Le Mars, Iowa's historic Postal Playhouse gets makeover

Soon, sloppy Olive's life is turned upside-down when her best friend, neat freak Florence Unger, moves in after her contentious divorce.

"Obviously, we've done the male version of 'The Odd Couple,' many times in the past," Danna Schuster, Le Mars Community Theatre board president, said a few weeks before showtime. "The female version is very unique and just as funny."

No matter how diverting this classic play is, the real excitement at the Postal Playhouse is happening just beyond the stage of the theater.

Originally built in 1914, the building at 105 First Street N.E. was the home of Le Mars' U.S. Post Office for more than half-a-century.

When a new, modern post office was built, the City of Le Mars purchased the building, which became home to the Le Mars Community Theatre since 1977.

"The Postal Playhouse doesn't look like any other community theater around," Schuster, a frequent actor and director in local productions, acknowledged. "We love all of the big windows and light fixtures and tile flooring."

One thing that Schuster and her troupe of fellow thespians didn't like was the theater's cramped quarters.

"We've always run into storage issues simple because the building was not built to be a theater," she said. "While we've done a fantastic job in making the space work for us, the problem was never going to get better. It was just getting worse."

That's why Schuster and her theater board members contacted Le Mars City Administrator Scott Langel about the possibility of building an additional 14-by-40-foot space onto the historic building.

"Scott and the city were on board right away," she added. "They've been very good to us, helping out any way they could."

Schuster said Langel and Le Mars Mayor Dick Kirchoff recommended working with the Le Mars Community Betterment Foundation (LCBF) as a way to secure funding.

Shortly thereafter, LCBF chairman Michael Donlin applied for a grant through the Gilchrist Foundation in Sioux City, which funded $100,000 to the project.

"We estimated the project at around $130,000," Schuster said. "When the City of Le Mars agreed to match the $15,000 that the Le Mars Community Theatre raised, we were on our way."

Last fall, a loading dock was demolished while an enclosed addition was built in its place. 

The new space, likely to be completed this spring, will allow for a larger work space for building sets and more room for storage.

"Quite frankly, we've needed more room for a very long time," Schuster said, showing off cubby holes that doubled as dressing rooms, and storage areas teeming with decades worth of costuming and props.

In fact, she personally loves to rummage through the plastic bins that now house the hat collection of Le Mars Community Theatre founding member Bonnie Dull, who died in 2016.

"Bonnie was one of the people who started the theater group in 1968 and ended up devoting the next 50 years of her life to the arts," Schuster said, looking through chapeaus fitting every occasion. "I don't know if we used hats as prop any more but if we do, it will come from Bonnie's collection."

Schuster said she loves it when longtime Le Mars residents tell her about the Postal Playhouse's former history. She's also pleased knowing that the building will continue to have a future.

"The Gilchrist grant is a great deal for us because we're enhancing our performance and work space," she explained. "It's also good for Le Mars, because they own the building and are able to enhance it without using tax dollars to do it."

Perhaps of equal importance, the theater gives local actors and stage crews a nice place to practice their craft. 

Audiences are anxious to witness the humorous exploits of Olive Madison and Florence Unger, after all.

"The show must go on," Schuster said. "And theater will continue to alive in Le Mars for many years to come."