Charles City Youth Theater performs “The King’s Calendar”

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

Thirteen brave souls bowed to the audience on Friday morning at the Charles Theatre.

When their work was finished up on stage, a welcome applause reverberated throughout the structure that has been a mainstay for movies on Main Street in Charles City since 1935.

This production wasn’t straight from Hollywood or of the cinematic variety.

Every year since 2000, the Charles City Youth Theater has been performing a play and this summer was no different.

Directed by Robin Krueger and Linda Hughes – two retired middle school teachers – 13 diligent and talented youths performed “The King’s Calendar.”

They did it all in five days.

That means kids in third through the eighth grade memorized lines, were taught acting tips, learned stagecraft and did two hours of rehearsal every day. That all led to one final performance up on the big stage in front of a crowd full of family and friends.

“We start them out on Monday and we put the show on on Friday,” said Hughes. “We had some jitters this morning. When they get nervous, they speak faster.”

The Charles City Youth Theater is part of the Charles City Arts Council and Stony Point Players.

“The (movie) theater exists with a charter that says this stage should be available for doing shows. So we’re one of the groups that does shows with that,” said Krueger.

Krueger said the idea of the play – which took about 20 minutes to perform – is to get the kids up on stage and comfortable with the idea of performing in front of an audience. The 13 kids that signed up for the play were down from last year’s cast of 17 that put on “A Dish for the King.”

“We choose our plays based on the number of children that sign up,” said Krueger. “We make sure we always have a play that has lines for everybody.”

Hughes said Lynn Bauer also helped out all week with getting the play up and running.

“It’s a lot of fun. I often call this my “kid fix.” We’re both retired teachers so it’s fun to hang with your kids,” said Krueger.