The upcoming season for the Marshalltown Community Theater (MCT) will be announced differently this year.

At last night’s annual MCT Board meeting at the Marshalltown Public Library, outgoing President Lisa Naig said the decision was made to make the announcement bigger. She said they would like to involve the new Arts + Culture Alliance space on Main Street.

“We’re thinking of a soiree of some sort,” she said.

Pete Grady, the organizer of the annual one-act MCT Playwriting Competition, brought up the idea of doing a reading of the 2025 playwriting winners at the soiree. Board member Rick Gooding brought up the issue of seating, and wondered if the Alliance had enough space to allow 50 people. Alliance Marketing and Program Coordinator Shannon Johnson said they would play around with seating.

Grady also revealed the one-act playwriting competition winners.

“One of the winners, one of the judges said, ‘If you guys don’t do it, I want to do it,'” he said. “We’ve got some really good plays this year.”

The first play is “Impromptu.” Grady said it is written for two actors. Another play is entitled “Two Old Farts” and was written by Alexander Richardson.

“It’s a really funny play,” he said. “It’s about a couple of old guys who can’t hear and come late to a play that’s being performed on stage in front of them. They just keep talking and interrupting. It’s funny.”

The third play is “Death of Station Axis” by familiar MCT competition playwright Quinn Young, who also wrote this year’s “The Gravedigger.”

“It’s a science fiction story in two parts,” Grady said. “The first part is earthlings planning to leave Earth because it’s in the process of being destroyed. The second part is when they land on this planet, and whether or not they will be able to survive there or destroy that planet. It’s different from the other two, but that’s two years in a row Quinn wins.”

In other business:

Board member Hobz Hooley provided an update on the MCT website and said new information will no longer be available on the current site. He met with a professional to inquire about building a new MCT website.

“For the time being, we will post on the website we are not going to be updating it and to check our Facebook for updates,” he said. “It wasn’t getting significant traffic. The month we decided to shut it down, it had gotten 12 hits.”

Addressing play spaces, Naig provided an update on the auditorium at Miller Middle School, which has been the primary location for MCT productions. She said the Reimagine Miller construction project is expected to last roughly 40 months. The MCT has items in the auditorium and Naig added they need to relocate the items for the construction. She said when the project is complete, one of the biggest changes will be less seating. A question was asked about the status of returning to the Martha–Ellen Tye Playhouse. Gooding responded there is a possibility for a future MCT production, but it would depend on restrictions. Outgoing board member Kevin Jensen wanted to encourage the board to consider acquiring property which would allow MCT to hold productions indefinitely, store props and construct set pieces. He said the idea is a viable investment, and added it is only a thought.

Before the meeting ended, Grady commended Naig for the various challenges — the COVID–19 pandemic, the derecho, losses of the playhouse and the storage barn — she faced during her tenure as board president. While meeting those challenges, Grady said she was also directing shows, acting and supporting other productions.

“I don’t know if I have ever seen this kind of a volunteer effort from anybody I have ever worked with, and I wanted to say ‘Thank you,'” he added.

Naig thanked everyone for allowing her to serve the five years, for their energy, support, ideas and belief in the MCT mission. She also thanked the countless volunteers, cast and crew she worked with.

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641–753–6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.