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Sandy Skoglund-Young’s Magical, Musical Life in the Ozarks

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Sandy Skoglund-Young’s Magical, Musical Life in the Ozarks

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Sandy Skoglund-Young is focused, disciplined, and undeniably talented. As a young college student at Missouri State University – then SMSU – she envisioned this formula would carry her off to bright lights and bigger stages. Like so many of the shows she’s performed in, however, love suddenly stepped in.

“I kind of had one foot in the music department and one foot in the theatre department and at that time was sort of planning, well, eventually I’m going to try to make a career out of this. Ultimately, I decided not to do that. And that has a lot to do with – well, it has everything to do with Steve,” she smiled.

Skoglund-Young met her future husband when she served as vocal director of THE WIZARD OF OZ at Springfield Little Theatre in 1982. Although the tall, handsome, and charming Steve Young was difficult to ignore, she was focused on her career aspirations. They reconnected during SMSU auditions where he finally proposed a date, and she excitedly accepted. The meeting never happened, however.

“There was a hiccup in that I stood him up. You mean that?” Skoglund-Young giggled.

She felt such a strong connection that she anxiously skipped out on their first date. Skoglund-Young – rightfully – predicted that their relationship would trump her performance aspirations, and she wasn’t sure she was ready to let go of her dreams.

Since then, Skoglund-Young has had theatrical triumphs, built a cherished family, and has supported countless women through the most vulnerable moments of motherhood as a nurse. She is at peace with her remarkable life and says that the arts in Springfield helped her find a level of contentment.

“Anytime you make a decision like that – you change paths – there’s a lot of soul searching and a lot of pondering about, is this the right thing to do? Am I really, truly satisfied with this decision?” she remembered. “But one of the things that made it okay was the very rich performance environment of Springfield.”

As a renowned vocalist, Skoglund-Young has had many opportunities to perform with the Ozarks Lyric Opera – formerly Springfield Regional Opera. She reflected on one of her most fulfilling roles in SWEENEY TODD as a collaboration between the organization and Springfield Little Theatre. As the macabre and lovestruck Mrs. Lovett, she held down double duty as she was the only person cast in the role while two men alternated as Sweeney Todd.

“And that’s fine. I would not have wanted to share it. She’s mine,” Skoglund-Young joked.

Jeff Carney, who frequently performed with the Opera, and Todd Smith, who led many SLT casts, were both cast as the lead opposite Skoglund-Young.

“You have to stay so present in the moment because of what each ‘Sweeney’ was giving to you,” she recalled. “Completely different relationships with each one of them. I would say probably [SWEENEY TODD] was the most artistically satisfying that took me to the periphery of my ability and my stamina. I thought it was just top notch.”

Skoglund-Young doesn’t lack for memorable leading roles. Highlights include DISNEY’S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (Mrs. Potts), FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (Golde), and CURTAINS (Carmen Bernstein). She even originated the role of Millie in the world-premiere cast of EXIT LAUGHING by Paul Elliott. She remembered the excitement and pride among the cast and crew when SLT was chosen to debut the winning script from the AACTNewPlayFest.

“Not only was it a world premiere, but just the participation in the competition that the playwrights submitted to have their works considered,” she explained. “The other theaters doing the new works weren’t community theaters. They were regional theaters. Little Theatre was the only community theater that got to premiere one of those works. Just knowing that we had the distinction of being recognized on the same playing field as regional theaters.”

After marrying Steve and giving birth to their son, Ben, Skoglund-Young performed consistently, balancing work and family with her passion. Meanwhile, challenges with her own delivery inspired a massive career shift that required her to return to school.

“[Ben] was born 9 weeks early. I spent a lot of time in the hospital. I was so impacted by what the nurses were doing for me 24/7. I started thinking, ‘Huh, this is good stuff. This is important stuff. I would like to do this for moms who are in my similar situation,’” she reflected.

Skoglund-Young had taken the minimum science requirements at Missouri State University to earn her initial degree. She dipped her toe back in with a biology course to test her aptitude and excelled. From there, she completed nursing school, taking care of high-risk moms in labor and delivery for the bulk of her career.

The burgeoning arts community in Springfield kept Skoglund-Young engaged. Although life steered her away from the performance career she had envisioned, she was able to fulfill her creative calling.

“There was still the opportunity to flex those muscles, to grow those muscles. Grow the technique, all those things. That opportunity doesn’t exist only in other places and bigger cities,” she insisted. “It existed here as well as the top-notch people to do it with and beautiful places to do it in.”

Skoglund-Young emphasized that it isn’t only the artists who benefit from a robust arts community. Ticket holders can see professional level performing arts without having to travel to larger cities and spend money on transportation and hotels.

“I think that Springfield audiences deserve absolutely the same quality productions as anybody else in the world. I think that any of us who do perform in Springfield would not think that an audience on a bigger stage, or a more well-known stage, was more of an achievement to do good work for them as opposed to the people who are seeing us in Springfield.”

Just like the stories she has depicted on stage, Skoglund-Young’s life has been shaped by fate, magic, and love. Even when things look different than she predicted they might, through her generosity, curiosity, and joy, she is able to see clearly the great blessings of her life.

“The main thing is, as life sort of weaves its path with, ‘I’m going to be a nurse,’ ‘I’m also a mother,’ the way things happen, that thread that runs through it all that I always come back to is [Springfield] Little Theatre,” she observed. “Having a performance home and community, it’s just been the throughline through my life that I can always return to, to reconnect with that part of myself. Just having that incredible place to do that thing I love and hopefully keep working at it and getting better at it.”

Tickets are available now for a reprisal of EXIT LAUGHING at SLT.

Singer Judy Luxton Found There Is More to Her Voice Through Unexpected Roles at SLT

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Judy Luxton always considered herself to be a singer first. “I always felt good about acting when there was music behind me,” she explained. “That was my crutch. It kind of filled in the gaps for me in terms of emotional intent and inflections. It was built in. You didn’t have to think about it.”

In 2013, a new challenge changed her perception of her own abilities and opened new opportunities as a performer. Springfield Little Theatre won a grant from the American Association of Community Theatre (AACT) to have first rights to premiere a brand-new work. Director Chuck Rogers chose the riotous and tender comedy EXIT LAUGHING.

Luxton was hesitant to audition for the non-musical, but the rich characters and female camaraderie drew her in after Rogers encouraged her to read for a part. Luxton nabbed the role of Connie and is forever listed in the script as part of the world premiere cast.

“I didn’t really trust my acting chops because if there’s not music to go along with it, I didn’t trust myself. I didn’t have that experience,” she admitted. “EXIT LAUGHING is what really gave me my confidence that I can do that. I got cast and it was an amazing experience. Of course we are all aged out of those roles this time around, so we’re all going to go together and watch. It’s been exciting to see another generation of people doing that show.”

Some roles are timeless and Luxton recently had the opportunity to revisit a favorite character. At the age of 25, she played Pippin’s high-flying stepmother, Bertha on the Landers stage. Decades later, she reprised the role at SLT.

“It was fun to get to do it again last year,” she smiled. “I loved Bertha and getting to do two iterations of her.”

Early in her music career, Luxton was living at Lake of the Ozarks, working at Lodge of the Four Seasons and driving to Springfield weekly to perform with the Mid-America Singers. Eventually, the commute pushed her to move.

She first worked on props for YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN at SLT then performed in shows like CARNIVAL and 110 IN THE SHADE until she moved to California with a friend. In Los Angeles, she was cast in the original production of the Christian musical RABBONI.

“It started with Creation and went through the whole Old Testament into the birth of Jesus and ended with the Resurrection. It was long. There was a lot to it,” Luxton laughed. “We performed in churches and all over the LA area.”

Luxton eventually returned to Springfield to help a friend raise her daughters and jumped back into SLT productions. Her first lead role after moving back was particularly unexpected.

“The next show where I had a role was MAME and I played Vera. That was a hoot,” she remembered. “I really didn’t think of myself as a ‘Vera’, but [director] Mick [Denniston] made a big point of, ‘If you don’t say you will take a role, I won’t consider you for it.’ So, I just said I will do anything, and then I got Vera and it made me laugh. It was a lot of fun.”

In fact, Luxton was so unlike her famously tipsy character that she developed an unusual ritual to get into character.

“That was during a period where I didn’t drink, and Vera has to be drunk often,” she recalled. “I would sit backstage and make myself dizzy so I could walk onstage and stumble. They would make fun of me because I would be backstage flipping my head around and I would do it just in time to go on.”

Since then, Luxton has appeared in iconic roles including Cinderella’s stepmother. “I got to do Mother Superior in SOUND OF MUSIC the first time they did it. I always said I loved it because I did no dancing, one costume, and had the best song in the show,” she joked. “I got to be Mother Superior again when they did SISTER ACT. Then I got to be the Bird Lady in MARY POPPINS in a scene with Kim [Crosby]. That was really fabulous, and we got to do ‘Feed the Birds’. That was a really great experience.”

Luxton earned her teaching degree in college and taught for one year before switching tracks. She didn’t return to the classroom until 22 years later when fellow educator Alberta Smith put her name in for a job at Pipkin Middle School.

As a teacher, Luxton began bridging the gap between her students and community theater. When SLT held auditions for ANNIE in 2001, Luxton arranged to take a group of pupils downtown.

“They made this announcement that they wanted all these little girls to come and sing ‘Tomorrow,’” she explained. “So, I got a bunch of my little sixth graders and we all learned ‘Tomorrow’. I took them all to the theater. Back then I actually would take them down and get them ready for their auditions.”

For many, it was their first SLT audition and many of them continued participating through adulthood. Today, Luxton said, kids can find casting calls online for themselves, but she helped introduce a generation to SLT.

She taught voice lessons through for many years and jumped in as musical director on occasion. She remembers that the job had its challenges.

“Especially back then, some of the really little shows, the score would come just with the choral music, and I would handwrite out the parts,” she explained. “We’d have four or five pieces in the orchestra, and I would write out their parts. I remember sitting there with my pencil and paper.”

As the community and interest has grown, so have the theatre’s offerings. Luxton praised SLT for opportunities beyond the mainstage season.

“One of the things I think has always been so great that Landers had was those School’s Out Workshops. Kids have something they can do on [days there is no school]. I always thought that was really important,” she applauded. “It has just exponentially exploded with the opportunities at the Judy and the more shows. You almost can’t keep up with how many shows there are.”

Luxton was even married on the Landers stage to her late husband Terry Luxton. The couple would be celebrating their 20th anniversary this summer. “[SLT has] been a wonderful part of my life,” she reflected. “I don’t think I would be who I am now had that not been part of my life.”

After a rich history with SLT, Luxton is focused on the future and new roles she looks forward to.

“As I age, a lot of the roles, you have to let go of that you can’t do anymore. I always wanted to do Lizzie (110 IN THE SHADE), but I’m too old to be considered an old maid at this point,” she joked. “That was one that I had to grieve the loss of. There are some roles that no matter how old I get, it’ll still be okay. I’m hoping that at some point they do THE NOTEBOOK. I got to see that on Broadway and that’s a role I can do no matter how old I get.”

Tickets are available now for a reprisal of EXIT LAUGHING.

EXIT LAUGHING Director Mark Gideon Dives into an Action-Packed Season

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Springfield Little Theatre’s 90th EMERALD ANNIVERSARY SEASON has been one of the busiest for educator Mark Gideon. He already landed leading roles in two back-to-back productions and is now in rehearsals as the director of EXIT LAUGHING.

“For me, personally, to go from the Wizard in WIZARD OF OZ to Scrooge in A CHRISTMAS CAROL, that was a big ‘ol deal because I usually do not do that,” Gideon explained. “I do one production, and I disappear, and you don’t see me for several months, but these are two parts that I wanted to really do, and I went for it.”

Even for seasoned performers, no role is ever guaranteed. Gideon wanted to stand out in auditions for the musical version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, so he threw himself into preparations and showed up ready to claim the part.

“I worked on my audition song six weeks in advance,” he recalled. “My audition for [director] Chyrel [Love Miller] went exactly how I wanted it to go, and so did the cold read on the callbacks.”

He nailed the audition and booked the part, which is both mentally and physically demanding. Scrooge in on stage nearly the entire production, and he even had to wear a harness to fly during a musical number.

Gideon is now in rehearsals for the comedy EXIT LAUGHING, which made its world premiere at SLT in 2013. Every show has its own challenges, but external forces have been threatening to derail the preparations. When snow and extreme cold shut down many establishments in February, Gideon gathered the cast on Zoom to keep working.

“Actually, the Zoom rehearsals have been really good,” he shared. “Everyone shuts off their screen so there’s nothing to look at, which forces them to listen to the dialogue. Here’s the big secret of the theater – your cue is hidden in the dialogue before you speak. All you have to do is listen to that dialogue and your cue will come unto you. So, we have screens off and they’re listening, so it has really forced them not to rely on visual cues or rely on blocking. They really have to know the words.”

EXIT LAUGHING rehearsals have now moved on to the stage, and the cast is starting to become familiar with their props. Now that they are off book, they can become more comfortable with blocking.

“This show is pretty prop heavy, and I want the tempo to move because it is a comedy. This isn’t the MERCHANT OF VENICE, so we have to move,” Gideon laughed.

As a performer, Gideon is perhaps best known by local audiences for his performing partnership with executive director Beth Domann in bringing the GREATER TUNA series to the stage. The four plays are set in fictional Tuna, Texas and require countless quick changes as two performers portray multiple characters each. Gideon was cast in the first production with Paul Libscomb nearly 30 years ago, but each revival since has been a collaboration with Domann.

Gideon revealed the pair get frequent requests to revive the shows, but they have now performed all four scripts and new ones aren’t being written. He explained that certain scenes have become favorites for the duo, and he has a novel idea for revamping the material.

“If we would ever do it again, I have threatened to Beth at times that I was going to sit down and work my way through all of the scripts and make a list of all the scenes in all of those scripts that we like, put the scenes all together and we would call it TUNA CASSEROLE,” he quipped. “I think it has great potential.”

Since the 1980s, Gideon has been dedicated to sharing the performing arts with younger generations. As a teacher in the Springfield Public School system, and surrounding areas, he has mounted dozens of shows and been heavily involved in speech and debate tournaments.

After graduating from Evangel University in 1978, Gideon first found his way onto the SLT stage before leaving town. He knew he would be moving to Pittsburg, Kansas for graduate school and wanted to take advantage of an opportunity to appear in CARNIVAL. He wouldn’t return to the Ozarks until 1985 when he began teaching at Nixa and then moved to Kickapoo High School.

When time allowed, Gideon jumped into SLT productions including ANNIE, TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS, GRAPES OF WRATH, CADDIE WOODLAWN, and an original musical, MISSOURI. In 1997, he made his SLT directorial debut with the one woman show SHIRLEY VALENTINE.

“When a director directs, you get his impression of a script on stage. If they’re always the one directing, then we’re only seeing one version.”

Gideon encourages fresh ideas and for younger artists to take up the mantle. He praised his WIZARD OF OZ choreographer, Josh Inmon, who recently directed and choreographed WAITRESS.

“Now we have Josh Inmon and he is so good,” Gideon remarked. “He’s such a good director. He’s a choreographer, he’s a director, he works great with kids, he’s very organized, he really lets an experienced actor explore and do and then offers suggestions.”

Gideon now serves as the Vice President of the SLT Guild, which helps to raise money for the organization as well as curate interest in the theatre’s programs and productions. As a volunteer, he recognizes the sacrifices made by performers, parents, crew, and more to keep the doors open.

“Springfield Little Theatre was created in the beginning because a group of individuals had a love of theater and a love for the city,” he admired. “Theater is the truest act of love. You give up six to eight weeks or more of your personal life so that in 90 minutes – over nine or fifteen performances – you give everything you’ve got so that someone out in the audience, their thinking is changed, their heart is touched, their memories are evoked. That is the purest act of love that someone is giving so much of themselves either as a director or as an actor or as a technician for that brief moment in the whole scope of life that someone is sitting in the dark in the Landers Theatre and they are transported to another place or time.”

Although he has dedicated many hours to SLT productions, Gideon acknowledges that the work volunteers do to develop an entire season of shows can never be fully appreciated. That magic that makes it look effortless, he said, is its own reward.

“The average person has no idea what goes into the hours and hours of rehearsal and picking out props and costumes and all that stuff. They have no idea, and they don’t need to know because that’s not their job. Our job is to provide the highest quality of entertainment that we possibly can. In that offering, if we can change lives or touch hearts, then our job is done.”

EXIT LAUGHING runs March 14 – 23 on the Landers stage. Tickets are available now.

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