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Don Wilder
Musical Director and Conductor
The summer musical season is arguably the most exciting part of the year for our audiences and also for the staff. For eight seasons, from The King and I in 1966 through Promises, Promises in 1973, a span of twenty musical productions, Don Wilder was the mastermind behind a series of wonderful musical experiences.
Don
attributed his presence at Allenberry to the close-knit “small world
of music.” Primarily schooled in opera, the opportunity to do musicals
was a most fortuitous happening. Don’s first introduction to Allenberry
and to Richard North Gage was through Ed Aldridge, with whom Don had worked
at Point Summer Theatre in Texas. Ten years later Ed and Don were reunited
at Allenberry as artistic and musical directors.
Among these twenty musicals — close to five hundred performances directed by Don — there were numerous challenges. For Man of La Mancha the orchestra was backstage; for Cabaret the orchestra was on stage. Music Man presents particular musical demands and Promises, Promises required a new electronic sound. Don met all endeavors with equanimity. Actors and musicians were privileged to work with him and we, the audience, were entertained and delighted by his musical arrangements.
Alta Marie Jumper
Pianist
Alta Marie Jumper, an elementary music teacher in the Big Spring School District, played one of twin pianos in sixty Allenberry musical productions between 1964 and 1988.
Playing with Charles Schalm, Alta’s first show was Leave it to Jane, directed by Frank Mueller, Jr. In 1966, Alta joined Don Wilder at the piano and together they collaborated in twenty shows including How to Succeed in Business, Funny Girl, Half a Sixpence, Brigadoon, Gypsy, The Boy Friend and Fiddler on the Roof. In 1976, Alta participated in five productions accumulating fourteen weeks at the piano — The Most Happy Fella; No, No, Nanette during the regular musical season followed by William W. Platt’s old-time temperance melodrama Ten Nights in a Barroom and the season closer, Riverwind.
During her Allenberry career Alta worked with eleven musical directors and four artistic directors. She played on stage rather than in the pit in two productions. She was a member of the Kit Kat Band in Ed Aldridge’s production of Cabaret and was also on stage in Ten Nights in a Barroom fielding the melodramatic cheers and boos of the audience incited by the actors. For Alta, however, it was all cheers — it was indeed an honor and a privilege to listen to Alta at the piano each summer. She is a treasured member of the Allenberry theatrical family.
Katie Coutts
Costume Design
From 1956 to 1974, Katie Coutts was responsible for the brilliant costumes seen on our stage. Whether the task be working within budget to rent enough kilts for an entire chorus of men, locating a dozen pre-WWII Navy uniforms, or (very commonly) making costumes from scratch, Katie was known for always getting the job done impeccably.
Katie created her magic directly below the stage in the cellar, which was described as having “some of the friendly features of a boiler room, a gypsy locker room and a tenement flat.” Today, Allenberry costumers work across the way in a space more private and less cluttered, but for fifteen seasons Katie toiled with the actors nearly on top of her in her cellar studio.
With a show underway, actors would press their own costumes and junior staffers would be busy sewing on snaps while Katie would be at a twelve-foot hinged cutting table with her portable sewing machine preparing for the next production.
Bright-eyed, unassuming and most often found smiling and cheery, Katie was a gift to the Allenberry theatre for years. “If we don’t have it, we make it,” she would say. Katie had it, and she helped to make our productions glorious, shaping a long-standing tradition of excellence.
Al Hamilton
Set Design
For fourteen seasons, Al Hamilton blessed the Allenberry stage with splendid sets. From 1955 through 1967, Al contributed his dedication towards perfectionism, as well as his loyalty as a good friend, to our outstanding history.
“Set designers,” Al once said, with a trace of a sigh, “are
the forgotten people on the theatrical totem pole.” Still, audiences
must have recognized the ingenuity required to design and construct a ceiling
that would collapse on the stage night after night and yet never endanger
the actors in Everyone Loves Opal. And anyone who has seen the limited space
backstage must appreciate a revolving carousel in Carousel that would fit
neatly in the wings when struck from the stage. 
Like his colleagues, Al faced endless challenges each season, making his tasks infinitely more arduous by never settling for a set less than brilliant. He rigorously designed sets, as well as some costumes and props, brought his ideas to life, and painted them with the brush strokes of a true artist.
Commenting on Allenberry in an interview, Al said, “I like it here very much. Mr. Gage is a perfectionist and so am I. The life of the American theatre depends on keeping the audiences alive and coming back. That’s what we’re doing at Allenberry.”
With much thanks to Al, and to Katie, and to countless other artists, we have worked to continue doing so — providing you our audience, with the awesome splendor and magic of the theatre.