LATE ANN ABBOTT GETS ARTS AWARD

Patrick Abbott accepted the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri's highest award Monday in the place of this year's recipient, his mother, Ann Abbott, who died April 19.

Dr. Dan Cotner presented the Otto Dingeldein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts at the Old-Fashioned Summer Holiday Concert at Capaha Park.

Abbott told the crowd that Ann Abbott worked to make a place in Cape Girardeau where people could "be, in a unique way."

He said his mother worked to establish a theater where children were directly involved. "She did it because she loved the theater and she loved kids, that's all," Patrick Abbott said.

Abbott warned the crowd to not forget the arts. "It always seems that you don't appreciate something until it is gone."

Ann Abbott was a founder of ACT I, II, and III, an early community theater group in Cape Girardeau. She was involved with the group until retiring as director of Broadway Players in the late 1980s.

She received a master's degree from Southeast Missouri State University in 1978, and taught at University High School in Cape Girardeau and Delta C-7 in Deering.

She joined the Arts Council in 1972, and helped organize and direct the Children Theater. The first year of that group was so successful it spawned a four-week workshop the next year.

The workshop taught acting, make-up, designing and stagecraft. Children Theater became Act I, II and III in 1974. Act I is for elementary students, Act II for junior and senior high students and Act III for adults.

Nine of her students have gone on to professional careers in the arts.

Patrick Abbott said Cape Girardeau's theater program is feeling the loss of Ann Abbott's presence.

Cotner said the Children's Theater was formed to provide activities for the attainment of skills rather than to entertain. Cotner said this resulted in many students choosing communication careers.

The Dingeldein Award is named after the first recipient, silversmith Otto Dingeldein, who was one of the founders of the Arts Council in 1961-62.

The award was presented between concerts by the Cape Girardeau and Jackson municipal bands. Those attending were also introduced to Greg Jones, the new Arts Council director.