This year’s play, “The Idiot Witness,” began its run yesterday and continues each night through July 25 and Thursday, July 29, to Sunday, Aug. 1, in the granary building at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park.

The performances will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, with a Sunday matinee performance at 1 p.m.

“Theatre helped break up the monotony of the soldiers’ life, and General and Libby Custer often enjoyed the plays put on at the theatre building at the fort,” says Rebecca Maloney, director.

“Soldiers and laundresses would play the parts, and the actors are trying to bring that perspective to their roles,” Maloney says.

In traditional melodrama style, there will be music to heighten the mood, and the audience should be prepared to boo, hiss, gasp and cheer for the characters on stage. There will also be an intermission will music and storytelling.

Tickets are $5 per car for entrance to the park and $2 per person admission to the melodrama. Root beer and popcorn are available for audiences to purchase.

“The Idiot Witness” was actually performed at the theatre on Fort Lincoln back in the 1870s. Back then, there was a theatre building, but the actors today are making do with the Granary building. “It’s both a challenge and a delight to work in the reconstructed granary building,” Maloney says. “The actors have to play cast and crew, and they have definitely showed their skills by standing up to the task.”

This is the 15th year that the melodrama will be performed and continues to speak to the history of daily life at Fort Abraham Lincoln.

For more information, call 663-4758 or visit the website fortlincoln.com.

This meeting will be the crucial one to decide the future of the Mandan Art Association and Gallery. The members of the Mandan Art Association are encouraged to attend and the public is also welcome to participate with their input. If you have any questions prior to the meeting, email the gallery at mandanartassociation@yahoo.com.

In the interim, all special gallery events have been cancelled, including Jesica Hoffman’s Colored Pencil Workshop on July 24, Barb Nechiporenko’s exhibition July 15 to 31 and Mary Quintus’s Beginning Leaded Glass workshop on July 31.

The gallery may be opened by request during the weekday hours by contacting the Mandan Progress Organization office located in the same building.

Five tales including Peter Rabbit, The Tailor of Gloucester and Jemima Puddle-Duck are interwoven with the life of their creator, Beatrix Potter, in this play for people of all ages. The play moves back and forth from the fantasy world she created to the story of Beatrix Potter herself, who overcame her lonely, strict childhood, in which her writings and drawings were discouraged in the male-oriented Victorian era, to become the most widely read children’s author of all times. The play also introduces Beatrix’s governess, Annie, who narrates the play, and her children for whom many of the stories were originally written.

“The Adventures of Peter Rabbit and His Friends” will run for a total of four performances. Performances start at 7 p.m. July 22 to 24, with the Sunday, July 25 matinee beginning at 2 p.m. All tickets are general admission and available one hour before each performance. Tickets are $10 for adults and $6 for students.

The play is directed by Timothy Rosin and assistant directed by Jesse Emerson.

The Mandan Art Association was awarded two grants from the Council on the Arts. The first was an Institutional Support grant in the amount of $3,591, and the second was a Presenter Support grant for $2,000.

A teacher incentive grant in the amount of $300 was awarded to the Mandan Youth Correctional Center, and Melissa Tomac was awarded a traditional arts apprenticeship grant with mentor, Mandan resident Linda Suchy, in the amount of $2,130.

All applications were evaluated by grant review panels and all awards were subject to approval by the NDCA’s Board of Directors.

Cast members of the show “The Odyssey” rehearse for this weekend’s show, being held at Roosevelt Elementary. Brian L. Gray photo

Three of Shade Tree Players 2010 productions are taking place in Mandan this summer, with a show in June, July and August.

The lineup begins with “The Odyssey,” which began yesterday and runs through Sunday, June 27.

The Odyssey will be followed by “The Adventures of Peter Rabbit and His

Friends,” July 22 to 25, and ending with “Stories Under the Big Top,” Aug. 12 to 15. All performances will take place at Roosevelt Elementary School, located at 305 10th Ave. N.W.

Performances continue tonight and tomorrow at 7 p.m., with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, June 27.

“We wanted to be more accessible and visible in Mandan,” says Kalle’ Meza,

Shade Tree Players program manager. “Shade Tree Players is a children’s theater for the whole Bismarck-Mandan community. We always have Mandan families involved in our shows, so it seemed natural to move some of the productions to a venue in Mandan.”

Directed by Shade Tree newcomer, Tim Rosin, “The Odyssey” is a fast-paced comedic adaptation that brings Homer’s original story to life for young audiences. The cast is made up of 20 actors, ranging in age from six to 16. Four handlers operate a large dragon that plays a crucial role in the production.

Rosin has taken on directing duties for “The Odyssey,” as well as two other Shade Tree productions thus summer, because he “loves acting and direct, and to teach others.”

About his young actors, he notes, “It’s exciting to see each show get up on their feet, and to see what these actors can do. Once they get the scripts out of their hands, they really begin to learn who their characters are, and I think they surprise themselves with what they can do.”

Tickets for the show are $10 for adults and $6 for children, and are available at the door beginning one hour before show times.

-Brian L. Gray

Nyla Schock, left, poses with Chris Harvey, an NDMEA board member, which is the committee that elected Schock to the Music Educators Hall of Fame. Harvey, a Mandan native and music teacher at Hazen Public Schools, is a former student of Schock's. Submitted photo

Nyla Schock, a retired Lewis & Clark Elementary School music teacher, was inducted into the North Dakota Music Educators Hall of Fame by the North Dakota Music Educators Association on March 30.

Schock taught elementary music in the Mobridge South Dakota Public Schools for five years and in the Mandan Public Schools for 28 years until her retirement in 2004. She has held a part-time music faculty position at the University of Mary for 6six years and has taught children’s music classes for Sleepy Hollow Summer Theatre in Bismarck for six years.

Schock has also served as a music clinician and adjudicator for elementary music festivals around the state. She continues to teach private piano and performs as an accompanist or soloist.

Schock, a native of Elgin, received a bachelor of science degree from Dickinson State University with a double major in elementary music and elementary education. She received a master of music education from the University of North Dakota in August 1986.

Chuck Suchy shares his stories and songs with a class of sixth- and seventh-graders at Laugalandsskoli School in Iceland. Dave Geck, Prairie Public Television, photo

By Ken Rogers

“It looked like big thunderhead on top of Little Heart Butte,” said Chuck Suchy, describing Eyjofjallajkull, the Icelandic volcano raising havoc with European air traffic in late April.

The Mandan musician was in Iceland for 10 days teaching songwriting to students at the rural Laugalandsskoli School. The volcano continues to chug away, and Suchy has returned to the farm south of Mandan, within sight of the aforementioned butte.

North Dakota and Iceland have developed an alternating exchange of artists going back to 2003. So far, four Icelandic artists have come here, and four North Dakota artists, including Suchy, have gone to Iceland. It’s a program sponsored by the North Dakota Council on the Arts, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Accompanying Suchy to Iceland were Prairie Public Broadcasting producer Kim Stenehjem and cameraman Dave Geck. They are preparing a documentary that’s scheduled for release in February.

Ninty-two students in grades one through 10 attend Laugalandsskoli School. Suchy worked with four core groups of students, writing songs for a public performance at the end of his stay.

It seems young people are the same everywhere. “The eye roll is the eye roll,” Suchy said.

The Icelandic people are well-educated, he said.

“In conversations with the staff and teachers – I’m not a dummy, not culturally elite – I was pushed,” Suchy said.

While in Iceland, Suchy stayed in the home of the principal, Sigurjon Bjarnason, and his wife, who’s a Lutheran minister. The family also has a hotel and a herd of 80 Icelandic horses. People come from Europe to go on trail rides up into the glaciers.

“I just fell in love with the horses,” Suchy said. “I got to ride twice. They’re like big Shetland pones – stocky like a 4-wheel drive ATV.”

The Icelandic horses know where to put their feet, an important skill in a land covered with sharp volcanic rock.

The first- through third-graders did not speak English, so their teacher translated. Suchy taught them two of his songs: “Molly’s Field” and “Simply Fly.”

The fourth- and fifth-graders, one of the core groups, were “delightful’ and “high energy.”

They kept after Suchy about country music. “So, we wrote a country song,” he said, about a cowboy riding across lava fields, eating popcorn and sleeping in a cave. It’s called, “I’m an Iceland Cowboy.”

Volcanoes were the preferred topic of the sixth- and seventh- graders. Their song is “Burning Ground.”

Suchy also worked with 27 eighth- and ninth-graders – “lots of black T-shirts.” When he asked what kind of music they like, the answer was “heavy metal.” With them he created a sort of tribal chant, titled “O’ Volcano.”

The final group, 10th-graders, wrote a farewell song. They will leave Laugalandsskoli at the end of the school year and continue their educations at other schools. It was “enchanting … very, elemental,” Suchy said.

Now, several weeks later, “The songs are still living with me,” Suchy said.

Chuck Suchy described the songwriting effort by this eighth-grade class as "tribal rap."

A plume of ash rises from volcano erupting under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier on May 5. The volcano first erupted during Chuck Suchy's visit to Iceland. Associated Press photo

The grant will provide funds to help the Musicians Association with expenses associated in supporting the Summer Concert Series at the Mandan Band Shell from June through August.

“The grant will allow our Association to provide stipends for the performing artists”, says Julie Ternes, president of the Musicians Association. “We invite everyone to take in the free performances at the band shell.”

The Musicians Association was among 19 recipients of Presenter Support funding. This program is designed to benefit nonprofit organizations that are not eligible for other grant programs through the North Dakota Council on the Arts. It offers financial support for art events and programming and support organizations and artists in communities with a population of 6,000 or more. A total of $31,800 was awarded during this grant round.

The Musicians Association was created in 1991. Prior to that time, it was chartered under the American Federation of Musicians Local 229, which was founded in 1931. In 1994, as MA began the construction of the Mandan Band Shell at a cost of some $40,000, the Association applied for and was approved by the IRS as a nonprofit organization.

The cast of the play "Murder Box" performs a scene from the show. Submitted photo

In the wake of winning an ensemble acting award at the Class A One-Act Play Festival in early April, the Mandan High School Theater Department will take to the stage once again, for two nights this weekend at Mysteria Theater.

The play, “Murder Box,” will be the main event at the show, which will feature the artistic talent of Mandan High School, in what is being called the MHS Feature Variety Show.

The first part of the evening’s entertainment will include the MHS Jazz Band, concert choir members and the MHS Brooms Hilda Percussion Group. The play “Murder Box” will follow the musical acts.

The show begins tonight at 7:45 p.m. and will conclude on Saturday, May 8, at the same time.

Admission to the show is $10. The restaurant opens at 5 p.m. and the regular menu will be available for the evening. Call 663-2900 to make a reservation.

Cast members in the play are Jonathan Wanner, Hannah Andring, Lindsey Elefson, Derek Pich, John Olheiser, Ashley Schrenk, Shaina Hovrud, Katie Jacobson, Eric Wanek, Shelby Johnson, Cara Hurdelbrink and Shiyel Rittenbach.

For more information, go online to mysteriatheater.com.

-Brian L. Gray

Mandan artist Jescia Hoffman stands next to three of her personal works that were submitted into the Mandan Art Association's annual art show. Rick Scharf photo

The following artists were named winners from the Mandan Art Association 52nd annual Art Show, which was held April 9 to 11 at the Mandan Community Center:

People’s Choice Winners

Adult Division – Jescia Hoffman, Melissa Gordon, Chip Liebel, Dana Keigley, Carolyn Handy.

Student Division – Morgan Quintus, Marissa Van Vleet, Erica Cossette, Re Rahrich, Sage Malingen.

Artists Awards

Adult Division – Bridget Gallegher, Dana Keigley, Jescia Hoffman, Terry Belden, Ruth Puttre, Carolyn Handy, Sara Erhardt, Angela Harmon, Amber Fortney, Melissa Gordon, Amy McNalley, Anne West, Flo Doll Bjorke, Gertie Asplund, Mary Quintus, JoAnn Zahursky-Klein, Violet Landeis, Mary Price, Bobbie Lee, Allison Keigley, Judy Quill, Shannon Kline, Jack Kline, Mike Hagerott, Vida Klocke, Donna Zander, Chip Liebel.

Student Division – Julie Wolf, Alyssa Mehlhoff, Lindsey Duppong, Hunter Papke, Sara Durkee, Wendell McCorkell, Shannon Vollmers, Levi Bitz, Elizabeth Burdolski, Sydney Munns, Aaron Morse, Ryan Sandvick, Matthew Brewer, Ashley Kramer, Devyn Ulmer, Marissa Van Vleet, Kristin Dickson, Sage Malingen, Brandon Bauman, Morgan Quintus, Raylynn Hewitt, Chelsea Brown, Kat Kirchmann, Christina Perleberg, Rebecca Opp, Dakota Noot, Emily Reese, Kim Pazdernik, Julia Balliet.

Merit Awards

Adult Division – Jack Kline, Della Hartgrove, Kathleen Fettig, Barbara Nechiporenko, Jescia Hoffman, Gertie Asplund, Melissa Gordon, Brandon Boff, Chip Liebel, Amy McNalley, Donovan Slag, Beverly Haas, Mary Quintus, Paula Page,

Sharon Haag, Amber Fortney.

Student Division – Emily Reese, Marissa Van Vleet, Sierra Whitmire, Isabella Dempsey, Hannah Riehl, Kat Kirschmann, Elizabeth Burdolski, Madison Krebsbach, Mindly Ludlum, Erica Cossette, Chelsea Brown, Katie Jacobson, Rebecca Opp, Keith Wolf, Crystal Bornemann, Amanda Tastad, Brandon Boff, Brady Wei chel, Sage Malingen.

Governor’s Selection

Adult Division – Shannon Austin, Terry Belden, Vicki Benzmiller, Flo Doll Bjorke, Bridget Gallagher, Sharon Haag, Elvera Hintz, Jack Kline, Bobbie Lee, James McCulloch, Amy McNalley, Mary Price, Mary Quintus, Zoe Wergeland, Donna Zander.

Student Division – Chris Alveshere, Britta Anderson, Alayna DeRockbraine, Hallie Dronen, Kristen Eckroth, Kaylynn Hewitt, Mikylee Hintz, Ciara Janke, Bryan Kielpinski, Brigitte Lantz, Cori Leintz, Mindy Ludlum, Alyssa Mehlhoff, Aaron, Morse, Adam Osowski.