Fairfield Youth Performing Arts hopes to hold first show next summer

FAIRFIELD – Young thespians in Fairfield will have another opportunity to sharpen their acting skills with the creation of a new performing arts organization.

Fairfield resident Tommy Brower has founded a group called Fairfield Youth Performing Arts, aimed at children between the ages of 5-15. He just finished forming a board of directors for the group, and they plan to host their first show, likely a musical, next summer.

Residents interested in learning more about this new organization are invited to attend a public meeting from 7-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17 at the Fairfield Public Library.

Brower has lived in Fairfield for 37 years, and has been active in Fairfield Area Community Theatre productions, including its most recent musical “Oliver!” in June. The whole Brower family loves the performing arts. Tommy and Rachel have six children. When their now 11-year-old daughter Bixie turned 5, they enrolled her in Ottumwa Community Children’s Playhouse, since there was no children’s theater in Fairfield.

“She took to it like a duck to water,” Brower said.

As a “theater dad,” Brower began volunteering with OCCP, doing technical support and helping behind the scenes. He saw how much his daughters delighted in theater, how it grew their confidence and connected them to new friends. He wished Fairfield could have something similar, and for the past three or four years has mulled starting a youth performing arts organization. But it was not until he had a conversation during an Oliver cast party that he realized the time was right. He learned that Iowa Dance Collective was not planning to hold a spring play the following year, and he saw that as a void waiting to be filled.

“I made the decision in that second that this is a sign the time is now,” he said. “It became clear in that moment that I’m going to lead this thing and I’m going to start immediately.”

In early August, Brower sent an email to 45 friends and colleagues announcing his plan to start a youth theater company, and asked who wanted to jump on board.

“The immediate response was 100 percent overwhelmingly positive,” he said. “A good third of them emailed or called in the next few days saying, ‘This is amazing. Tell me how I can help.’”

In the weeks that followed, Brower was able to fill the nine-member board of directors. Brower is the president, and the vice president is Amber Burroughs, with Christie Kessel as the treasurer. Other board members are Rachel Biggs, Amber Adkins, Spencer Hilger, Tammy Haessler, Cody Bauer and Tim Lantz.

Brower said one of the main points he’s trying to get across to the public is that he does not intend to compete with other performing arts endeavors, such as the drama departments at Fairfield High School, Fairfield Middle School and Maharishi School, or with FACT. He hopes that the new Fairfield Youth Performing Arts group will bolster those programs by giving kids another chance to improve their acting and build their confidence.

To that end, Brower hopes to schedule FYPA’s productions so they do not overlap with other plays and musicals in town. He hopes its first show will be in July 2025, and then a second show either between Thanksgiving and Christmas of 2025, or in early 2026.

“That decision will be based on a collaboration with FHS, FMS and Maharishi School to see where we’d fit best in the calendar to overlap with them as minimally as possible,” Brower said.

Brower said FYPA’s goal is to fill the age gap, especially for 5-10 year olds, who don’t have many opportunities to perform until they get to middle school. Occasionally, a FACT production will call for young actors, like this most recent “Oliver!” but Brower said other plays have few if any children.

The public should be seeing more of FYPA in the near future. The group will have a float in the Kiwanis Kids’ Day Parade on Saturday, Sept. 21, and it will be at Hy-Vee’s Block Party at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 28. To learn more about the organization, visit its Facebook page, which has already amassed 250 followers.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com