Resistance
A new play by Iowa playwright Taylor Sklenar
Touring Iowa this Spring
When a new herbicide is introduced into a small Iowa community, a group of neighboring farmers must grapple with their differing perceptions of risk – and even with each other – as they figure out how to move forward together.
Coffee and community conversation will follow each performance.
Want to support the project?
Contribute to our GoFundMe to help us pay our actors, designers, and fund essentials like props, costumes, and travel!
Meet the Resistance Artistic Team
Actor
Noah Allyn
I am a full-time elementary special education associate for Des Moines Public Schools. I've done theater off and on throughout my life -- primarily in high school and college -- but this is the longest I've gone without taking part in it (about 5 years), so it's great to finally jump back in! I'm originally from Perry, Iowa, and I went to college at Iowa State University in Ames. I now live with my girlfriend, Alyssa, in West Des Moines. We have two cats, one named Noodle and one named Cat. I have a passion for music – I love collecting records, playing drums, and going to concerts. I also have a love for TV, movies, and videogames – if I’m at home, I probably have a gaming device in my hands, my cat in my lap, and a movie (or series) on my TV.
Actor
Samantha Brockshus
Samantha is a perpetually tired mom and actor with a passion for both classical and contemporary theater. Recent stage credits include Crimes of the Heart as Lenny Magrath, Pippin as Catherine, and the Iowa Stage Theatre Company's August 2024 Scriptease reading of Resistance as Hannah. Samantha is a graduate from Iowa State University with a degree and emphasis in acting and directing. She currently lives in Ames with her son Oliver, daughter Charlotte, and sword wielding husband Brandon.
Enjoy the show!
Publicity Designer
Sarah Carney
Sarah Carney is an Iowa artist with a background in illustration and design. She works primarily as a digital painter of people both real and imagined. She's collaborated several times over the years with local theatre groups for poster designs and programs. "It's so exciting to have my work be part of a larger production, where my painting might be one of the audience's first doorways into the experience." Sarah looks forward to engaging in a piece local to Iowa, its land, and people. Currently, Sarah is a web developer at Iowa State University. She lives in Ames with her husband, son, and two cats.
(Examples of previous poster designs by Sarah!)
Producer / Tour Manager
Vivian M. Cook
Vivian M. Cook is a Producer and the Community Engagement Director with The EcoTheatre Lab. She is a theatre director, performer, and educator; producer and curator of interdisciplinary arts initiatives; and advocate for the role that arts can and should play in environmental communication, community development, and civic life. With The EcoTheatre Lab team, she produces various projects and leads partnership, communication, and engagement efforts.
Vivian has a B.A. in Performing Arts (Acting/Directing) and French, M.S. degrees in Community Development and Sustainable Agriculture, and a Graduate Certificate in Youth Program Management and Evaluation. In her research and practice, she works at the intersection of arts and storytelling, community engagement, and social and environmental justice.
Actor
K.L. Cook
K. L. Cook is a Professor of English and Co-Coordinator of the MFA Program for Creative Writing and Environment at Iowa State University. Since 2004, he has also taught in the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing in Louisville, Kentucky. He writes fiction, essays, and poems, and is the author of six books, most recently a collection of stories (Marrying Kind), a collection of poetry (Lost Soliloquies), and a book of nonfiction (The Art of Disobedience). He's acted in over thirty productions, including roles in Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio), The Importance of Being Earnest (John Worthing), The Birds (Zeus), and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Nick). He frequently gives lectures on the art and craft of fiction, as well as Shakespeare, and is currently working on a novel, set in Arizona, about a contemporary Shakespearean repertory company. www.klcook.com.
Actor
Brittny Rebhuhn
Brittny Rebhuhn is a Resident Artist Company member with Iowa Stage Theatre Company in Des Moines, IA and a Northwest Iowa native. She is an ISU and Dell’Arte International School of Theater alum. Her theater background is a physical one, rooted in collaboration and curiosity. In recent years, she has directed and acted in various productions with Iowa Stage Theatre Company and DMACC Community College as well as written for and acted in short films with Peach Fuzz Productions and Green Bicycle Cinema. As a proud farmer's daughter, she feels particularly connected to this story and its themes. Big gratitude and love to Vivian and Taylor for this opportunity. Huge shout out to you for being here. Thank you for your time, your curiosity, and for showing up.
Actor
Charissa Menefee
Charissa Menefee is the founder and artistic director of The EcoTheatre Lab, as well as a professor in the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Environment and ISU Theatre at Iowa State University. She is the author of When I Stopped Counting: Poems and co-editor of Embodied Playwriting: Improv and Acting Exercises for Writing and Devising. Favorite directing projects include Oedipus the King, A Lie of the Mind, The Skin of Our Teeth, Climate Change Theatre Action, and Towards Zero, as well as children’s theatre productions of Androcles and the Lion, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Great Alphabet Adventure, and Earthlings! Her work as an actor includes musicals, improvisational comedy, and roles in Agnes of God, To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, The Birds, Bells Are Ringing, The Sound of Music, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Guys, and The Elephant Man.
Actor
Eric Olson
Eric Olson is an actor, director, and playwright based in Des Moines, IA. As a resident artist with Iowa Stage Theatre Company, he has appeared in Trouble In Mind, Exit Strategy, Adore Us! Line, and Company. Other area credits include: Equus, Bridges of Madison County (Concert), Rumors, Oleanna, and Around the World In 80 Days.
His original play, Nothing, Less, was produced by Playwright’s Circle in Palm Springs, CA, and the Orlando Short Play Festival. He is a member of SAG-AFTRA with a B.A. in Creative Writing from UCLA and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, and has worked as an editor and writer for such magazines as Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Riviera Modern Luxury, among others. Currently, he works in corporate communications. Thanks and love to his wife Juli and his daughters, Paige and Sophie, for their support!
Playwright / Producer
Taylor Sklenar
Taylor Sklenar is a playwright, an Artistic Producer for The EcoTheatre Lab, a Lecturer in science communication at ISU, and the Iowa Policy Lead for the Climate Land Leaders. He grew up in Treynor, a small farming community in southwest Iowa, and now lives in Ames. His writing, which explores the intersection of science, sustainability, and rural life, has been workshopped or produced at Tallgrass Theatre’s Iowa Playwrights’ Workshop, Theatre du Mississippi, Iowa Stage’s Scriptease, Theatre Cedar Rapids, Northwestern University’s WAVE Productions, Owens Community College, Minnesota Fringe, Scene One Theatre, The William Inge Festival, and the Kennedy Center Undergraduate Playwrights Workshop. See more of his work at taylorsklenar.com.
Costume Designer
Noël VanDenBosch
Noël VanDenBosch (she/her) hails from Iowa City, IA, where she has worked both onstage and backstage for over a decade. She’s held many roles including actor, assistant director, costume designer, carpenter, painter, welder, and stitcher to name a few. A proud member of IATSE Local 191, she’s worked backstage on professional, touring shows since 2016. During the weekdays, she’s the secretary of the University of Iowa Labor Center, where she organizes programs to educate workers and unions on their rights. Her labors of love include baking, hiking mountains, writing, traveling, and drinking a good cup of coffee. Many thanks to V&T for this opportunity!
Director
Emily Golden
Emily Golden was transplanted to Iowa in 2019 to pursue her MFA in creative writing and environment from Iowa State. Since then, she has put down roots, and now works as a lecturer for ISU’s English department. She is thrilled to be back in the director’s chair once more, helping this exceptional company grow the best play possible.
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Project Funders
Support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Iowa Arts Council, which exists within the Iowa Economic Development Authority, as well as the Discover Ames Community Grant Program.
Thank You!
Thank you to our artistic team; our project consultant, Mary Swander; our rehearsal venue hosts (Somerset Clubhouse and First Christian Church in Ames); our performance venue hosts and community partners (listed on the tour locations page); our project funders; and our project supporters, including attendees and GoFundMe contributors!