Grease Paint Online - September, 2004

The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II continues this week at the Palace Theatre in Vinton. The opening Main Stage production of our 25th anniversary season began its run on Thursday, September 9 and played to one sell out house and two near sellouts in our first four performances last weekend. Tickets are going fast for the upcoming final four performances as well. The show is sponsored by Farmers' Savings Bank and Trust, and by Expressions. The Sound of Music is based on the lives of the von Trapp Family singers, a family who toured Europe and America in the 30s, 40s, and early 50s. The musical, which premiered on Broadway in 1959, was the final collaboration of Rodgers and Hammerstein, and became a feature film in 1965.

The local cast is headed by David Canaday as Captain von Trapp and Jody Nekvinda as Maria. Lois Martin is the Mother Abbess. The children are played by Abby Hilton as Liesl, Jesse Bunge as Freiderich, and Jackson Tranel as Kurt; with Brittney Werner and Molly Ternus alternating as Louisa, Ivy Huber and Meghan Owens alternating as Brigitta, Clare Cooling and Tess Noeller alternating as Marta, and Alli Canaday and Katie Hancock alternating as Gretl.

Also in the cast are LuAnn Urlaub as Sister Berthe, Cathi Calderwood as Sister Sophia, and Shiela Monson as Sister Margaretta. Shelly Haisman is Frau Schrader, Greg Walston is Herr Zeller, Steve Arnold is Max Detweiller, Bill Owens is Franz, and Sherry Stout is Frau Schmidt. Ron Baldwin is Admiral von Schreiber, Ray Bookmeier is Baron Elberfeld, Julie Canaday is the Baroness Elberfeld, Kathy Akers is Frau Zeller, Megan Christy is Ursula, and Kate and Jane Martin are Postulants. Ryan Calderwood and Joseph Smith play guards. The Trio of the Saengerbund of Herwegen is Teresa Strong, Abby Larkin, and Sue Gates alternating with Julie Pladsen. Gina Lahue is Fraulein Schweiger.

The nuns' chorus includes Lois Martin, LuAnn Urlaub, Cathi Calderwood, Sheila Monson, Gina Lahue, Julie Canaday, Donna Coulter, Julie Pladsen, Beth Owens, Kimberly Shafar, Kathy Akers, Teresa Strong, Megan Christy, Bunny Feller, Shelly Haisman, Sherry Stout, Jane Martin, and Kate Martin. Nuns' Chorus director is Lois Martin.

Adult dancers are Alex Martinez-Vasquez, Kathy Akers, April and Kevin Ahrenholz, Ray Bookmeier, Julie Canaday, Bob and Linda Fischer, Jerry and JoEllen Krug, Gina Lahue, Beth Owens, Teresa Strong, and Eric Upmeyer.

Children's Folk Dancers are Katie Hanson, Felicia Hertle, Ashley Strong, Katie Langstraat, Danisha Pladsen, Brinkley Gerber, Katie Akers, Noelle Noe, Rebecca Shafer, Hanna Schaffar, Megan Ternus, Rachel Monson, Stephanie Lash, Willow Huber, Lexi Hicok, Will Hancock, Luke Owens, and Matt Upmeyer.

The show is directed by Eric Upmeyer, with musical direction by Julie Canaday and choreography by Joan Cooling. Judy Trygstad is in charge of the orchestra.

The orchestra includes Judy Mitschelen on keyboard, Judy Trygstad on flute, Barb Glime on Clarinet, Georgia Fuoto on oboe, John Fuoto on trumpet, Pam Olson on French horn, and Jan Roth on baritone.

Teresa Strong is the costume mistress, Brian Larkin and Abby Larkin are in charge of properties, and the light and sound crew is Mike Modrow, Greg Annis, and Corey Cooling, with lighting design by Eric Upmeyer. Follow-spot operators are Ryan Calderwood, Ben Gates, and Joe Smith.

Stage Managers are Greg Walston and Ray Bookmeier, and the stage crew includes Ben Gates, Bill Owens, Joe Smith, and Rory Smith. The properties crew is Brian Larkin, Abby Larkin, and Ben Gates. Makeup crew is Steve Arnold and Kathy Tranel. Program and promotion is by Mary Horst, with Marcy Horst in charge of printing tickets and Lu Karr and Jan McLeod in charge of Box Office. House Managers are Shawn Gerber, Shirale Hanson, Jennifer Hancock, Connie Huber, Luanne Langstraat, Tara Noe, Julie Pladsen, and the Judy Renken family.

The Sound of Music runs at the Palace Theatre in Vinton on Thursday, September 16 at 7:00 PM. It concludes with an evening performance on Saturday, September 18 at 7:00 PM, and matinee performances on Saturday, September 18, and Sunday, September 19. Curtain times for the four matinees is 2:00 PM.

ACT I TAKE II 25th Anniversary Statistics for The Sound of Music: This play will be ACT I's 88th production, and our 25th production in the Palace Theatre. The opening night performance for this show will be our 129th performance at the Palace Theatre, and our 384th performance altogether. On Broadway, this show ran for 1,443 performances in its original run to rank it as the 49th longest running play in Broadway history, one performance behind Arsenic and Old Lace.

For additional information about this production go to the Sound of Music show page of this website at www.act1.org/sound.htm. For pictures and information from our original production, go to www.act1.org/som.htm.

The ACT I Ticket information line and Palace Theatre Box Office number is 472-9957!
Make your reservations now for The Sound of Music, and keep our number handy for the rest of our busy season, ACT I TAKE II!

Twenty-five times since we first performed in the newly renovated space in December, 1999, for productions both large and small with runs ranging from one to 8 performances, with a grand total of 128 performances, ACT I has brought live performances to the Palace Theatre. These productions have included major musicals, straight plays, children's theatre plays and musicals, variety shows, and vocal recitals. In addition, ACT I also continues to present other, small scale productions in various other venues such as the Ray House. Coincidentally, the milestone of our twenty-fifth production at the Palace Theatre takes place in our twenty-fifth season! Here is a quick look back at the complete ACT I at the Palace Theatre!

Five years ago this month ACT I presented the drama A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. It was the final production ACT I staged before the opening of the Palace Theatre, and our last production to be staged at Tilford Middle School, and was presented October 10 - 19, 1999. A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the greatest American plays ever written. Set in New Orleans in the late 40s, it is the somber story of two sisters, Stella and Blanche, and Stella's controlling and cruel husband, Stanley. The play was directed by Larry Adams-Bowers, assisted by Morgan Horning. Technical Director was Joe Treloar. Lighting designer was Nicholas Radcliffe.

Nancy Beckman headed the cast as the frail, emotionally unstable Blanche. Joan Cooling moved into new territory, proving herself as a dramatic actress as Stella. Nicholas Radcliffe portrayed Stanley, and Darran Sellers was Mitch. Others in the cast included Lois Ewins, Joe Treloar, Alexander Vasquez, Rhonda Westergard, Jeff Kirby, Linda Radcliffe, Jake Fowler, and Greg Tucker.

A Streetcar Named Desire was originally produced in 1947, and was later made into a feature film with Marlon Brando as Stanley. Playwright Tennessee Williams is also famous for several other first rate dramas, among them Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and The Glass Menagerie, the latter written in Iowa City while Williams was a student at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.

For more information about this past production, including pictures, visit the A Streetcar Named Desire show page on this website by clicking this link or by going to act1.org/street.htm..

Seamstress Ida Higgins made over 50 costumes for our original production of The Sound of Music. Many of those costumes, including the children's sailor suits, concert costumes, and others, pictured above, will be back on stage this time around.

Lois Martin, music instructor at Lincoln school in Vinton plays the Mother Abbess and Jody Nekvinda, new vocal music instructor at Washington High School in Vinton, is seen as Maria. They are among eleven employees of the Vinton-Shellsburg school district who are participating in this production. Four retired Vinton-Shellsburg staff members are also in the company as well as two employees of other school districts.

The entire Bill Owens family -- all veterans of previous ACT I shows, will be on stage during this production. Here the family is pictured in costume for their various roles. Bill appears as Franz, the von Trapp butler. Wife Beth is in the nuns' chorus and is also one of the adult dancers. Son Luke is one of the children's folk dancers and daughter Meghan is cast as Brigitta, one of the von Trapp children. Bill is a vice president at Farmers Savings Bank and Trust, one of the two diamond sponsors for the production.

Three of the members of our orchestra were also in the orchestra of our original production, including conductor and flutist Judy Trygstad, pianist Judy Mitschelen, and clarinetist Barb Glime.

Luann Urlaub, left, as Sister Berthe, and Cathi Calderwood, as Sister Sophie, reprise the same roles they played in our original production of this show. Eleven members of our first production company are back for the revival.

Caught studying -- During rehearsals, eighth grader Jackson Tranel, 13, could often be found in a corner doing his homework when he was not on stage. Jackson juggles playing the role of Kurt with football and a full load at school, typical of the busy schedules of all our young cast members. Jackson is also in rehearsal for the Tilford Middle School production of Godspell, in which he will be playing the role of Jesus.

Of our three major productions being revived this season, only one person played a major role in each the first time around. Dottie Anthony, one of the founding members of ACT I, appeared in the role of Gay Wellington in our very first production, You Can't Take it With You, in April of 1980; she appeared as Edith in Blithe Spirit in 1981, and gave her final performances in an acting role on our stage in the role of the Mother Abbess in our first production of The Sound of Music in 1995. And so, with our revival of that show currently running on our stage, we honor Dottie Anthony as our Member of the Month for September, 2004!

Dorothy Anthony, 70, and her husband, Dr. Sherman Anthony, (better known as Tony) have been a part of the Vinton community for the past 42 years. The couple, both natives of Council Bluffs, knew each other at Abraham Lincoln High School there (Tony was two years older), and that's when Dottie first was bitten by the theatre bug. She played leads in two operettas and also played a nun for the first time, the lead in Song of Bernadette. Later, she and Tony were married while he was in medical school. They lived in Iowa City and later Fort Riley, Kansas, where Tony was stationed while serving as an army doctor. Following Tony's military service, the Anthonys looked for a place to settle, and after writing numerous letters to various communities selected six potential positions, before settling on Vinton. They arrived here in 1962 and within a few months had settled in the red brick 1868 Victorian home that they have lived in ever since. Since that time they have operated the Anthony Clinic and Tony has also been associated with Virginia Gay Hospital.

Dottie Anthony of Vinton, as the Mother Abbess, with Annette Williams as Maria sing
"My Favorite Things" in one of the opening scenes of our 1995 production of The Sound of Music.

When the Old Creamery Theatre was helping to organize a community theatre for the Benton County area, Dottie heard about the project and was interested. “The two oldest ones were away at college, and I was getting a little more time on my hands. I thought this was something I’d like to do.” Howard Blanning, the young director of our first production, You Can’t Take it With You, cast Dottie in the role of Gay Wellington, a tipsy actress. “I’ve played a drunk twice for ACT I, as well as a saloon buster,” she said. “In You Can’t Take it With You, I was to fall over the davenport with my drink in my hand and they laughed because I didn’t spill a drop!”

Dottie had lots to say about many of the early members of ACT I. I reminded her that in one of our earlier Member of the Month articles, Marsh Berry had credited her with his first ACT I involvement. “He had such a wonderful voice!” she said of him. She also had praise for the comedic talents of the late Dan Campbell, who appeared in several of the earliest shows. “And Dick Paulus was a lot of fun to work with.” “Sally Ludden did a lot of ingénue parts.”

Dottie was back on stage a year later for our third production, Sir Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, the third show being repeated this season. She praised this show as being very funny. In this production she was cast in the role of Edith. She was back again that fall for ACT I’s fourth show, Deadwood Dick, which Dottie describes as “a really different play.” In the style of a 19th century melodrama, the show combined the dramatic action with musical numbers from the period. Temperance is a common theme in this genre, and Deadwood Dick was no exception -- Dottie was cast as Teetotal Tessie, a saloon busting, axe wielding WCTU matron. “This was funny for me because my grandmother was in the WCTU in Council Bluffs, and here I was chopping up saloons on stage.”

Dottie Anthony, center right, as Teetotal Tessie, wields an axe to break up saloons
in our 1981 production of Deadwood Dick at the Old Creamery Theatre.

Dottie’s next role was as Mrs. Paddy in The Curious Savage, this time hitting the bottle again, playing a tipsy painter. She spoke highly of the cast of that show, including the leading actress, Colleen Stufflebeam, and David Nolte, who both acted and played the violin in that show. Next up, Dottie worked backstage, doing the program, publicity, and box office for The Murder Room. She then appeared as a party reveler in Don’t Drink the Water. Following that show, Dottie took a break from the stage, returning in 1986 for the role of Mary in Lovingly Yours, the musical by local composer Skeet Powers.

Dottie has very fond memories of the late Tom Cunliffe, who directed Lovingly Yours and wrote the text of that show, during his days as an actor at The Old Creamery Theatre, particularly for performances in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Arsenic and Old Lace. She also praised the other two Old Creamery Directors who staged our early ACT I shows, Howard Blanning, as well as Steve Shaffer, who now performs at the Old Log Theater in Excelsior, Minnesota. “Our daughter who lives in Minnesota saw him perform just last year.”

Dottie described the Old Creamery Theatre where ACT I's first productions were staged as very cold, but also praised the Garrison theatre's intimacy, as well as the audience configuration around the stage. She also described the work sessions that occurred at the theatre to get each production in shape. “In those days everybody worked on sets and painting. It made for great camaraderie. The Creamery was so helpful, letting us use lights and costumes, we couldn’t have done it without them.”

Dottie Anthony played the maid in our 1981 production of Blithe Spirit, one of the three shows being repeated for our 25th anniversary. She is pictured here with Keith and Becky Mossman, also veterans of the very first ACT I shows. Becky and Keith played the cameo roles of Baron and Baroness Elberfeld in our first production of The Sound of Music. Dottie and Becky are the only two performers who appeared in all three of the original productions being revived this year.

Dottie served as a member of our board and also as our president. “I still get mail for ACT I, it never stops, once they get your on their lists.”

Following Lovingly Yours, Dottie had a nine year hiatus from the group. She returned in a role that would prove to be her last -- or, more hopefully, her most recent acting assignment for ACT I, when she played the role of the Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music in 1995. This was not totally her last ACT I involvement, however. Three years later, when ACT I staged Bye Bye Birdie in Riverside Park, Dottie performed in a pre-show vocal ensemble. Theatre patrons at the park could purchase box dinners prior to the show, and a variety of musical treats were on hand to entertain the picnickers, of which Dottie was one. Following these performances, Dottie then limited herself to being a member of the audience, as Tony had remained all through her years of participation.

Tony and Dottie have four children and seven grandchildren. Lane lives in Ottumwa where he teaches the visually impaired. Daughter Julie lives in Shorewood Minnesota where she works for Genetech, a company which sells Oncology drugs. Jennifer is a dermatologist in Pella, and Ann -- who taught band at Washington High School in Vinton several years ago is currently in Fort Riley, Kansas, where her husband is an army doctor.

When asked about her favorite acting role, Dottie quickly named the Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music. “Tony and I grew up during World War II. We were still very young but we remember the rationing and collecting scrap, and tin foil from chewing gum. That play had a little more meaning for me because of that.”

Dottie went on to tell about her many visits to Germany and the rest of Europe. “Taking a Hovercraft from England to Calais, you could see the concrete bunkers were still there.” She recalled a visit to Warsaw, where she looked out from her hotel room to see soldiers goose stepping regularly. The experience brought back memories of war time.

Dottie had much good to say about ACT I and how it has done as an organization during the intervening years since her last performances. “I think that a community theatre is an attraction for a town. A community theatre, a community chorus, can be something you belong to that enhances the town. We’ve been very fortunate to have such an active community theatre and to have the support that they have. When ever we would get a new doctor these were the things that I would tell them. It’s just good wholesome fun.”

Is Dottie really done performing? Or could we hope for some future ACT I production with Dottie back on stage once again? “I don’t sing any more. That’s just like any other muscle, if you don’t use it, you lose it.” But she doesn’t rule out some future performance. So as we thank Dottie for all her efforts on behalf of ACT I in our early years (and Tony for all his behind the scenes support of her activity) it is with the hope that when the time is right she'll be back with us on stage once again!

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.

A look at two ACT I productions, the feature film, and the original Broadway production!

1. Oscar Hammerstein II, lyricist for The Sound of Music, died in 1960, just a few months after the show premiered in New York. When the 1965 feature film of the play was made, several songs were dropped and two new ones were written. With his artistic partner gone, Richard Rodgers himself wrote the lyrics for the new music. One of the two songs written for the movie has been included in the current ACT I production, as it was last time around, replacing the song “An Ordinary Couple,” originally written for the stage version. Name the new song.

2. The setting for the play version of The Sound of Music is a fictional town in Austria, Nonnberg, named for the Benedictine Abbey where Maria von Trapp had been a nun. The actual city where the von Trapps lived was Salzburg. When the film version was made, Salzburg became the setting for the story once again, and the movie was filmed in and around this famous musical city, famous world-wide for its music festivals and as the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. But Salzburg has another claim to fame that has no relation to music. Name the basic natural resource which has been mined from the mountains of Salzburg since ancient times.

3. Dottie Anthony, featured in this edition of Grease Paint as our Member of the Month, gave her final performances in an ACT I play as the Mother Abbess in our 1995 production. Three other long time ACT I members also gave their final performances during our 1995 production. Name them.

4. Name the only member of the cast of ACT I’s first production who is in our current cast of The Sound of Music.

5. Name the director of two later major ACT I musicals who made his debut with us in our first production of this show.

6. In real life the von Trapp’s escape from Austria was much less dramatic than that portrayed in the play and film. Rather than escaping over the mountains into Switzerland (an impossibility since the Swiss border is 200 miles from Salzburg) and without the added visual humor of a nun pulling a Mercedes distributor from her habit. Prompted by an invitation to sing for Hitler’s birthday, the family left in October of 1938 simply by driving across the border on the pretense of going on a mountain climbing vacation. The von Trapps went not to Switzerland as in the story, but into what country?

Together, over an seventeen year period, Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) and Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960) created nine musicals, some of the best loved shows of all time. Test your knowledge of their works and some of the names associated with them.

1. The names of Rodgers and Hammerstein are almost inseparably linked and are synonymous with the modern Broadway musical. Yet both of these men are also famous for works that they created in partnership with others. As part of the earlier, well-known team of Rodgers and ____ , Richard Rodgers wrote many songs and several Broadway musicals, including On Your Toes, Babes in Arms, The Boys from Syracuse, and Pal Joey with a man he had begun creating songs with at age 16. This friend and partner died in 1943. Name him.
Lorenz Hart, of the team Rodgers and Hart

2. Like Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II had also enjoyed artistic success with other creative partners. In 1927, he was the lyricist for a show that was one of the great milestones in the development of the American musical -- a show which finally made a clean break with the traditions of European operetta to establish a truly new form of musical theatre -- and a show that for its time was highly controversial for its honest portrayal of race relations in the United States. Name the show.
Showboat, which features such songs as "Ol' Man River," "Just My Bill"

3. A new era of musical theatre began in 1943 when the first show written by Rodgers and Hammerstein premiered on Broadway. Name this Pulizter Prize winning show.
Oklahoma

4. Rogers and Hammerstein transformed the American musical out of a strictly comic format, proving that drama could work in a musical theatre format. Their second collaboration, first produced in 1945, was very much a drama, and featured one of their all time hit songs "You'll Never Walk Alone." Name the show.
Carousel

5. Broadway star Mary Martin created the role of Nellie Forbush in the next Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, South Pacific, in 1949, a show which earned the team its second Pulitzer Prize. Again drama played a key part in the story, which was based on the novel Tales of the South Pacific and set during World War II. Name the famous American author who wrote that book.
James Mitchner

6. In 1951 the team opened one of their most loved shows, set in Siam and featuring a role that would forever be associated with actor Yul Brenner. Name the show.
The King and I

7. In 1959 for their final collaborative effort, The Sound of Music, Mary Martin once again joined the team. At the age of 46, Miss Martin played the role of 21-year old Maria Rainer. Mary Martin was as much a Broadway icon as Rodgers and Hammerstein; yet in the intervening years, her own fame within the popular culture has been eclipsed by that
of her son, whose celebrity as a television actor was tied to one role on a long running dramatic series. Name her son and his famous role.
Mary Martin's son, Larry Hagman, was famous for the role of J. R. Ewing on "Dallas"

8. Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the music and lyrics to The Sound of Music, and the book to the show was written by another famous collaborative team, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. Among the other shows they are famous for are the musical Anything Goes, written with composer Cole Porter, as well as a show produced by ACT I several years ago, a show which for 57 years has held the record for the longest running non-musical in Broadway history. Name the show.
Life with Father

9. Oscar Hammerstein II mentored a neighbor, a teenage boy who had ambitions of becoming a composer/lyricist. The young man’s first Broadway musicals premiered shortly before Hammerstein's death in 1960. Hammerstein's young friend became one of the dominant figures in the world of the Broadway musical in our own time. Name him.
Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the lyrics to West Side Story as well as the music and lyrics for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, and many others.

10. Six months before the New York premiere of The Sound of Music, a musical opened on Broadway starring Carol Burnett, in which the music was composed by Mary Rodgers, the daughter of Richard Rodgers. Name this second generation Rodgers musical, which is still very popular today. (Incidentally, in addition to being a composer Mary Rodgers is also an author of children's books, her most famous of which is Freaky Friday.)
Once Upon a Mattress

The next meeting of the Board of ACT I of Benton County will be held soon. Check back to this box for the exact date.

Members and visitors are always welcome at board meetings!

For those of us who did the show the first time around, repeating The Sound of Music has been quite an experience, but nowhere in our comparisons, at least for me, have there been sharper contrasts than between the two facilities in which we performed. Those who experienced the show the first time around all, whether audience or cast, always seem to remember one thing -- the Creamery was sooooo cold in October and November!

The Palace is certainly a more compact space, with a totally different stage and audience configuration, each space requiring a totally different approach to staging the show. Many more things can be accomplished with the Palace facilities, but in a more compact space. Nine years of ACT I musicals have guaranteed a much larger talent pool for this show than was available previously when the idea of staging a full musical was new and intimidating, which translates for this show into a larger and much stronger nuns chorus and the use of adult dancers for the party scene. The Creamery -- with two auditoriums, a huge greenroom and two levels of backstage space offered considerably more space for putting cast members while not on stage, but ACT I does a great job making the smaller backstage space at the Palace work to great advantage.

But in comparing the two shows, one aspect of both is the same -- all those costume changes! Members of the audience who watch our seven children, Maria, and several other characters coming onstage in a different costume for each scene truly have no idea of the organized bedlam which is occurring in the green room to make this happen. Ah, the joys of dashing off the stage for a full change, knowing that the last time you did this scene you arrived back in your place with only ten seconds to spare ... or making a change with one ear to the monitor in the greenroom knowing that two teenage boys are about to burst into the dressing room, followed by a 20 second flurry of shirts, socks, and shorts flying in every direction as Jesse and Jackson transform themselves for their next entrance with unbelievable haste -- oh yes, shorts. Yes, that look of panic of Jesse's face the second after we all heard the telltale sound of an in-seam ripping -- oh, the joys of live theatre! (Good thing Teresa had her sewing machine on hand, Jesse's shorts were fixed in no time and the show, as always, went on!)

If you haven't made your reservations yet for the show, you'd better hurry -- tickets are moving quickly!

Congratulations go to ACT I members Gerald Horst and Pat Lyons for their election on September 14 to the Vinton Shellsburg Community School board. Gerald was an incumbent seeking re-election and Pat was running for the first time. Both men are veterans of past acting and directing assignments with us, and Pat will be directing our upcoming production of You Can't Take it With You. Another ACT I member who is also a member of the Vinton-Shellsburg school board is Kathy Tranel, who is on the makeup crew for The Sound of Music.

I caught The Spitfire Grill at the Old Creamery Theatre earlier this month, and I just want to pass on what an enjoyable musical production this is. The musical is a drama but the story is heartwarming (with a different ending from the movie made from the play) and the music is excellent. Add to that the high level of production quality that we can expect from the Old Creamery and the result is a great show well worth the trip to Amana if you can make it! Please support the Creamery in our anniversary season! Also playing currently at the Creamery, on the depot stage, is Camping with Henry and Tom, which I haven't seen yet, but I've heard from family members that it is a great show! Both will be playing through the weekend following The Sound of Music in Vinton, so catch them if you can!

Answers to Our Last Quiz