Community members help 'bridge the gap' in first River Campus show

In addition to musicians Bruce Zimmerman, Les Lindy Jr. and Steve Schaffner performing onstage and other community members in the pit orchestra, 10 members of the community will be in the cast when "Big River" opens Wednesday night.

People in the community are always invited to audition for theatrical productions at Southeast Missouri State University. Working with talented members of the community enhances the educational experience of the students, said Dr. Kenn Stilson, director of "Big River" and chairman of the Department of Theatre and Dance.

But casting community members in the first production opening the new River Campus was symbolically important as well. "We're so happy with this particular show to be able to use as many community members as we have because one of the missions of the River Campus is to bridge the gap between the university and the community," Stilson said.

"... Without the community support there would not be a River Campus facility."

Revenue from the city's motel and restaurant tax will pay for just under $16 million of the total cost of funding the project by the time the bonds are retired in 2015, according to the university's estimate.

Community cast members, from left, Mike Dumey, Dolly Dambach and Charles Vaughn, sang "Do Ya Wanna Go to Heaven?" with the ensemble to Huck during Act I of "Big River."FRED LYNCH flynch@semissourian.com

Most but not all the community members in "Big River" are in the chorus. Some have stage experience and some don't.

Among those who do are Mike Dumey, whose musical productions at Central Junior High are legendary, and his 14-year-old daughter Lauren, who plays a townsperson and a patient in the doctor's office.

Robin Twiggs works in the payroll department at Southeast and has never performed on a stage before. Her son Brodrick, a freshman at Central High School, was in the Central Junior High production of "Beauty and the Beast." They auditioned together.

Surgical assistant Lloyd Williams is a veteran of many River City Players productions, both as an actor and director.

Lester Goodin's wife identifies her husband for people by saying he looks like Mark Twain. He has portrayed the author before in programs sponsored by the the Center for Faulkner Studies and possesses a prodigious speaking voice. But the conceit in "Big River" is that Twain is onstage conjuring up "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," so Goodin does not utter a word.

Goodin is a farmer when he's not playing Mark Twain. Looking like Twain has never been anything but fortunate, he said. "But lately I think I'm starting to look more like Einstein."

While a student at Southeast decades ago, accountant Robert Cox was a classmate of Judith Farris, now the vocal director for "Big River." She invited him to try out for a part. He plays a bounty hunter and a counselor.

Local audiences are familiar with the supple voice of Quitman McBride III, a Central High School sophomore who already has recorded two CDs. In "Big River" he sings in four or five numbers and is the featured soloist in the gospel song "How Blessed We Are."

"When he sings, the audience is going to jump out of their chairs," Stilson said.

Between school choir concerts and working on this third CD, McBride usually has some kind of performance in the works, but said, "This is really stepping it up. It is demanding. But I like a challenge.

"... You have to give 110 percent every single practice."

He hopes to have a career in musical theater.

Paige Kiefner, a freshman at Saxony Lutheran High School, has been in a couple of nonmusical school productions. Brodrick Twiggs, Paige Kiefner and Lauren Dumey don't have solos but are also quite talented, the director said. "The high school kids in this show are wonderful. If all high school kids were like them I'd probably go back to teaching high school."

Charles Vaughn spent 18 years managing the storeroom for the department of chemistry at Southeast. He also has directed choirs for schools and churches for 54 years. As Judge Thatcher he sings a solo early in the show chastising Huck.

He has valued working with the younger people in the cast. "As long as the adrenaline flows, it keeps us in great shape," he said.

Aside from singing in the Choral Union for the past 22 years, the last time Cox was on stage was in a production of "Paint Your Wagon" more than 40 years ago. "Owning my own business and coming here every night is a little wearing on a senior citizen," he admits. But he smiles when he says so.

Dolly Dambach has never been one to sit back and watch as other people do things. "They tell me my first public performance was at age 3," said Dambach, now 76.

In high school she wrote and directed a musical. In 1975 she helped found a community theater in Jackson. She also directed a church choir for 20 years and loves karaoke.

She's taking private voice lessons from Farris.

Robyn and Brodrick Twiggs, Lloyd Williams and Quitman McBride play slaves in "Big River." Williams admits he didn't like that idea at first. "But I'm familiar with the work of Mark Twain, and 'Huckleberry Finn' is one of my favorite books. I did have second thoughts," he said. "'I'm going to play a slave?' But they have to have them."

Williams was in the university's 2003 production of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" with Stephen Fister, who plays a con artist called the Duke in "Big River." "It's amazing to me how much talent there is in the area," Williams said.

As a director himself, he said he enjoys seeing Stilson in action. "You pick up so many things watching him work," he said. "Its like being in a class sometimes."

Mike Dumey played the captain of the HMS Pinafore the last time he was on a stage at Southeast. That was 1979. But for many years he and singer Robyn Hosp have been staging holiday shows spotlighting themselves and Dumey's former students. In "Big River" he plays a man whose identity has been appropriated by rapscallions.

Not being the director has been refreshing for him. "It's fun to be part of something like this and a real learning experience," he said.

Dumey also watches how Stilson handles his company, which he says is filled with self-assured actors. "He gives them a unique look at what is expected in legitimate theater," he said.

Last year Dumey took 70 students to see the university's production of "42nd Street." This year he is otherwise occupied, but with orchestra director Steve Schaffner also in the cast, many of their students have indicated they plan to see the show on their own.

Kiefner assures that her Saxony Lutheran classmates will attend, too. "I am forcing them," she said.

Vaughn's wife, Sue, has tickets for all five performances.

Most everyone admits to already feeling the excitement building toward being in the first production ever at the River Campus. "I'm not nervous, but it's not opening night yet," Lauren Dumey said.

"It's special," Dambach said. "Just the honor of putting it before the public is commanding of all your energy."

sblackwell@semissourian.com

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