Member of the Month Archives

Sherry Stout

Reprinted from the August, 2005 issue of Grease Paint Online

September has become ACT I's traditional time for staging our big musical each season, and this year is no exception!  And for the past several seasons, our musicals have included the talents of Sherry Stout, who moved to Vinton with her family five years ago.  This year, Sherry plays Mrs. Squires in The Music Man, and so we feature her as our Member of the Month for August!

Sherry Stout grew up on an Iowa farm and went to Ackley-Geneva High School (now Ackley-Geneva-Wellsburg-Steamboat Rock) where she enjoyed participating in drama.  During this time she also played Gladys McGlone in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (also by Meredith Willson) at the Iowa Falls Community Theatre.  After graduation and marriage she moved a great deal as a Navy wife, living in Millington, Tennessee, Pt. Mugu, California, and Whidbey Island, Washington.  After her husband retired the family lived in Wellington, Kansas for six years, and Sherry worked for the Federal Government and the postal service.  It was then that she got back into community theatre, but only when her daughter Stephanie wanted to audition for The Sound of Music and needed a ride.  Stephanie ended up as a postulant and Sherry was initially cast in the chorus but ended up as Sister Berthe - when the original ‘sister’ became a little too pregnant to hit the high notes! (This has been a recurring theme for Sherry,  who seldom plays the part she was originally cast in!)  The following year Sherry played Yente in Fiddler on the Roof; the following year meant another move, this time to California, and the year after the family ended up back home in Iowa.

"Although I didn’t actually choose Vinton because of its community theater, I was very pleased to ‘discover’ it, and joined in as soon as possible, along with all three of my children at various times," Sherry says of her involvement with ACT I, which began with our February, 2001 production of My Fair Lady.  Sherry played Henry Higgins' mother (not her original role in the production!) and her daughter Stephanie was in the chorus.  Several months later, in October of 2001, Sherry was next seen in the role of Gynmasia, one of the courtesans in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.  Her daughter Natalie played one of the Proteans.

In our fall, 2001 production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sherry played her second ACT I role, the black leather clad courtesan Gymnasia (center) - a sharp contrast from her first role with us, the gracious and dignified matron, Mrs. Higgins in My Fair Lady.

In the fall of 2002, Sherry was back in our next musical, Kiss Me, Kate, this time in the leading role of Lilli Vanessi.  Her daughter Natalie was in the chorus again for this show.  The role was actual a dual one due to the nature of the show - Sherry played both Miss Vanessi, and that character's onstage role, Kate in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.

Sherry Stout played the lead in Kiss Me, Kate in 2002, which remains to date ACT I's only show to feature motor vehicles.  As actress Lilli Vanessi, Sherry arrived at the theatre each night in a vintage car as the audience watched from the lobby.

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Kiss Me Kate is a play within a play, a comedy about a group of actors rehearsing a musical version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.  Here, Sherry as Lilli Vanessi in the guise of Shakespeare's Kate, confronts the director in one of their many onstage arguments.

Sherry has been back for three more ACT I musicals, including Annie in 2003 in which she played Mrs. Greer and in which daughter Natalie played a maid, The Sound of Music in 2004 (her third time for this show) in which she played Frau Schmidt and sang in the nun's chorus, and our current production of The Music Man, in which she plays Mrs. Squires (which, incidentally, marks her third time playing opposite Alan Nebola).

Meanwhile, Sherry's son Nicholas,  currently a fifth grader this year at Shellsburg Elementary, has appeared in three of our ACT I STAGE! summer children's theatre productions.  He made his debut in The Good, the Bad, and the Ogre in 2002 and then appeared in American Hysterical in 2003, The Adventures of Beatrix Potter in 2004 and The Princess Plays in 2005.  He appears as one of the River City Boys in The Music Man, his first Main Stage production.

Sherry's son, fifth grader Nicholas Stout, poses with the statue of Meredith Willson during the recent ACT I trip to Mason City.  Nick plays Barney Hix, one of the River City boys in our upcoming production of The Music Man.

Nicholas Stout, center, played General Googe in The Princess and the Princess, the first of the trio of one acts in our recent ACT I STAGE! production of The Princess Plays.

Sherry has also been filling in as needed at the Vinton Animal Shelter for almost five years now, and enjoyed being a fulltime mother (and grandmother), but is currently looking for fulltime employment.  She also sings in the choir at Wesley United Methodist Church.

When asked for a quote about ACT I, Sherry said that her first reaction was, “'It keeps me sane.'  While I was joking, it’s also true.  I have a terrific amount of fun rehearsing and performing a show (and just hanging out with adults), and even though things can get tense at production time, it’s still ‘good stress’ and an escape from ‘bad stress’ or just everyday boredom.  My family has gone through a number of ‘difficult’ experiences since we moved to Vinton, and so I think I’ll stick with my original quote.  “Act 1 keeps me sane . . . and it’s great fun as well!”

Thank you, Sherry, for getting involved with us.  We have enjoyed working regularly with you, Stephanie, Natalie, and Nicholas during the past five years and we hope that you'll be with us for a good many more years as well!

 

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