Pianist Teresa Breuer Brekke Remembers the Friendships and the Laughs at SLT

Teresa Breuer Brekke has had an expansive career, often finding herself in the crossroads between art and business. She has moved across the south and west working in public radio and performance, but some of the most vivid memories were formed in her friendships at Springfield Little Theatre and her childhood in the Ozarks. In fact, she still dreams about the home she grew up in near Missouri State University.

“I just think it was such a valuable, wonderful experience,” Brekke reflected on her teenage years spent at SLT. “I can count at least two lifelong dear friends [from the theatre]. Beth [Domann] is one of them and Connie Pachl. Connie lived across the street from me for a while, but we became really good friends through the theatre. I’m still in touch with both of them. My friendships with them are as old as Saturday Night Live.”

When Brekke’s mother spotted an advertisement in the newspaper for SLT Youth Players auditions, she jumped at the chance. She was cast in the 1974 production of THE SNOW QUEEN and was immediately hooked. She eventually landed her own royal role.

“I just enjoyed it so much, I kept auditioning. I was the Queen of Hearts in ALICE IN WONDERLAND. That was so much fun,” Brekke remembered. “We have a friend, Beth and I, who is not with us any longer whose name is Roger Jinks. He was a riot. Well, he was the Cheshire Cat. There was quite a bit of time on stage where I would be sitting on my throne, and he would be hiding in the Cheshire Cat house, and he would taunt me just to try to make each other laugh.”

Brekke’s parents established strict rules in their household, but they supported her enjoying SLT as an outlet. Even if the cast and crew sometimes got up to mischief, they knew it was a safe place to grow. She fondly relayed one of the more playful pranks she witnessed.

“I can remember one time I was working on HELLO DOLLY. This would have been one of the adult productions. I didn’t have a part. I was doing props or something, I forget. Kim Crosby had one of the leads. There are these great, big menus for this fancy Harmonia Gardens restaurant. Well, the props people – now I didn’t do this, but it was fun to watch – instead of having the menu inside, they put Playboy centerfolds in there,” Brekke laughed.” We just did crazy, crazy fun stuff.”

She remembers her parents letting her attend late rehearsals and even break her 10 pm curfew once to help build a float representing the theatre for the Ozark Empire Fair. Through those connections, she even traveled to Broadway. Although the trip was not SLT sponsored, fellow teenagers from SLT bussed together to NYC.

“Beth wasn’t on that trip. I wish she had been,” Brekke recalled. “But [SLT performer] Kinda Kellum was on it. She was my roommate as I recall. We slept on the floor of the bus. I don’t know how many of us were on that bus, but thirty or forty kids, maybe. Here all these kids and these two adults, nobody got in trouble, nobody got hurt.”

As a Heers teen board member, Brekke had the opportunity to work in the department store stock room to earn money toward the trip. She was delighted to be able to pay for her ticket to every show. Her only regret is that she didn’t save the playbills.

“I saved my money, and I bought all my theatre tickets,” Brekke beamed. “The very first one was A CHORUS LINE at Shubert Theatre. The second one was THE KING AND I with Yul Brynner. I saw SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM with Hermione Gingold. I saw ANNIE with Andrea McArdle. I saw DRACULA with Frank Langella. I sat on the front row. And I saw Liza Minelli in THE ACT on New Years Eve, which was a big flop, but I didn’t care because I got to see Liza. All of that. Can you believe? I can’t imagine what that would cost today, but I managed it.”

Decades later, Brekke returned to Broadway to see another bucket list performer, Bette Midler. She planned an anniversary trip with her husband, Charles, to see the diva in HELLO DOLLY. As they took their seats 2^nd row, center in the balcony, the memory suddenly struck Brekke.

“[HELLO DOLLY] just dazzled, every bit just came to life. It had a life of its own,” she praised. “It occurred to me as went to that theatre; I had been there exactly forty years before. It was that same year I went to New York for the first time and saw A CHORUS LINE in that theatre. It was one of those tingly moments, you know?”

After graduating from Greenwood Lab, Brekke attended Drury University where she met her husband. She loved the arts, but her parents urged her to pursue a potentially more profitable degree. To satisfy both objectives, she earned three degrees in Business Administration, Communications, and Music.

“I got a business degree, and it has served me well,” she admitted. “I’ve always been able to get a job. I’ve mainly worked in PR, marketing, and I worked in broadcasting. I worked for a public radio station here [in Oklahoma] for about 15 years. It’s a classical station, so it really suited both interests there.”

The Brekkes landed in Oklahoma by way of Texas. After graduating from Drury, her husband was pursuing a medical career in Galveston while she got a job at Texas Instruments in Houston. They eventually married and moved to Friendswood before relocating to Oklahoma.

“I did go back to school, and I got my Masters in piano. I went to OU,” Brekke explained. “I play at my church, and I have a little business that I play at parties and events and things. I’m still at it.”

Throughout her life, Brekke says she has benefitted from her experience at SLT. Feeling comfortable on stage helped her land runner-up at the Miss Teenage Springfield pageant. When the crowned winner was disqualified for fibbing about her age, Brekke was thrust into the next tier of competition.

“I get to Nashville and it’s like cattle at the fair. They put that sash on you and parade you through the airport. Well, here all these other girls had professional chaperones and professional tutors. It was already an industry at that time,” Brekke recognized. “I was the country bumpkin. I didn’t even make it into the top 10, but I had a really good time. We did dance routines and got all these costumes, and I was on TV. All my [SLT] friends went out to the Springfield Regional Airport to send me off. They were all there to greet me when I got back.”

From piano performances to her radio career, Brekke has always appreciated the skills and life experience she collected at the Landers that followed her through her life.

“Even the little bit I did onstage, it really helps your confidence to speak onstage before a group. Most people have to do that for their job or in some capacity whether they’re serving their community or their church. That experience is like a muscle. It just kicks back in.”

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