22.10.23 Update: With our final performance in the books, I want to thank all those who made the journey to Corson to see the show. It was an incredibly memorable experience and I’m extraordinarily fortunate to have been part of such a talented and beautiful cast. This one was for you, Brian. It was a privilege to have known and worked with you.

02.09.23 Update: Tickets are on sale now! You can purchase them at mightycorson.com/boxoffice. If you plan to attend, please let me know! I’d love to see you!!

I’m going to detract from my usual musings and venture a bit closer to home. ‘Home’, by the way, has been a very fluid term over the past half decade or so having conducted six individual moves across five states during that timeframe. I’ve always thought of home as the place where I can find Lauren and Charlie but I’m happy to report that I can include a broader community in that definition – Brandon, South Dakota.

We landed here for a variety of reasons with the proximity to our broader family being at the top (we have an entire Excel workbook dedicated to the pros and cons of all the areas we evaluated if anybody is nerdy enough to want to take a look) but a large factor was the sense of community and the access there is to organizations that align to our interests and priorities. Through the natural flow of life, it can be extremely easy to let passions go by the wayside, especially if one is career focused or making interstate moves every year or so. One of my priorities after settling down has always been getting involved at the local community theatre as either an actor or simply helping out in order to resurrect a passion that has since been inert since undergrad. Luckily our new community offers just that with The Mighty Corson Art Players.

Tucked along highway 11 in the 70 person town of Corson, The Mighty Corson Art Players (MCAP) manage a 95 seat theatre that has been putting on stage performances for the past forty years. Casts and productions are typically on the smaller side, but aren’t ever short on talent or pure energy. Each season is made up of three separate productions that span October through April. This fall marks their 41st season and opens with They Promised Her the Moon, and I am beyond thrilled to announce that after a 15 year acting hiatus, I will be joining the six person cast in my Mighty Corson Art Players debut!

Written by Laurel Ollstein, They Promised Her the Moon tells the true, yet mostly unknown story of Jerrie Cobb, the first American woman to test for space flight who was later denied her dream to soar the stars due to embedded political and societal hurdles of her time. While testing for space flight in an isolation tank, Moon takes the audience through Jerrie’s memories, from growing up in a small town in Oklahoma, to her experiences with legendary pilot Jackie Cochran to her first romantic interaction with fellow pilot, Jack Ford (portrayed by yours truly). The show concludes in dramatic fashion with a portrayal of the real congressional testimony of Jackie, Jerrie and Mercury 7 astronaut John Glenn (Also portrayed by someone you may know) about the proper requirements of sending an individual to space.

It’s tough to give a proper synopsis but hopefully this gets folks as excited about this play as I am. It’ll be directed by MCAP legend, Brian Schipper, who also happens to have been the Artistic Director of MCAP for the past nine years and includes an intimate, but extraordinarily talented cast, half of which I met during auditions and the others during our table read this past week. A total of six shows are scheduled for October 13-15 and 20-22 and tickets will be on sale in the coming weeks at http://www.mightycorson.com. I’ll likely republish this post when tickets go on sale so no one misses it.

So while Lauren and I patiently await our next travel adventure, (Spoiler! – It’s back to Germany for their legendary Christmas markets in November!) I’ll be spending the next eight weeks dusting off my acting talents, furiously memorizing lines and potentially dry heaving as the performances draw nearer!

See you in Corson!

Photo credits – MCAP