31 July 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Company presents reading of Bekah Brunstetter play at the Des Moines Playhouse, and has
support of Iowa Arts Council for virtual season.
Iowa Stage Theatre Company, central Iowa’s home for award-winning theater that inspires,
enlightens and entertains, will perform a reading of Bekkah Brunstetter’s The Cake at the Des
Moines Playhouse’s Live Drive-In Theater on August 5th.
The company has received a project grant from the Iowa Arts Council for a virtual season of theater, to be announced in the coming weeks.
“Iowa Stage Theatre Company is going virtual, presenting plays on a streaming platform,” said
ISTC Artistic Director Matthew McIver. “Our first virtual event will be our Cocktails and Cabaret
gala on September 12th, followed by a reading of company member Kerry Skram’s original
adaptation of of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. We are excited to kick off our fall season with this
live reading outside at the Des Moines Playhouse.”
In Brunstetter’s The Cake, a young woman returns to her North Carolina hometown to ask
her deceased mother’s best friend to bake her wedding cake. But she’s marrying a woman,
and the friend, very religious, refuses. And then things, including a baking reality TV show
and dormant marriage, get very, very interesting .
Jennifer Nostrala, professor of theater at Simpson College will direct. Nostrala previously directed ISTC’s 2019 production of A Doll’s House. Resident Artist Company member Kim Haymes plays Jen, the bride to be, and guest artist Becky Scholtec, previously Mrs. Crachit in ISTC’s A Christmas Carol, plays her godmother, the baker Della. Rae Fehring, who thrilled audiences as Big Allison in ISTC’s 2018 production of Fun Home, plays Jen’s fiancee Macy, and RAC member James Serpento, fresh from his turn as Marley/Mrs. Dilber in A Christmas Carol plays Della’s husband Tim.
The reading of The Cake will take place at 7pm on August 5th, in the parking lot of the Des
Moines Community Playhouse at 831 42nd Street. Tickets can be obtained by calling the
Playhouse box office at 515-277-6261.
One month after the reading of The Cake at the Des Moines Playhouse, ISTC will present their annual gala, Cocktails and Cabaret virtually. Tickets are available at
“These are times of dizzying change, and ISTC is changing with them,” said McIver. “We look
forward to sharing more of our season with central Iowa, thanks to the support of the Iowa Arts Council.”