As we conclude our look back at our first 25 years with the brilliant comedy Blithe Spirit by Sir Noel Coward, we honor one of the stars of our original production, staged twenty-four years ago.  Colleen Stufflebeam, our original Madame Arcati, was a featured performer in our first three productions and six more after that, and so as we repeat this play once again for our audience, we honor Colleen as our Member of the Month for May, 2005!

Colleen Stufflebeam as Madame Arcati and Anna Bess Rice as Elvira in our original production of Blithe Spirit in March, 1981.

Colleen Stufflebeam has always liked performing, and she began her acting career early - as Bobo the Clown in 4th grade.  From then on, she says, she has enjoyed being in plays.  Colleen moved to Vinton from Missouri at age seven.  She later performed at Monmouth College in Illinois.  She graduated from the University of Iowa in 1950, majoring in Spanish.  Her husband Kent, former owner of Vinton Plumbing, is originally from Waverly and came to Vinton when he was in High School.  Colleen continued her acting after she and Kent were married and he was working as an insurance agent in Little Rock, Arkansas in the early 1950s.  She described performing in the play Wake Up Darling with an integrated theatre group there.  She described the precautions the group had to take for being a mixed race organization.  "We were warned about the White Citizens Council," she said.  She described a back exit participants were to use to escape the building in case they were given trouble, "but fortunately we never had to do that."

After returning to Iowa, Colleen taught one year in Truro and 2 years in Vinton, followed by a 22 year teaching stint at the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School here, where she taught upper elementary students.  During that time, ACT I of Benton County was being formed, and Colleen was tapped to play the role of Olga Katrina in our first production, You Can't Take it with You.  She also appeared in our second and third productions, as Mrs. Ernest W. Stanley in The Man Who Came to Dinner in November, 1980, and then as Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit in March of 1981.  She appeared the following year, in March of 1982, as Ethel Savage in The Curious Savage, our fifth production.

Colleen Stufflebeam as Ethel Savage with the late David Nolte in our 1983 production of The Curious Savage.

In November of 1983 she appeared in our production of A Thurber Carnival as part of the ensemble cast, and she next played Mrs. Van Pelt in our production of In 25 Words or Death, performed at the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton in October of 1989.  In April of 1990 she was featured as Phyllis Montague in Play On, the production that honored our tenth anniversary.

Linda Radcliffe as Gerry Dunbar with Colleen Stufflebeam as Phyllis Montague in Play On, in 1990.

Colleen was then absent from our stage for eleven years.  She returned once again in March of 2001 to participate in our poetry reading, What God Tells Me When I Am Alone, held at Wesley United Methodist Church.  Her final performances with ACT I took place in November of that year, when she was a member of the cast of Words and Music by Skeet Powers.

In addition to her acting credits with ACT I, Colleen has appeared in three television commercials:  for the Humane Society, for Miller Medical, and for Mercy Medical Center.  Colleen, now 76, and Kent are retired.  In addition to ACT I, they have been active in the Democratic Party, have traveled extensively in the United States and have visited 16 countries.  They have a daughter Susan, who now lives in Phoenix, and two grandchildren, Jeff and Elizabeth.

We thank Colleen for her efforts as a trailblazer in the establishment of ACT I!

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