12 minute read
Cover Story
from MidWeek_061621
by Shaw Media
COVER STORY ON THEIR MARK
Stage Coach Players celebrate 75 years of community theater
By KATRINA J.E. MILTON
kmilton@shawmedia.com
DeKALB – Stage Coach Players is celebrating its 75th season with a year of activities and performances.
This season marks the anniversary of the group’s first production, “Pure as the Driven Snow,” which opened March 27, 1947. Stage Coach is the longest continuous-running community theater group in Illinois.
A resolution passed by the Illinois General Assembly will be presented by state Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore, at 10 a.m. June 23 at Stage Coach Theatre, 126 S. Fifth St. in DeKalb. Keicher, who represents Illinois’ 70th District, presented the resolution on the House floor on May 5, and it passed the following day. Everyone is invited to attend the pronouncement.
Continuing the celebration, the group will hold a picnic from 2 to 6 p.m. June 27 at Cortland Lions Den, adjacent to the Cortland Community Park, 70 S. Llanos St. DeKalb Mayor Cohen Ann Eddy Barnes and Sycamore Mayor Steve Braser will make a joint Gray Smith proclamation declaring the week starting June 27 as Stage Coach Players Week. During the picnic, a memory booklet compiled by Kathy Cane and D’Ann Hamilton-White will be distributed.
Jan Kuntz, chairwoman of the 75th anniversary committee, said the pronouncement and picnic are ways to celebrate with the community.
“Through the years, we’ve been so much more than just a theater,” she said. “We’ve had hundreds of shows, probably thousands of actors. We’ve become a community and entity as a theater.”
Bonnie Miller, who has been involved with Stage Coach for more than six years, said that what makes the theater unique is the people.
“We haven’t been able to see each other in more than a year due to the pandemic, and everyone at Stage Coach are family,” Miller said. “It feels like home.”
Stage manager Dorcas Keating described the theater as her home away from home.
“It’s truly a place where you can be yourself and fit in while pretending to be someone else on stage,” she said. “You get to play pretend, dress up and have fun with your friends while staying involved in the community. That’s why I’m involved with Stage Coach and why I will continue to stay involved for as long as I can.”
Director Cortney Jo Newby travels 45 minutes from Elgin four to five nights a week to be involved in the shows.
“What I love about Stage Coach is that everyone is so opening and welcome,” she said. “It’s the most professional community theater I’ve ever been a part of. We pride ourselves on our professionalism, as well as being educational. We’re always learning from each other. We’re all volunteer, and the amount of work we put in and the quality of shows we put on are incredible.”
Photos provided
Members of the Stage Coach Players perform “Berkeley Square” in 1947. The group is celebrating its 75th season.
All about Stage Coach
In March 1947, Ann Eddy Gray Smith directed “Pure as the Driven Snow” with a group of DeKalb residents at the Masonic Temple. In a 1996 Daily Chronicle column about Stage Coach’s beginnings, Smith wrote that after the play was finished, people said it was too bad the theater group couldn’t continue.
“Being eager and slightly naive, I said, ‘But it can,’ ” she wrote. “ ‘All you have to do is start a theater.’ ”
Smith asked Johnny Ellwood for the use of one of his barns, and the theater’s first permanent location was in the Ellwood family’s barn loft at Ilehamwood Farm on North First Street, which was used from 1947 to 1949.
The Ellwoods also gave permission for the group to use a pioneer stage coach as a ticket booth. The stage coach brought Teddy Roosevelt to ceremonies dedicating the Northern Illinois State Normal School that is now Northern Illinois University. The stage coach later was sold to the Harold Warp Pioneer Village Museum in Nebraska.
After the barn was needed for farming, the theater group moved to a few different locations, including the old DeKalb High School auditorium, Glidden Grade School’s social room and a courtroom of the DeKalb County Courthouse.
“The Masonic Lodge is gone, the barn is gone, the old high school is gone, the Glidden school is gone, but Stage Coach is still very much alive,” Smith wrote.
In 1953, Stage Coach Players moved into a permanent modular metal building on Barber Greene Road. The building was acquired from the DeKalb County Board and had been part of the DeKalb County Farm.
The group acquired its current space, 126 S. Fifth St. in DeKalb, in 2001. The building had previously been a Moose Hall and the Church of Christ for 30 years.
Kuntz, who has been involved with Stage Coach for 23 years, said technology is what has changed the most through the years. With the money raised from last year’s Give DeKalb County fundraising day of giving, audio devices to help hearing-impaired audience members were bought. This year’s funds will be used to update the theater’s lighting technology.
“Making sure our audience has the best experience possible by keeping up with technology is at the forefront of our goals as a theater,” Kuntz said.
The show will go on
After being closed for more than a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Stage Coach opened its 75th season with “Come Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean” on May 20.
Upcoming shows include “When I Grow Up: A Musical Cabaret” in July, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” in August, “The Red Velvet Cake War” in September, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: A Musical Thriller” in October and “Elf: The Musical” in December.
During the pandemic, the group actively helped the community. Each week, members collected food and personal care items for local food banks and organizations and gave away fabric to be used to make face masks.
The group partnered with the Salvation Army to create food boxes for Thanksgiving and collected wish-list items for the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program. They also partnered with the U.S. Marines at Christmas to collect for the Toys for Tots program.
“During the pandemic, we wanted to reach out and help the community because they’re the reason we’re here as a theater,” Kuntz said. “We used the bad situation of the pandemic for a good cause. We’ve expanded who we are as a theater and our role in the community.”
For information about Stage Coach Players, upcoming shows or to buy tickets, visit www.stagecoachplayers.com or call the box office at 815-7581940.
Happy Together Tour coming to the Egyptian
THE MIDWEEK
DeKALB – The Happy Together Tour 2021 is headed to the Egyptian Theatre on Aug. 20.
Happy Together features chart-topping hits from the 1960s and 1970s, headlined by The Turtles, who also act as musical hosts for the evening. Supporting acts include Gary Puckett & The Union, The Association, Classics IV, The Vogues and The Cowsills.
The Turtles are best known for their harmony-heavy California pop sound. With hits such as “Elenore,” “She’d Rather Be With Me,” “It Ain’t Me Babe,” “You Showed Me” and the tour’s titular song, “Happy Together,” the band ruled the airwaves in the late ’60s. Ron Dante joins the lineup with his own megahit, “Sugar Sugar.”
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap will perform “Young Girl,” “Over You,” “Woman, Woman,” “This Girl is a Woman Now,” “Lady Willpower,” “Don’t Give in to Him” and more.
Also returning to the tour for 2021 is The Association, who enjoyed radio success in the ’60s with No. 1 hits including “Cherish,” “Windy,” “Never My Love” and “Along Comes Mary.”
Classics IV will join Happy Together with their southern soft rock sound. The band achieved phenomenal success with multiplatinum hits “Spooky,” “Stormy,” “Traces” and Everyday With You Girl.”
Brand-new to the Happy Together touring family for 2021 are The Vogues. Also known for harmony-driven pop sound, The Vogues had numerous top 10 hits with singles such as “Five O’Clock World,” “You’re The One,” “My Special Angel” and “Turn Around Look At Me.”
Rounding out the bill are The Cowsills, the harmonious family act of two brothers and a sister that inspired the hit ’60s television show, “The Partridge Family.” They will perform “Hair,” “Indian Lake,” “The Rain, The Park & Other Things (I Love The Flower Girl)” and more.
Ticket prices range from $59.50 to $89.50. Tickets can be bought at the Egyptian Theatre box office during box office hours, 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesdays, online at www.egyptiantheatre.org or by calling the box office at 815-758-1225.
The Egyptian Theatre, located at 135 N. Second St. in DeKalb, is owned and operated by Preservation of Egyptian Theatre Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
State accreditation team to evaluate NIU police June 28
THE MIDWEEK
DeKALB – Representatives from the Illinois Chiefs of Police Association will visit Northern Illinois University campus June 28 to conduct an on-site assessment of the university’s Department of Police and Public Safety.
According to a news release from NIU, the visit is part of an ongoing process aimed at securing recognition under the organization’s Illinois Law Enforcement Accreditation Program. During the visit, trained assessors from peer agencies across the state will conduct inspections, file reviews and audits of the NIU police department.
Members of the public will have an opportunity to participate in the process via phone between 11 a.m. and noon June 28, according to the release. Interested individuals can call the police department at 815-753-1212 and ask to speak with the assessment team. Calls will be directed to a member of the team (working in a secure, private area) and callers can discuss their experiences with the department and share their opinions. All feedback will remain anonymous.
The site visit is one of the final steps in the process required for ILEAP accreditation. The information gathered during the visit, along with documentation gathered over the past two years, will be reviewed at an upcoming meeting of the Illinois Chiefs of Police Association ILEAP Assessment Team, which will determine if the department meets the high standards for administration, operations, personnel and training required to attain accreditation.
Of the nearly 900 police agencies in the state, only 44 police departments have attained ILEAP accreditation, including those in the cities of DeKalb and Sycamore. Also accredited are the police departments at Illinois State, Northeastern, Southern and Western Illinois Universities, as well as the University of Illinois.
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Ellwood hosts tea party for kids
THE MIDWEEK
DeKALB – Youth programs return to the Ellwood House Museum this month with “Ellwood Explorers: Picnics in the Park.”
Bring a lawn chair or blanket, a picnic lunch and some friends to enjoy a weekend morning at Ellwood Park. Each event will have a historical or site-based theme, with activities, crafts and games scattered around the museum grounds.
June’s program, a “Victorian Tea Party,” will be held from 10:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. June 27. Test your knowledge of 19th-century etiquette, complete your tea party look with a festive hat or bow tie, and play authentic “parlor games” – a favorite pastime of Victorian partygoers.
Entirely outdoors, each Ellwood Explorers event is planned with social distancing in mind, and all activities can be completed solo or in small groups.
Crafts and activities are geared toward elementary-aged children, but all ages are welcome. Registration is required. For information and to see the full Ellwood Explorers schedule, visit ellwoodhouse. org/youthprograms or call 815-7564609.
Ellwood Explorers is supported by the Cy Miller Foundation. The Ellwood House Museum is located at 420 Linden Place in DeKalb.
Photo provided The June Ellwood Explorer program, a “Victorian Tea Party,” will be held June 27.
Juneteenth celebration, block party planned in DeKalb
DeKALB – Three community groups are joining together to host an event in DeKalb for Juneteenth, a holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in the U.S.
New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, the NIU Center for Black Studies and B.L.L.A.C.K. Inc. NFP will host a community Juneteenth celebration and block party to commemorate the historic date. The event is scheduled from noon to 5 p.m. June 19 at the corner of Hillcrest Drive and Blackhawk Road, where Campus Cinema once stood, in the Annie Glidden North neighborhood.
The event will include music, food, a mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinic, voter registration and social services information, along with other activities.
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the U.S. On June 19, 1865, 2½ years after the Emancipation Proclamation was created, Union soldiers came to Galveston, Texas, to bring the news that the Civil War had ended and slaves were now free.
For information, to register as a vendor or to give monetary donations for the event, visit newhopeofdekalb.org/juneteenth. – The MidWeek
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