St James High School - Saintonian Yearbook (St James, MN)

Page 33 text:

CONCENTRATED EFFORT BY JUNIORS Breakfast at the Gibbs home. Mrs. Gibbs, George, and Rebecca. show requiring many emotions and pre- cision movements. Their constant guidance helped the cast portray the daily life of common people in an early twentieth century village. The backstage and dressing rooms provided memorable gabfests, conversations, with the Ouija Board, and the feeling of warmth that comes from good teamwork. Mrs. Webb and Mrs. Gibbs are sitting outside Mrs. Webb's home, stringing beans. (Also talking about the furniture man who came to visit Mrs. Gibbs, and numerous other things.) 29 Mrs. Webb, Mrs. Soames, and Mrs. Gibbs comment on how drunk the choir director was at choir practice. George and Emily are in their bedrooms.

Page 32 text:

 OUR TOWN” REPRESENTED DAYS OF OUR TOWN had such a large cast that there was a part for nearly everyone who wanted to try their skills on the stage. THE CAST Stage Manager . . . Jeff Scholar Dr. Gibbs.........Curt Bottem Mrs. Gibbs .... Linda Kuyper George Gibbs .... Bruce Johnson Rebecca Gibbs . . , Stephanae Daemke Mr. Webb..........Jay Gapp Mr . Webb.........Shirley Miest Emily Webb .... Cecelia Goree Wally Webb .... Keith Winkelman Joe Crowell .... Ron Malmgren Howie Newsom . . . Mike Walter Professor Willard..........Lyle Wolle Simon Stimson . . . Mike Dempsey Mrs. Soames . . . .Connie Kennedy Constable Warren...........Charles Dettman Si Crowell........Rick Knutson Sam Craig.........Terry Miller Joe Stoddard .... Karl Anderson Woman in Balcony..........Diane Sandmeyer Man in Auditorium .... Mark Krause Lady in the Box . . . Diane Harbitz People of the Town--R. Campbell, J. Currie, C. Erickson, R. Grev, G. Harbitz, R. Jackson, M. Joblinske, B. Johnson, L. Kluver, K. Offerdahl, V. Peterson, G. Sizer, J. Smith, M. Swan- son, M. Wetch, L. Wolle. This year's Junior Class Play, OUR TOWN, by Thornton Wilder, was a great success with the students and general public. Mem- bers of the cast were anxious to find how the audience would react to a play filled with pantomine and no scenery except ladders and tables. Mr. Heilman, the di- rector, and Mr. Udvig, his assistant helped the aspiring actors to perform a Mary Westman was the play's student director and Mr. Heilman directed the play. 28

Page 34 text:

MANY STUDENTS WITH FINE SPEAKING SERIOUS INTERPRETATION: M. Pictured in this division of declam were extemporaneous readers (seated), L. Kuyper and J. Sorensen. Extemporaneous speakers were R. Peterson, M. Sturm, and L. Fullmer. Swenstad, T. Goree, D. Schwake. Declam work began in earnest during the first week of January. After much diligent effort and long pracrice, the local con- tests were finally held from March 8-12. The two winners and an alternate of each division were allowed to continue their quest, by entering the West Sub-District contest at Rapidan on March 20. The winners then advanced to the District, at Mankato Wilson, and from there it was on to the reginal, held at Winnebago on April 10. The participants in original and non- original oratory were very ably coached by Mr. Ball. Mr. Heilman handled ex- temporaneous speaking and discussion. Storytelling was coached by Mr. Bjorn, and Mrs. McCusky supervised serious interpretation. Humorous interpretation progressed rapidly under Miss Koyen's guidance. The junior high school also had a busy year for declam. Mr. Frost, Miss Hal- vorson, and Mrs. Danger coached these 44 participants in the fine art of speaking. The 39 declam members in the senior high found speech a lot of hard work but well worth the time spent. Hitler's council of war? It could be, but it's really Leo Balthazor, Charles Mausling, Herb Stark, Jeff Scholar, and Mike Sturm in the one act play, Miracle of the Danube. The play was written by Maxwell Anderson and it is a war drama of World War II, con- cerning German policies. The play was rated second in the district. 30