, Steve Shaffer, Tom Cunliffe, and Howard Blanning, as well as the entire staff of the company throughout the years.  As of tonight, April 25, 2005 we have had 25 great years, a continuing association with Iowa's only Equity theatre, and the promise of a bright theatrical future.

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