About Us
Our Mission
MVLCT creates theatre to build and inspire community.
Our Vision
We provide creative opportunities to artists of all skill and experience levels. We engage audiences and volunteer artists in theatre that entertains, educates, challenges, and delights.
Our Values
The time we have on this planet is both short and miraculous. Yet in this time, as artists we have the opportunity and responsibility to be storytellers and interpreters of the human condition. We want to do this with love, inclusivity, compassion, and sensitivity. How we treat each other, work with each other, and make essential art is critical.
To this end, members of the Board of Directors for the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Theatre…
Understand that our community encompasses everyone who has stepped into our space, so we work to make everyone feel welcome.
Believe that a rich diversity of people, ideas, and experiences gives us strength and compels us to listen to new, familiar, and untold stories.
Strive to create an environment of trust by treating each other with respect and kindness. We always encourage each other to express ourselves.
Depend on each other for clear, honest, and responsible communication.
Value the learning that comes from from difficult conversations; we believe that there is always more to learn. There is no question we can't ask.
Embrace individuality and personal strengths and celebrate collaboration.
Take personal responsibility for the quality of our work and our environment.
Take pride in our work, yet we find joy in challenging ourselves to do better.
Aspire to these values and forgive each other when we fall short.
Allow us to include you on this journey -- we’re thrilled to have you along!
Board of Directors
Trevor Baty
President
Mary Morgan-Blacharski
Vice President
Mary Morgan-Blacharski was one of the first audience members of MVLCT, when her mom directed Oklahoma In 1980. Mary has been acting with MVLCT Since 2009 and she joined the board in 2020. This community theatre is as welcoming and full of artistic energy as the community where it was born and raised. Mary is proud to serve on the board.
Pat Struttmann
Secretary
Ask a Struttmann to volunteer and you are likely to get two or three of them. That's what happened to me. In high school, our daughter built sets and worked backstage. Her dad helped. Then they dragged me in for costumes. (I can sew a straight line.) Then a community theater called for backstage volunteers and Len told me that he would teach me the ropes. He didn't. However, after being thrown to the wolves, I emerged and have been backstage ever since. Stage managing, radio readings, and I even sew on buttons. Let's go MVLCT.
Courtenay Baker
Treasurer/Website Weirdo
Courtenay has lived in Mount Vernon since the dawn of the millennia. Currently, she is a busy single mom to the four most amazing kids ever created. She pays the bills as a project manager and feeds her creativity teaching local kiddos how to dance at Dance Arts Iowa. She was awarded degrees in two centuries: a BA in Speech and Theatre Education in way-back times and an MBA in the more recent past. Also: she was basically invited to join the board because she attends every dang show and pretty much lives at the FSCC, so why not put all of that lollygagging to good use?
Kami Zbanek Hill
Development Officer
Kami Zbanek Hill is proud to serve on the board for MVLCT. A local theater artist, vocalist and sewist, she has been involved in productions since 2007 both onstage and off. She considers MVLCT her “Theater Home”. Favorite roles include Olive in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Emma Goldman in Assassins. She made her directing debut at MVLCT in 2020 with These Shining Lives. She lives in Mount Vernon with her partner John. They are owned by three cats. Kami can’t wait to have more theatrical adventures with MVLCT!
Braden JP Rood
Publicity/Social Media
Braden JP Rood has proudly been a member of the MVLCT board since 2005 filling various roles from actor to producer to set construction among many others—basically whatever needs to be done for the show! She also works a the LBC & University of Iowa and loves to volunteer in her beloved Mount Vernon. All of this is accomplished with the support of her amazing husband, Anton and her three boys, Jasper, Atticus and Chester.
Erin Lauer
Board Member at Large
Erin Lauer first became involved at MVLCT during the inaugural Shakespeare in the Park production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. She fell in love with the people and the organization and keeps coming back for more productions and play readings. Erin has a BA in theatre and English from the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota and an MBA from West Virginia University. Erin is pleased to join this board of creative and caring individuals and to promote the welcoming community that is MVLCT.
Amy White
Member at Large Emeritus
Amy White has been involved with MVLCT since their 1998 production of Steel Magnolias. Her original plays and monologues (including Animal Facts, Drama at Dry Gulch Creek, and Someone Who Knew Her) have been performed by MVLCT and other groups. Amy believes in the power of live theatre to engage and educate everyone. A resident of Mt. Vernon, Amy is also the director of the Lisbon Public Library.
History
In the summer of 1980, a few Mt. Vernon residents who “just loved having fun on stage” produced Oklahoma in the old Armstrong Theatre on the Cornell College campus. One of the organizers took out a $500 personal loan from the Mt. Vernon Bank to pay for expenses. Tickets were sold to a standing-room-only crowd (even in August, with no air conditioning) and enough money was left over to pay back the loan and put on another show the next year.
Armstrong Theatre was the home of community theatre summer musicals until the Mt. Vernon school district auditorium was built in 1990. Dinner theatre shows were soon added in the spring, with Cornell students acting alongside community members in the college Commons and later at Gwen’s Restaurant in Lisbon.
In 2002, the name of the theatre was officially changed to Mt. Vernon Lisbon Community Theatre. A fall children’s production was added to the season in 2008.
The group received official 501(c)3 non-profit status in 2014 and now calls the Uptown Theatre in the First Street Community Center (the old Mt. Vernon High School) its home. Although the details of the organization have changed, MVLCT has remained true to its original mission of welcoming volunteers who just love having fun on stage.
MVLCT makes its home in the Uptown Theatre at the First Street Community Center located at 221 First Street NE, Mt. Vernon, IA, 52314.
