Charles Youth Theatre delivers a play in a week

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Most professional and community theaters — and even Broadway shows — spend at least a couple of months putting everything together before opening night.

The Charles Youth Theatre, however, does it all in one work week.

“It works well, I like it. I like the kids, I like to do it,” said Robin Krueger, who has been putting together “a play in a week” shows with young Charles City actors for 18 years now. “It’s not real theatre as much as it’s experience on stage, and becoming comfortable with performing, and it’s awesome.”

The kids, from entering third grade through entering eighth grade, come in Monday morning. They are taught some basic acting and stagecraft, are given a play, memorize lines and rehearse through the week. They then perform the play on Friday.

The play, presented Friday morning at The Charles Theatre, was “A Dish for the King,” by Mildred Hark and Noel McQueen.

The cast of characters was Sophia Jensen, King; Jada Litterer, Princess; Kylie Parsons, 1st Lady-in-Waiting; Tayleigh Lantz, 2nd Lady-in-Waiting; Peyton Hadley, 3rd Lady-in-Waiting; Ava Koenigsfeld, Martha; Katie Cross, Herald; Ann Marie Hauser, Chef; Bennett Hansen, Guard; Emma Schmitt, Cook; Samantha Tietz, Guard and Cook; Joslyn Bormann, Courier; Jonah DeVore, Romulus; Elizabeth Oleson, The Great Pierre; Sydney Otto, Sombrero Sancho; Blake Hoeft, Ali Ben Swami; Hannah DeVore, Minstrel.

“This was a great group to work with,” said Linda Hughes, who has been co-directing with Krueger for all 18 years. The two got additional help this year from Linda Brant.

Brant is a longtime theatre director for Charles City High School and the Stony Point Players, Charles City’s local community theater group. She stepped up to help when Krueger injured her hand.

“She’s just been wonderful,” Krueger said.

Like the Stony Point Players, the Charles Youth Theatre is part of the Charles City Arts Council. The cast was a little short this year — just 17 actors — because a good amount of the potential talent pool is committed to working with this summer’s Stony Point production of “The Wizard of Oz” as munchkins and other roles.

Krueger said she doesn’t mind having a smaller cast this time around.

“I’m thrilled that they’re doing that,” she said. “Stony Point has been inactive, so the fact that they’re coming back and getting so many people involved has us all excited.”

Krueger said that tons of Charles Youth Theatre alumni end up performing in high school plays and for the Stony Point Players.

“It’s the ground-roots beginning of having plays in the community,” she said.