HERMANN, MO. — In Hermann, the Showboat Community Theatre sits quietly on East Fourth Street. With its plush carpets and old wooden structure, the 90-year-old theater stands as what could best be described as a time capsule to the past.
Inside, a pianist’s silhouette bounces against the theater’s burgundy walls as a line of nuns amble down the aisles, singing in unison. Soon, Maria will sing “The Hills are Alive.” Six days from opening night, the “Sound of Music” cast — half of which are from St.
Louis, half of which are from Hermann — rehearse together for the first time. The cast has been collaborating together over Zoom, with many members making the 90-minute trip multiple times a week to practice. The performance is the result of a collaboration between R-S Theatrics, a professional theater company from St.
Louis, and Half Act Theatre Company, a youth theater troupe from Hermann, coming together for the first time to form what is called the Riverside Theatre Project. “Sometimes people bring theaters to towns that have a smaller, more rural population as a way of being a tourism draw, and I really wanted to create something for the people that are already here,” Christina Rios, artistic director of the project and founder of R-S Theatrics, says. Like the hills, the historic Showboat theater is alive with music.
But it hasn’t always been like this. For months, members from both R-S Theatrics and Half Act have been scrubbing floors, clearing the balcony, cleaning the dressing rooms and repainting the walls. It hasn’t been easy, but “if we do it now, it pays off forever,” Rios says.
Now, the theater is ready to host its first professional performance in over a decade. “We’re doing Riverside to give urban and rural artists a safe, generative space where they can explore perspectives other than their own, and hopefully gain a greater sense of empathy in an increasingly tumultuous social and political climate,” Brenna Jones, executive director of the Riverside Theatre Project and co-owner of Half Act, says. Rios, who is from Ferguson, has been aspiring toward this moment for years.
She has visited the charming Missouri river town several times a year for as long as she can remember. In 2020, the night before one of her trips to Hermann, she had a dream that she created a professional theater company there with its community members. When a friend from Hermann coincidentally brought it up the next day, she knew it had to happen.
After speaking with the then-Hermann Mayor Bruce Cox, they decided on “The Sound of Music” as the first of its productions (“There’s something in it for everyone,” Rios says). Originally a movie theater, Showboat has served as a site for live productions, haunted houses and summer camps since it was donated to Hermann by the Dierberg family in 1984. But when the world shut down to COVID in 2020, the theater followed suit.
Though it did reopen in 2022 for the youth theater. “COVID absolutely destroyed this building,” Jones says. “Leaks happened, and the drywall started to crumble.
The issues piled and piled, so it’s been a big community effort coming together.” And come together they did. When Rios and Jones met in 2023 at a Hermann Arts Council event, they hit it off.
They pitched their idea to the Showboat Board that August. “I told the board I’m not interested in creating a professional show and touring it through Hermann, I’m interested in creating a professional show with and in Hermann for the benefit of everyone involved with the production,” Rios says. What followed was a long sequence of grant rejection after grant rejection.
All of the funds for the show come from private donations and ticket sales. Rios understands that she might have to dip into her kids’ college funds for help. Hermann is known for its artistic culture and wine, but it lacks resources in theater.
That’s why Jones, who moved to Hermann when she was 10, co-founded Half Act in 2018, when she was a junior in high school. “In Hermann, you don’t have a drama program until you’re in high school,” Jones says. “Industry professionals are drawn to the big cities because the opportunities are there, and we’re an hour and a half away from those opportunities.
” Half Act hosts day camps for locals and regularly practices at the Showboat. But “The Sound of Music” is the first professional theater production that locals have been a part of. It also includes a mentorship program that partners designers and members of the production team with local students.
Charlie Schutt, who plays Franz and recently graduated high school, says that this is the first professional production he’s been a part of. “I’m going to college in St. Louis in the fall, so it’s really good to know Christina and to have been able to not just introduce myself, but build a connection,” Schutt says.
In the week prior to the show, St. Louis cast members are staying in the homes of Hermann community members to avoid long back-and-forth drives. Jones' father is moving out of his home for two weeks to accommodate Rios' husband and three kids.
Some members of the cast are professionals, and others have never set foot on a stage before. Many are performing alongside their families. AmyRuth Bartlett, who plays a nun, moved to Hermann from St.
Louis in 2020. She did theater years ago as a high schooler, but she and her husband, who plays the baron, decided to audition alongside their kids to keep them company. Her son, Immanuel Bartlett, is playing Kurt von Trapp and has been active in Half Act since his family moved.
Immanuel, who is 11, explained that when he learned this was a paid position, he was “all over it.” “I wasn’t sure whether I could get in or whether I was actually good at acting, so I was proud of myself when I got in,” Immanuel says. Alicia Jett, who moved to Hermann from St.
Louis a couple of years ago, also auditioned with her kids, to “be brave for them,” she says. Her daughter Annabelle Jett, who is 8 years old and plays Gretl von Trapp, says she is “nervited,” aka nervous and excited to get on stage for the first time (“Especially since I’m the cutest,” she says). But she and her younger sister Marian Jett, who is 6, both agree that meeting new friends has been the highlight of their experience.
Rios hopes that this year will lead to consistent programming for years to come. She already has ideas to model collaborative casts like this one into Columbia, Missouri, or Aledo, Illinois. “I think something amazing happens when you are forced to work side-by-side with someone that you may not immediately think of as a lot like you,” Rios says.
“Maybe everyone leaves with their minds and their hearts a little more open and a little changed, and I think that’s the only way I know to make the world better.”.
