By Steve Arnold

Eric's back!

No doubt about it, Annie has a great cast.  And it's great to see so many new faces who will hopefully return again to lend their talents to future shows.  But if you've been around ACT I for less than seven years, then you need to know that one of those new faces isn't really new.  The cast of Annie features an old and dear friend of this organization - one who has acted, directed, stage managed, served on a variety of crews, and as a member of our board.  Once at the center of our core group of volunteers, he and his wife gave ACT I years of steady involvement, before stepping aside to begin their family.  Now, the arrival on our stage of their oldest child in the cast of Americal Hysterical heralds a return to ACT I by the Upmeyer family.  As WHS English teacher Eric Upmeyer returns to us after seven years in our current production of Annie, we feature him and his family as our Members of the Month for September, 2003!

Scroll back to August, 1989.  A new teacher arrives in town to teach high school English, taking a less than desireable small apartment.  Missing his long time girlfriend who is still attending college, the young English teacher and speech coach sees an ad for auditions for an upcoming community theatre production.  He takes the plunge.  He never looks back.

Eric Upmeyer returns to the ACT I stage after a seven year absence, performing for the first time at the
 Palace Theatre, in the role of Drake, butler to Oliver Warbucks, in our current production of Annie.
He plays a 30s butler for us for the second time, having also played the butler in The Sound of Music.

"It was the best move I ever made," says Eric Upmeyer of his whim to audition for his first ACT I show.  "I didn't know anybody in the community, it really opened doors for me."

That first show was Play On, produced in April of 1990 in honor of ACT I's tenth anniversary.  A year later, Eric was back for our next show.  But this time, he wasn't just showing up to answer an ad for auditions.  He was back as the director, and the show was our hit comedy Daddy's Dyin, Who's Got the Will?

For the next two ACT I shows, Cheating Cheaters and Dancers, Eric stayed off the stage to work on the lighting crews.  For the next ACT I show, however, Eric wasn't even in the audience.  That was because in June of 1993, while ACT I was producing The Odd Couple, Eric was off doing the wedding thing.  Eric married Patti, his girlfriend of eight years, and the two of them returned to Vinton with Patti quickly becoming as active in community theatre as her husband.

Eric Upmeyer in his first ACT I production, Play On,
presented in honor of ACT I's tenth anniversary in 1990.

Eric was raised in Solon where he was active in high school theatre.  (Editor's Note:  Eric's high school drama director and I were in high school together and I have heard many good things about Eric's high school years from that source!)  While in high school, Eric appeared as Elwood P. Doud in Harvey, played the Judge in The Night of January 16th, and also appeared in See How They Run and L'il Abner.  He also played Max in The Sound of Music, and was one of the barbershop quartet in The Music Man.  After high school, Eric attended the University of Northern Iowa where he majored in English with a minor in Communication Arts.  During his time at UNI he served as assistant master electrician for a production of The Importance of Being Earnest and operated a followspot for Cabaret.  He also appeared in several readers' theatre productions and acted in and directed scenes for a directing class.  Eric and Patti also frequently ushered for shows together, which provided some nice, inexpensive dates for the young couple.

Patti, a native of Dubuque, majored in General Studies at UNI.  Upon her arrival in Vinton she took a job at the Vinton Family Medical Clinic.  She is currently employed by the Iowa State University Benton County Extension Office.  Eric has served as an English teacher and speech coach for his entire 14 years in Vinton.  In addition, Eric also directed one play at WHS during his first years here, Babes in Arms.

Following Patti's arrival in Vinton, the young married couple threw themselves into ACT I.  In the fall of 1993, they appeared together in The Night of January 16th.  Patti was seen in her ACT I debut as the Clerk of Court in that production and Eric was seen in the role of Elmer Sweeney.  The couple also helped with set construction, and Eric worked lights while Patti served as assistant director.

For ACT I's next production, Bridge to Terabithia, in April of 1994, the Upmeyers were again a major part of the production team.  Patti was property mistress and Eric served as Stage Manager, and the two of them were like house parents to the cast.  This was ACT I's first ever youth show, where all the major roles and a majority of the cast positions were filled with elementary and middle school aged performers.  Eric and Patti were a big reason for the show's success, which led the way to future such youth productions.

Mary Phillips (right) looks on as Patti (swining from the rope) clowns with Eric on the
unfinished set for Bridge to Terabithia, presented at the Old Creamery Theatre in 1994.

ACT I's next production was Patti's second stint as assistant director.  The show was Twigs, and Eric was cast in one of the major roles.  The show also prompted Patti's surprise debut in a major role.  When the actress playing opposite Eric became ill prior to a Saturday evening performance, a more than slightly frantic director began trying to contact the couple, who were out of town visiting relatives and wouldn't be home much before the performance, in hopes that Patti could fill in.  When a connection was reached about two hours before curtain, Patti was persuaded to play the role with book in hand so that the show could proceed.  She had lots of moral support and her success that evening persuaded Patti that there were bigger and better things for her on the ACT I stage.

ACT I's very next show found the Upmeyers again at the heart of the production.  For The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which was also ACT I's second major youth production, Patti served as both Stage Manager and Property Mistress while Eric alternated with other actors playing the role of Rev. Hopkins as well as serving on the stage crew.

Eric commented during the interview preparing this article that he felt that the "Kids Shows" have really helped keep ACT I alive, projecting that the organization might have died had not this new source of both performers and audience not been drawn into the organization.

ACT I's very next show had the Upmeyers right back again, for Said the Spider to the Spy  in March of 1995.  The was the first of our dinner theatre productions, known to ACT I insiders as "Ed Shows."  This also began Patti's stint as our resident bimbo, a character type about as far removed from the real Patti as possible, yet a character type she played on stage to absolute perfection.  Her role in Spider was Julia Sibley, a show which Eric stage managed.  In May of 1995, the '94-'95 season closed with the drama The Miracle Worker, which found Eric cast as Michael Anagnos and found Patti back as Stage Manager.

The following season again saw the Upmeyers at the center of ACT I activities.  And Patti was now being encouraged to try her hand at directing.  The '95 - '96 season found the couple working the stage crew for Same Time Next Year, and then came our first big major musical production, The Sound of Music for which Patti returned to the dual roles of Assistant Director and Property Mistress, and Eric was cast as Franz, the von Trapp butler who was secretly a Nazi sympathizer.

The very next show that season was perhaps Patti's crowning achievment, and Eric's smallest role ever -- the dinner theatre production of Knock 'Em Dead, in which Patti played Bimbo extraordinaire Bamby Lynn, and Eric played the body.  Patti's ability to wear a blonde wig effectively as well as some rather large "falsies" made the production truly memorable (despite a very forgettable script).  Despite the lack of literary value, Eric commented that he very much enjoyed the dinner shows.

Eric and Patti Upmeyer appeared together in our dinner theatre production of
Knock 'Em Dead at the Vinton Country Club in 1996, though Eric's role as the
murder victim consisted solely of tumbling from an opened door. 

Patti Upmeyer as Bamby Lynn in Knock 'Em Dead.  Patti enjoyed acting against her own type,
 developing a speciality of playing brainless bimbos, a character type she played very well.

Looking more like her usual self but still "getting into the part,"
Patti, sans wig and extra padding prepares for the role of Bamby Lynn.

The final production of that season was the comedy The Foreigner.  Eric was back onstage in the leading role, and Patti was working the light crew.  Patti had been persuaded that the time had come for her to try her hand at directing.  The upcoming season announced in the program for The Foreigner in May of 1996 listed what was to have been Patti's directing debut the following season -- a production of On Golden Pond.  That show never took place.  Hardly had the applause from The Foreigner died down when Patti learned that she was about to undertake the one role she had most longed for all along -- and instead of staging On Golden Pond, several months later, Patti gave birth to Matthew, now six 1/2 years old.  Matthew's arrival brought the couple's involvement in ACT I to a near standstill.  Matthew was followed by Connie, now age 4, and Lauren, now a year and a half.  Since that time, Eric and Patti's involvement has been on only rare and special occasions.

Eric (left) as Charlie in The Foreigner in 1996, his final role before
his return to our stage as Drake in our current production, Annie.

During that time, Eric served as House Manager / Stage Manager for Sleuth, as well as working the sound crews for Bye Bye Birdie, Marvin's Room, and A Streetcar Named Desire, but mostly he dedicated his energies to teaching and being a devoted husband and father.  (He DID find time to serve on the board of the Old Creamery Nature Trail during that time, for which all Vinton bicyclists should be grateful!)  In May of 1998, Patti gave her most recent (but hopefully not final) performance as Annelle in Steel Magnolias.  

Now, the Upmeyers have returned to ACT I, at long last!  In our July children's theatre production of American Hysterical, six year old Matthew Upmeyer made his ACT I debut and in the same show Eric was back taking on House Management responsibilities.  And with that came the good news that he had been cast in Annie.  Hopefully Patti's return to our stage will not be far behind.

Matthew Upmeyer (right) portrayed a homeless child during the Depression in his ACT I debut
as a member of the cast of our recent production of American Hysterical, following the example
 set by his parents, Eric and Patti, for involvement in local community theatre.

Matt says he liked going on stage, Eric commented that Matt's involvement brought him out so much.  "It's great to have something that involves the whole family.

Patti adds of her acting experience that she likes being other people, characters she's not, like a blonde bimbo.  She likes the cameraderie, and feeling of team work when the show finally comes together.

On a personal note, the times I spent doing ACT I shows involving Eric and Patti were some of the most pleasurable experiences I ever had working in community theatre.  They are dedicated to excellence and are great fun to work with, and I sincerely hope that in the future they will be back with us enriching all our lives.

And we still have never done On Golden Pond . . . that show is waiting for you, Patti!

Eric (center) as Drake in Annie.

UPDATE

Patti DID return to our stage later in the 2003 - 2004 Season, playing once again her characteristic "bimbo" role in our very  entertaining production of Noises Off!

Eric returns to direct The Sound of Music as the opening Main Stage Series production of our twenty-fifth anniversary season.

Patti goes blond for the role of Brooke / Vickie in Noises Off in February, 2004,

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