Kickin' it up in Jefferson!

It wouldn’t seem like summer if “Celebration Iowa” didn’t come to town with its traveling troupe of high school music all-stars and their colorful, fun, high-energy shows. It’s even more fun when two of your community’s best are in the cast.

By CHUCK OFFENBURGER
July 9, 2008
JEFFERSON, IOWA

The “Celebration Iowa Singers & Jazz Band” brought their two-hour show to Jefferson on Tuesday, July 8, and it turned into an idyllic summer evening on the Greene County Courthouse square. More than 700 people watched the show from under the shade trees on the north lawn of the courthouse.

The obvious crowd favorites in the cast were Katie Rasmussen and James Healy, who graduated from Jefferson-Scranton High School this spring after starring in our local concerts and productions on their way through school.

But with “Celebration Iowa,” it’s like there are 20 Katies and Jameses on stage with the singers and dancers, and the 17 members of the jazz band are just as good.

The group, in its 26th summer season, auditions Iowa’s best high school musicians, and then the best of the best travel Iowa with an original show each year.

They rehearse for three weeks in June on the Luther College campus in Decorah in northeast Iowa, including being directed by several of the state’s best high school music instructors, some music and dance professionals, and some of the program’s alumni who have show business experience. Their tours of the state start in late June and run into early August.

Communities raise $3,500 to bring the group in for shows, and also provide host homes and usually a meal or two for the casts and staff. You could tell from the crowd reaction here Tuesday night, the show is a bargain. In our era of too much TV and too much time online, there is nothing as refreshing as live entertainment from young people who are thrilled to have you in their audience.

This year’s show opens with a review of Broadway show tunes; has its own original musical called “How Does Your Garden Grow?” that features young local children performing as various vegetables and flowers right alongside the cast, and then winds up with a romp through the works of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other groups that were part of the “British Invasion.”

Of special note, this 26th season is the first with a new management team. The “Celebration Iowa” co-founder Dennis Darling, a professor of music education at Luther, this year has turned direction of the program over to Clark Goltz, a veteran Iowa educator.

You can find upcoming shows by checking the “COMING UP IN IOWA” feature on our home page.

The photos below are from the show in Jefferson.

You can write the columnist at chuck@Offenburger.com.