The Humboldt Theatre Club hit the stage once more for their fourth production since their rebirth in August 2016.
The Golden Fleecing, or the Undermining of Sarah Sweetflowers, took to the Jubilee Hall stage Feb. 16-17 and director Sarah Miller says this year they have been able to expand their production in many ways, including a three show run, including a dessert matinee.
Catering was done by the Bella Vista for the first time as well with Jubilee Hall providing more space for both the stage and the audience.
“We changed the entire structure of the club,” says Miller, “we have a treasurer, we have someone who helps manage, which is allowing me just to direct and do the more creative stuff.”
Growing the organization also means helping other community groups with the event raising money for the Humboldt and District SPCA as well as donating money to Big Brothers Big Sisters Humboldt and Area in return for volunteers running the bars for the evening performances.
“That’s really the goal of the group is to not just do it for us but be able to give back to Humboldt and have this be something that’s going to last a long time.”
The productions are not just for making money, says Miller, they just want to be able to sustain the club so having the opportunity to give back to the community is something they want to continue to do, she says.
With more time with the actors, Miller says, they have increased the production value.
Everyone was trying to fleece everyone in the pioneer drama as Sarah Sweetflowers, played by Annette Magus, inherits a saloon from her uncle, Cactus Bob, played by Alanna Bergquist, in the ghost town of Elbow’s Bend.
Word of gold in them there parts means that everyone is after what remains of Cactus Bob’s lost mine, including Sly Scavenger, played by Jason Wilger, and his accomplice, Twinkle Toes, played by Katherine Draude, and good guys turn bad as Sweetflower has fend off supposed friends to keep her saloon.
“It’s a complete twist by the end. It’s pretty awesome,” says Miller.
With half the characters dead by the end, some of them multiple times, Wilger addresses the crowd to discuss the deaths of characters.
“It really pulls the audience in in a sense that they interact with those characters and get to fall in love with the characters.”
While the club is expanding financially, they are also gaining in popularity with Miller even turning potential actors away this time around.
“Simply for the play that we picked out, we had more people show up than we had parts for. But those people came back and helped with other aspects, whether it was behind the scenes or running things at the door.”
This production included some new faces on stage as well as some seasoned veterans of the Humboldt Theatre Club.
One new face was Bernadette Reifferscheid, who was on the stage in a different capacity than usual.
Reifferscheid has been on plenty of Humboldt based stages singing and, while she knew what to expect, being on stage as an actor was a little different with lines to learn and moving differently across the stage.
“A lot of times when I’m singing, I’m singing by myself so it’s just a different kind of experience when I’m working with a crew but it was all good.”
Reifferscheid has really seen the arts scene change in Humboldt over the past decade which she is very happy to see.
Miller is already looking at production number five coming with auditions in the spring and the play in August. With a bigger venue, Miller hopes that a bigger cast and bigger production is possible.
