FOR A LAUGH ... COMMUNITY THEATER SHOW IS CLASSIC COMEDY; YOUNG DIRECTOR IN THE SPOTLIGHT

The co-director of the upcoming Broadway Community Theater presentation, at 18 years of age, still has ample acting experience.

Jill Sturm says she caught the acting bug in fifth grade and has been involved in theater since.

A senior at Cape Girardeau Central High School, she is co-director with David Kaempher of "Pure As The Driven Snow," a melodrama that will be presented May 8-9 by the Broadway Community Theatre.

Reservations are required for the dinner theater and should be made prior to May 1 by calling the Southeast Missouri Council on the Arts during business hours. Cocktails begin at 6 p.m. followed by the dinner at 7 and the show at 8.

Sturm isn't letting the fact that she's directing a community play go to her head.

"I just love to do it, and I'm glad I have this chance to direct," she said.

Sturm has acted in community and school theater since she was 11. Ann Abbott, while directing a production of "Bye Bye Birdie" for the Broadway Players, asked her to play a bit part.

A few years later, in 1989, she and Abbott started "A Stage of Youth," an acting troupe made up mostly of teens. Sturm directed "Dracula" with the troupe in 1990.

Although "A Stage of Youth" never seemed "to take off," Sturm said she soon was involved in Central's drama department, where she's been a regular contributor.

She said she enjoys acting but prefers to direct.

"The organization is the hardest part for me," she said. "It's a real challenge."

But she rarely contemplates that she's younger than most of the actors and actresses she's directing. "I guess I don't think about it much, and I don't think they do either," Sturm said.

Sturm said she plans to attend Southeast Missouri State University in the fall and get involved in the drama department there.

"I really don't see (directing) as something I'll do professionally," she said. "But I think its something I'll always be involved in."

"Pure As The Driven Snow" is a typical melodrama, she said: "Everything is overdone and its really comical."

But a comedy and drama presents its own unique set of challenges for the actors and the director.

"Comedies are harder in some respects," Sturm said. "The actors take it less seriously, and think they don't have to work as hard, which isn't true."

The 15-member cast includes Autumn McSpadden as Purity Dean, the heroine. The play centers around her trip to the Uland Inn and the people she encounters there. The villain, Mortimer Frothingham, is played by Jason Merkler. Both are students at Central.

But there's always a hero, and in this case his name is Leander Longfellow, who saves poor Purity from the schemes of villain Frothingham. George Kraelman, a student at Southeast Missouri State University, plays Longfellow.

Sturm said the plot is thickened when a widow and her daughter come to the inn and side with the villain. "They're around to cause trouble," she said.

The widow, Ethelinda Hewlitt, and her daughter, Allison Hewlitt, are played by Marta Green and Bentley Clifford.

The play culminates in the quest to bring the hero and heroine together.

"Pure as the Driven Snow" will be presented at the Holiday Inn Convention Center.