HICKMAN — On Wednesday afternoon, on Locust Street in the small town of Hickman, members of the Stage Theater loaded up the big rental truck from Budget.
In went the chaise lounge and the Asian lanterns, the silver serving tray and the snake basket, the pool chairs and the pillows, the wigs and the wig pins, the sweater vests and undershirts, the bow ties and the spats.
In went the hoop skirt for Mrs. Tottendale, the brown paisley tie for George, the blue bathing suit for Kitty and all those monkey masks.
Every prop. Every costume. Every fake martini glass and clay olive and cufflink.
The entire set of “The Drowsy Chaperone,†packed into a 26-foot truck preparing to leave its Lancaster County home and head to the heart of Nebraska.
First to a Friday night performance in Gothenburg, a three-hour drive west down Interstate 80.
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And then to Ravenna for a Saturday night performance before closing the weekend out in Central City.
It’s an ambitious endeavor.
“I was up late last night worrying we were going to forget something,†said Emmy Lou Harris, assistant theater director and the props master who compiled a dozen pages of lists to make sure not a single bobby pin, flower arrangement or plate-on-a-stick get left behind.
“But I am super excited we get to show this to other people out in western Nebraska.â€
Ditto, said cast member Violet Kirk, who plays a maid in the funny and touching musical comedy that opened on Broadway in 2006.
“I think I’m most excited about just meeting some of the people in the smaller towns.â€
Kirk had been worried about the weather for a late winter trip, but with a forecast for sunshine and 60s on the weekend: “I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.â€
The roadshow is a first for the Stage Theater, a 120-seat dream that opened here in 2013, staging more than a dozen shows and making a name for itself in the niche of small town community theater.
A theater run on love and donations and determination.
The idea for the road trip was hatched during the Stage Theater’s first run of “The Drowsy Chaperone†in 2015.
Cast member Julie Enersen taught vocal music in Central City in the early ‘90s and a friend from her time there came to the show.
“She said, ‘Oh, I wish the people in Central City could see this,’†Enersen said. “We kind of laughed, but then I started thinking about it. Why couldn’t we pack up a truck and take it on the road?â€
And it went from there. Enersen mentioned the idea to the theater’s director, Robert Wamsley, and he liked it. Although they’d just staged the show, he decided to add it to their 2017 season, where it just finished its run.
“It’s a show that people will come back and see more than once,†he said. “It leaves you with a really good feeling.â€
The cast and crew got on board, too.
And after they decided to take the show to Central City, they figured they might as well fill up the rest of the weekend, starting in Gothenburg and working their way back east.
“All of the cities we’re visiting have a connection piece,†Kirk said.
One cast member grew up in Gothenburg, another hails from Ravenna and Enersen claims the Central City tie.
And all three towns have embraced their native sons and daughter and the entire traveling troupe, opening up their homes to more than two dozen cast and crew members.
The Budget truck will hit the road Thursday with most of the actors making the 3-hour trek Friday.
The curtain goes up at 7:30 in Gothenburg for the start of the aptly named “Stagecoach Tour.â€
The plan is to meet at the theater by 5, said assistant director Harris.
“I’m a little worried,†she said. “Theater people are not always known for being the most on-time people.â€