Theatre Museum at Old Threshers gets new look

The Theatre Museum of Repertoire Americana located on the Old Threshers grounds in Mt. Pleasant is revamping its look. The museum signed the contract on Tuesday, April 13, to renovate the inside of the building so that it resembles a tent theater.

“We’re very excited about the project,” Theatre Museum President David Ripper said. “This has been 15 years in the works, and we felt that the current museum layout didn’t tell the story of repertoire theater as well as it should.

“Iowa was one of the grounding figures for tent theater and back then, the opera houses and tents were the main sources of entertainment,” he said. “We are renovating the museum so that it reflects that history and helps the younger generations understand what that culture was like back then.”

The Theatre Museum of Repertoire Americana was built and maintained by the Midwest Old Settlers and Threshers Association in 1973, and in 2023, the museum will celebrate its 50th anniversary.

“When we were originally looking into things, we realized that the museum hadn’t had a reset for 20 years,” Ripper said. “This is the largest repertoire collection of memorabilia in the country, and we want to present and tell that story better.”

“In the 1920s, there were about 700 repertoire companies in the Midwest alone, and the last tent show occurred back in the 1990s,” he said. “No one really has a real recollection of that experience. We want to bring it back, because there are a million stories that we’d like to preserve.”

Inside the “tent,” there will be seating and a stage for use throughout the year.

The renovation project is set to be finished June 1 with minor updates to the upstairs in the fall. Ripper expects that the public will be able to see the in-progress renovations on Memorial Day weekend.

“We’re hoping that the community of Mt. Pleasant rediscovers what a gem they have here,” he said. “Old Threshers is a wonderful event, but there are 360 more days in the year.”

Once the museum completes their renovation project, Ripper hopes that their next goal is to restore posters in their collection.

“The posters we have are important because they connect those stories, too,” he said. “We have a lot that are in desperate need of restoration, so we might try a campaign, something like adopt a poster.”