Susan Herrick, Chris Terrell and Kelsie Pederson, Boone Community Theatre, October 5, 2026

Today in our program we are going to talk Boone Community Theatre and we have a host of guests joining us today. Susan Harry is here directing the next production. Hey Jim. How are you? I'm good, how are you? You brought company? I did. And they are? I brought my assistant director, Kelsey. Hello. Hello Kelsey, back again. And my music director, Chris. Chris Darrell. Good morning everyone. And Chris is also one of your cast members, right? He is, yeah. He tried to get out of that for a while, but... So, captain of the Inquisition. Obviously unexpected for obvious reasons. Music director part, well, tell us a little bit about, have you been in Community Theatre before? Here, is this your first time? I've been involved with BCT for about five years. Six, if you count that road to fear thing they did back in 2020, boy that was cold. But this is the first time I've done anything in a directorial role. Okay. But my musical background is I graduated Waldorf College then primarily focusing on music. Mm-hmm. So. Excited about this? Excited. I mean, have you done theater, a musical theater production before? I've performed in musical theater before. I've been involved in theater through high school, not so much in college. But, yeah, I've been with this group for, there again, five years and various roles. Last of the Dragons was my first one and that was musical theater. So. Last year you were in Jekyll and Hyne, so. Yeah. I was the, let's see, I was the bishop, a priest, a reverend, an apothecary, I swear it's typecasting. There was a bunch. There was a bunch in there. Kelsey, you've done a couple of, you've helped out a couple of different things. Just a few. I got a notification yesterday that it's been eight years since I started with BCT. It's been a long time, Jim. Just a little bit. Who notified you of that? Facebook. Oh, okay. She just had it down there and it says, by the way, it was eight years ago you started. Yeah. It's sheer to, sheer to poke my very first post. Do you want me to say, don't worry about eight years is nothing? Susan. Yeah, in comparison, actually, we did Man of Lamont 40 years ago and I directed that. So that's how long I've been around. Just a few years. I knew, I knew, I knew it had been done previously at some time, but and more likely you had been involved with it too. So Man of Lamont, really, well, you went from one musical theater last year in Jekyll and Hyde to this one. And this is one of, I think, what, two that we're going to have this year? For, I mean, for. For musicals? Yes. Musicals. That's true. So the last one we'll be coming up will be Mary Poppins, of course. That's right. So Man of Lamont, you wanted to bring it back? Because I know, first of all, when you did Jekyll and Hyde, you said, I absolutely want to do this. Yeah. Yeah. And this, this is maybe my favorite show of all times. So. Okay. And when I, when I looked around and knew that the only people that remembered this show when we did it before were two or three people. So I, you know, Dave Howell. Yeah. Who's also doing the music here. So. Yeah. In fact, when we announced we were going to do that, he called me and said, you're going to ask me to do that. I said, I wouldn't ask anybody else, Dave. So. So yeah, he'll be the coming. Yeah. And he's wonderful. This will be, again, performances not coming up until November. So let's go through getting your cast and things like that. I know, not a real big cast, but I think you had some changes. It's a pretty big cast. It's like 17 people, which is a fairly good size cast. And we cast it two or three weeks ago so that we could just work music first because there's a lot of music in this show. And then tonight we're on the set because the show that was just there just closed this weekend. And so now we're upstairs on the set. And so I can start blocking it. So. And we'll just go from there. Yeah. I'm excited. All right. You've got, do you want to talk about some of the cast members that will be, besides Chris. We could talk about Chris. Who doesn't? I mean, let's try to be more positive. Michael Howland, who I was lucky enough to work with in Jekyll and Hyde, is playing Don Keody and also Alonso Kiana, who is the person who becomes Don Keody. But he's, that's his real person. Yeah. So. Why does Michael seem to have this split person? He's so good. He's so good. He really is good. And it's great fun to work with him. And John Hoffman will be Sancho Panza. Okay. And I have worked with John a lot. I mean, back when we did Bully a hundred years ago, you know, the one man show that he was incredible in. Yeah. So John will be wonderful too. Gary Gardner, who we've used in several shows, is playing the governor in this and he's wonderful. And of course, Brooke is. Brooke Madrigal is playing El Danza, but also that's also Dolce and Nea because that's who she becomes. Well, that's who he sees her as and then she becomes who he sees her. And so that's that's a great one. That's got to be fun for you. It certainly makes my job a lot easier, given the talent that we have. It's honestly not any real work, especially with, again, with David, how is he accompaniment? There's some meter changes and time signatures that I, from a musical standpoint, do not care for. And so I rely on David quite a bit and he is phenomenal. But just with all the talent that we have in this cast, it doesn't take long for everybody to pick up on the melodies and get the harmonies tight. So it's honestly a breeze, which is good. I don't want my debut to go bad. Well, and it is, it is a classical production. It is. So again, for some reason, we've really, people come out, they like this. Oh, you're doing that. I hope so. Put me down for the auditions. So David Michael, who's been in a lot of our shows, plays the innkeeper and he has good songs to sing. He's, he's just a solid member of our company. So he's fun to work with. Gosh, we just have so many good people. There's any other new ones or most everybody's been in performances a couple of times anyway. Most of them. Yeah. You have some new women. Okay.

We have Jean Sutcliffe joining us as the innkeeper's wife. Okay. She's joining us from out of Madrid. Okay. And then Courtney, Ren, who emailed us and asked if there was a part for her. So she has a part and she dances. So that'll be fun to see because there are dancing girls in this. Yes. Okay. All right. So we've got a few others. So Kelsey, one of your tasks is going to be, she said you're costuming and that is all right. How, I mean, you've got to already be started taking a look at what's, what's available. So actually a couple of the girls are already done. Brooke is actually done already. The nice thing about this, unlike Jekyll, is they only have one costume each. So I don't have to worry about it too much. So her and Courtney are already done. I have already plans for the other women. I just have to get it done. Michael's done. So most, I'll take care of, well, or coming together. Coming together. Okay. So it'll, it'll be good. Yeah. And Michael has grown a beard. Yes. For this. Yes. He asked about it and Susan and I both agreed that it was a good look. Yeah. Yeah. He looks good with a beard. He does. Oh, to be frank, he kind of looks good. He looks good. He does. He does. He does. He does. That means he takes care of himself. Yeah. He just ran another marathon. There are, there are those things. Anyway, the performance is coming up in November. It's going to be on the 12th, 13th, 14th, and then 19th, 20th, and 21st. That's right. So second, third weekends of November. Half a dozen different performances there before we hit the Thanksgiving break. Right. And the first five are evening performances and then the final Saturday will be a matinee. So, and we'll guessing probably tickets in a while. I may not be available right now. I don't know, but I think they are. You could probably start. Not quite. Not quite. You could probably get ready to do reservations online. It'll be out. Follow along on Facebook. Yeah. So I know that during the last production, a lot of, a lot of things showed up on Facebook. You have people doing a lot of PR stuff, throwing things out, letting people know. Can we expect about the same? I think so. Yes. I think she is. Yes. That would be, that would be Jenae Erickson. Yeah. Jenae does a great job. She's on a mission. She is amazing. So yes, she will be, she'll still be doing our PR and she is amazing at it. Right. Well, now it's just a matter of rehearsing and getting everything down, getting it all blocked out and going on. The blocking for the next two nights, probably, to get that all taken care of. This show plays without intermission. Okay. So that apparently they couldn't find a good place to stop and start. It's kind of like, kind of like what, yeah, happily never after. Yeah. Yeah. Never after happily. Never after happily. Sorry about that. Don't feel bad about that. I never know what it is. I know, but it was, it was very entertaining. And I'm sitting there going, where would you have stopped for an intermission? Yeah. It just, it was difficult to do. So same. This one goes straight through. Yep. It does. And it's such a good show. It's, you'll laugh like crazy. You'll probably shed a tear or two. I mean, it's just, it has everything. Okay. Well, last time I was sitting in the front for Jekyll and Hyde and somebody died at my feet. That may or may not happen again. It may or may not happen again. It did want to hit on a couple of other things for community theater because coming up here in October, participating community theater, not just our performers and stuff, but community theater is participating in a lot of the downtown activity, Halloween related activity. You bet. Last year, it just so happened, Jekyll and Hyde was coming together and, and for those that was ever the parade, the parade. In costume. Kind of. Everybody was in costume for it. It was great. So we got a few other things going on. You're participating with Merch, the shops on story and. Yeah. I want to say there's, so there, of course, there's the, the trick or treating that'll happen, which we will be involved in. Okay. Which we have been. Trunk or treat is on the 22nd. Yeah. Yep. And then.

You were working on, I think there's. It's a haunted house. Yeah. It's a haunted tour. Okay. Which we were involved in last year. And actually, one of our board members is overseeing it for shops and story because she's also on that. Okay. Or board or whatever it's called. So that's the.

I can't remember exactly. 24th. Okay. I want to say because it's the week before. Okay. Halloween. And homie Simmons is the one in charge of that this year for us. Okay. And she's, her plans are a lot, but it'll be fun. Okay. So I'm excited to see what she pulls together. Yeah. Community Theater has done a couple of Halloween type things. I remember that one out at Central Iowa Expo. Yeah. That one got a little. That got a little bit chilly. Yeah. So little. You had just lines. I know. Light of cars was crazy. We had people, I heard, that were coming to that from like Eastern Iowa and even close to Illinois. That and from what I heard, I mean, it went over very, very well. It was crazy. I mean, the some of the performers weren't necessarily all that happy because it was so cold. It was cold. And my, interestingly enough, my daughter was also involved in that with me. She loved it because she got to play a zombie and tackled me repeatedly. She never lets me forget that. Can't remember when. Well, there will be things that'll be coming up. People should follow along on Community Theater Facebook page. Yeah. That's an easy way to keep tabs on what's going on. And then you're going to get all the, all the PR related releases that'll be coming out. You betcha. Yep. And I know we get, there's enough cast members that she's going to have a good time. Yeah. Yeah. We keep doing that. Then, well, we get done with this and then the next auditions come up, but they're not until December. So a little break. We're not going to overlap for once. For once. We're not going to overlap. Not much of a break because we go almost to Thanksgiving. Yeah. And then it's right after that in December. We'll have Charlotte's Web. Yes. And Michelle Levi's directing that. Getting ready for, to go ahead with that.

We stay busy. Oh, I know that too. In one of the things, 51st year. And I think I really like the, you kind of, you guys have limited yourselves to doing like four, four productions. Well, four main productions. Four main productions. And are we looking at a few other things? Don't you have a trivia coming up in there? I believe so. I think we've got three trivias coming up in the next few months. And those are fun nights. If you haven't come to play with us, then that's fun. So come on now. Yeah. Again. We have prizes. I believe there's also supposed to be like a karaoke night or something on the 30th. That sounds right. That sounds right. Yeah. Because we kind of went from doing a couple other things to just karaoke. Yeah. And you got people getting up on stage. We haven't a good time. It's been fun. People do want to perform. You just have to give them a place to do it. You know, give them something to do. And then the right way. Yeah. Well, we've got a lot of different things going on for community theater. And it's basically all at 7-Eleven Story Street. That's right. And I want to throw in my usual reminder. Don't forget, you can buy a brick. Yeah. And you can do that online. Just go to community theater.org. Mooncommunitytheater.org. And it's right there on the whole page where you can donate and help support a brick. And you also have a number of people that have stepped up to sponsor. Yes. Different businesses to step up and sponsor. Yes. So that helps because musicals are not inexpensive. No, no, no. The royalties can choke you a little bit. But we keep going along with all of that. So we'll look for, let's see, next month. Well, you're going to be pretty close next month. So we'll be able to. I think I will try and bring in our two main stars next month. See if we can make it work. Yeah. Because they travel. I mean, you have people traveling all over. Michael comes from Norwalk and Brooke comes from Ames. I think. And then I come over from Jefferson, which isn't nearly as far. But no. But it's still a trip. I think Michael's the farthest with Norwalk. Oh, yeah. The biggest thing I have to worry about is deer. His dedication to coming and being with us is impressive. Because I worry every time he drives home, you know. Oh, yeah. Well, it's late at night. We'll just keep going. The big thing is Manila Mancha, the next production coming up. And once again, we've got the cast is set. I think things are coming together. Now you get to move upstairs and start to put blocking together and everything else. Yep. Set. Do you have people lined up for that? Or what? Oh, yeah. Christopher Levi is taken care of. And the lighting is going to be very interesting because

because Don Quixote goes in and out being Alonzo is not in character person. And so when we change, those things will change lighting so that people will understand when we're in the the because everything takes place down in a dungeon. Okay. So it would be kind of murky and green and funny in the dungeon. And then when when he starts to create his stories, his play with the blood, yes, then the lights will turn to something different when that's happening. So people will recognize it. Yeah, we watched it during Jekyll and Hyde. We went from white to red. Yeah, that's right. Like that. And he was in charge of that stuff too. So make it all come together to get the costumes done. Oh, yeah. Don't work too hard on all the music. Music director. This is the brood. This is it. It's you know, when you get when you get people that have done it and are really professional on the musicians, wait, I'm supposed to be professional. No. Okay, good. But I mean, it's pretty easy to put things like this together. Oh, yeah. And ultimately fine tuning it basically that's about it. Ultimately, I still look to Susan's like, yeah, is this okay? Can I do that? Yeah. Well, that's why she's there. Exactly. Now that's why I get the big bucks being the director, you know, we're supposed to get paid. Yeah, only Susan had that has never happened. There are there are those things. We work our way through them too. All right. Once again, the performances will be coming up in November. That's for Manila Mancha for Boone Community Theater. Thanks for coming in and getting us up to speed on where we're at. I look forward to everything coming together. And if Mother Nature cooperates, we'll get big turnouts. Yeah, well, let's hope people will mark it on the calendars right now so they don't miss this. Okay, that's going to be on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, November 12, 13 and 14. And again, on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, the 19th, 20th with the matinee on the 21st, correct, the afternoon, all the others in the evening. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for having us. Thank you. Thank you.