By Tiana Hines
The Prairie Players have been a staple in Galesburg for around 100 years now. I spoke with
Rebecca Yowler who is on the board for Prairie Players and has been volunteering there since
2016.
As we spoke you could tell just how much being there and working at Prairie Players
meant to her. As she was speaking she would laugh or draw back on a memory. She just
seemed happy to talk about her time working there. As we were talking she told me about the
upcoming plays and what they are.
The show is called the Christmas Cabaret. The show is made up of common Christmas songs that started on Broadway. For example the song Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas was in a play called Meet Me in St. Louis.
Yowler compiled the show. The show tells a story of the song then everyone else sings and joins in for the final part. This sounds cool especially since the show is created through 100 percent volunteer work. Everyone from the board to costumes and makeup is all volunteers.
This upcoming show will have 13 performers. There are more people backstage, but that number is small as well.
Yowler said that “people just want to bring Broadway to Galesburg” and she’s making it happen.
You can see Christmas Cabaret on December 10 at 7:30 p.m., December 11 at 7:30 p.m., and December 12 at 2 p.m. There is an admission fee of $15 for adults and $8 for students.
Prairie Players has had many other plays this year with Little Shop of Horrors and
A Wrinkle In Time being some of them.
The shows don’t run for a long period of time. Most shows are 1-2 weekends.
Since Prairie Players is a nonprofit organization, they get many of their props and clothes from donations from people in Galesburg. This has helped them out a lot.
Prairie Players has also partnered with Amazon Smile. If you purchase through Prairie Player’s Amazon Smile link, they get a small percentage of the money. They also have something very similar to the Galesburg Railroad Museum where you can get a brick memorial for someone in your life.
Prairie Players doesn’t do any big budget shows, but the shows have a lasting effect on the people who played in them.
As I was asking Yowler about the volunteers and if any of them come back she said
that most of the volunteers return whenever they can. Many volunteers have formed years-long friendships.
Yowler is not originally from Galesburg, but she fell in love with the area and decided to stay. She says that Prairie Players has been an inclusive experience for anyone no matter their race, ethnicity, or sexuality they try to include any and every demographic.
As we finished the conversation she said that “she hoped that many more people will continue to come to see plays for many years to come.”