Tent Show Theater returns to Mt. Pleasant’s Old Threshers Reunion

MT. PLEASANT — With seats in every chair of the basement of the Theatre Museum of Repertoire and wholesome actors performing on a limited stage, a response of laughter welcomed back a tent show performance for the 75th Midwest Old Threshers Reunion, this year.

“It was standing room only at the Theatre Museum's Toby show today,” said Grace Davis, the museum’s vice president, after the Saturday, Aug. 30 performance.

At the center of the revival was The Hillbilly Hitchin’, a 45-minute play featuring Toby, the red-haired comic character who once symbolized repertoire Americana across the Midwest. Audiences watched as pratfalls, misheard lines, and mismatched wedding plans unraveled into comic mayhem, all wrapped up in a rollicking wedding scene.

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The show’s broad humor and folksy charm carried the unmistakable stamp of an era when tent shows set up canvas stages in town squares and offered families a night of laughter for a few nickels.

National Society President Mark Pepper, who served as emcee, bridged past and present between skits. He recounted the long history of Toby shows, reminded the audience of their traditions, and even helped to revive one himself.

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“Candy sales have been a part of tent shows forever and ever and ever,” Pepper said, holding up small prize boxes of saltwater taffy.

The candy, sold for a dollar a box, echoing a time when showmen balanced ticket sales with concessions. Just as it did then, every penny counts. Funds raised from donations and candy sales help support the museum’s preservation work.

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The Theatre Museum itself is more than just a backdrop to the Reunion — it is the only institution in the nation dedicated solely to preserving repertoire Americana. Housed on the Old Threshers grounds, it holds costumes, painted backdrops, photographs, and scores from traveling shows that defined entertainment in the early and mid-20th century. According to the museum’s archives, many of those companies — such as the Schaffner Players — performed in Mt. Pleasant and surrounding towns for decades, imprinting Toby’s antics into local memory.

Saturday’s cast drew from both veterans and community members, underscoring how volunteer spirit sustains the tradition. Pepper explained to the audience that the production had no paid performers, just people eager to carry forward a legacy.

“All of us that's doing the show right now are volunteers, and we do it out of compassion of our hearts. In fact, we love the museum,” he said.

Pepper not only emceed but also returned to the stage himself, reprising his longtime role as Jerry, the nervous groom at the heart of The Hillbilly Hitchin’. He told the crowd he has played the part more than 180 times over the years. The ensemble also included longtime Toby actor Brian Iles, musical director Becky Morey of Mt. Pleasant, and local volunteers in roles ranging from preachers to brides to eccentric relatives. Each entrance was met with applause, a ritual as ingrained as the jokes themselves.

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Pepper urged the crowd not only to return but to consider supporting the museum through membership in its nonprofit society. Annual dues help fund programming, newsletters, and preservation projects.

“If you liked it, tell me when you get to the top of the stairs … because that'll give me encouragement to bring it back again next year,” Pepper told attendees.

For many in the audience, the show’s return was more than entertainment. Pepper recalled a woman who approached him after a performance with tears in her eyes.

“She said, ‘I haven’t laughed for a couple weeks. It’s just been a very hard time. And she says I was able to sit back and laugh for the first time in a couple weeks,;” he shared.

That, he said, is why volunteers devote their time to reviving these productions.

The Old Threshers Reunion has always mixed machinery and memory, pairing steam engines with the traditions that grew up alongside them. In 1950, the very first reunion featured a boy named Jimmy Davis at the piano, offering the entertainment. Davis later became a tent show owner and remained tied to the tradition throughout his life. Seventy-five years later, his family’s legacy still threads through the performances.

For the Theatre Museum, that continuity is its mission. Preserving costumes, backdrops, and scripts is one thing; reviving them on stage is another. At this year’s reunion, the Toby show proved that repertoire Americana is not just something to be studied but something to be lived.

From Jimmy Davis’ piano in 1950 to the standing-room-only crowd in 2025, the thread is unbroken.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Kruse@southeastiowaunion.com