T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Marshalltown Community Theater Board of Directors Treasurer Kevin Jensen gives an update on the finances of the organization at the annual meeting, which was held Tuesday. President Lisa Naig listens in front of the set of “God of Carnage,” which opens May 3.

The Marshalltown Community Theater (MCT) has successfully operated from the stage of Miller Middle School and will continue to do so.

The MCT members found the new base of operations after the 2020 derecho displaced them from the Marshalltown Arts and Civic Center. Almost four years later, the MACC theater is still in need of repair.

The annual MCT meeting was held Tuesday inside the Miller theater, with board members and visiting public scattered amongst the seats. President Lisa Naig told attendees they have been out of the MACC since moving the last of their items in January.

“That is when MCT left the building,” Naig said.

She said they have not confirmed the upcoming year at Miller with Marshalltown Community School District yet. Naig stressed there are some rules members and play personnel will have to follow.

“They are rules we needed in the first place,” she told attendees.

Naig added that in September, a show will be performed in the B.A. Niblock MCSD Orpheum Welcome Center.

“Maybe we’ve got a foot in the door there,” she said.

MCT has since moved production costumes, decor and sets from the MACC and the adjacent “barn,” which is what members called the storage shed. Now, those items are stored in a former laundromat close to MARSHALLTOWN Co.

Board member Sue Crawford is the primary person who ensured everything was moved out of the “barn.” She contacted various residents to see if they were interested in what was left, and was successful in her endeavors. Through Crawford’s efforts, the wood shop class at Marshalltown High School will acquire a lot of wood.

“[The Woodworking II class] is going to come on Monday at 8:35 a.m. and they’re going to clean us out, probably,” she said to a round of applause.

Other groups who also acquired some MCT remnants were the Caring Center and Second Chance Thrift Store. The West Marshall School District theater program will get the MCT spotlight and select costumes and a theater troupe acquired costumes and set pieces. Crawford is organizing a garage sale to get rid of the rest of the supplies.

In addition to updates on the “barn,” the 2024-25 season was announced at the meeting. MCT will perform a musical about Edgar Allen Poe called “Nevermore,” the musical “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,Jr.,” a “heavy history-based” play called “The Drowning Girls” and the comedy “Nana’s Naughty Knickers.”

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.