Former Donna Reed Scholarship Recipient to appear on The Good Wife, October 5

Saycon Sengbloh

Saycon Sengbloh, a 1996 Donna Reed Foundation national scholarship winner, will appear as “Stacie Wagner” in the October 5 episode of The Good Wife, Season 6.

Sengbloh has been a featured actress and vocalist in contemporary shows on Broadway and off-Broadway, embracing a new sound of pop, rock, & soul music. Productions have included Rent, Oprah Winfrey's The Color Purple (musical), Disney's Aida, the new revival of Hair, Wicked, Hurt Village, and also the first Afro-beat musical, Fela! where she starred as the delicious Sandra Iszadore. Saycon sings on the Grammy nominated soundtracks for Fela!, Hair, and Motown the Musical. The ever versatile actress brought hip-hop to Broadway in Tupac Shakur production Holler If Ya Hear Me.

Visit her at http://SayconSengbloh.com

Fourth Annual "AMERICAN ICON SERIES" Returns to the Donna Reed Theater in Denison

Spend an evening with the music of Streisand, relive the Johnny Carson Show, watch It’s A Wonderful Life on the big screen, ring in the New Year with an improv comedy troupe and immerse yourself in the stories of Teddy Roosevelt.

That’s the lineup of shows The Donna Reed Foundation for the Performing Arts has in store for you as part of the fourth annual American Icon Series.

• October 11, 2014 -Then and Now, A Tribute to Barbra Streisand with Carla DelVillaggio
• November 15, 2014 - HERE'S JOHNNY! with Jim Malmberg's re-enactment of The Carson Show.
• December 14, 2014 - It’s A Wonderful Life screening of Frank Capra's Holiday Classic (free event)
• January 3, 2015 - A Night of Wild Hilarity with Guys in Ties Improv Comedy Troupe
• February 20, 2015 - Roosevelt! - Stories of the 26th President of the United States with Adam Lindquist

Performances begin at 7 p.m. at the Donna Reed Theater, 1305 Broadway, in downtown Denison, Iowa, home of The Donna Reed Foundation and Museum.

Season tickets are $50 per person or individual show tickets can be purchased for $15. Student tickets (18 and under) are $5.

Tickets can be obtained by calling The Donna Reed Foundation at 712-263-3334, by e-mail at info@donnareed.org  or by downloading and mailing the ticket order form.

More about the performances.
Brochure with ticket order form to print and mail to the Foundation.

2004 Donna Reed Scholarship Alumnus appears on prime-time CBS drama series.

Ben Rappaport returns to the CBS drama series, The Good Wife, Season Six. He plays the recurring role of a fourth-year attorney who has left Lockhart-Gardner with Alicia (Julianna Margulies) and Cary (Matt Czuchry) when they formed their new firm, Florrick, Agos & Associates. Viewers may recognize Rappaport from his 2010 lead role as Todd Dempsy in the NBC series, Outsourced.

Rappaport, born in Arlington, Texas, was a 2004 Donna Reed Scholarship national finalist in acting.

“It's a Wonderful Road Trip” stops at the Donna Reed Heritage Museum

Anwei and Henry Law, from the It's a Wonderful Life Museum in Seneca Falls, New York, stopped in Denison on a cross-country road trip to research and collect items related to the movie.

The trip began August 1 in Port Orchard, WA where they rented a U-Haul truck to pick up It's a Wonderful Life memorabilia and display cases donated by Karolyn Grimes who played Zuzu in the film.

Their itinerary included stops to visit the Jimmy Stewart collection in Provo, UT; the Donna Reed collection in Denison; Henry Fonda's boyhood home in Omaha, NE; the Jimmy Stewart Museum in Indiana, PA; and Mark Goodson's It's a Wonderful Life collection in Grayslake, IL. Goodson is widely considered the world's foremost collector of materials from the 1946 movie that starred James Stewart as George Bailey, and Donna Reed as his wife, Mary.

The Laws spent two days in the Donna Reed Heritage Museum and Archives, researching and collecting images.

Visit the It's a Wonderful Life Museum.

Donna Reed Heritage Museum partners with State Historical Museum of Iowa

Blockbuster exhibit to run through late 2016

A leather script portfolio used by Donna Reed and a mug given to her by John Wayne during the filming of Trouble Along the Way (1953) are now on display at the State Historical Museum of Iowa. They are part of the “Hollywood In The Heartlands” exhibit which opened June 27 in Des Moines. Donna Reed is one of 17 featured Iowa actors.

This major exhibit explores Iowa's legacy with the silver screen throughout history, leading up to its most recent contributions to American film. It reveals how Iowa and its residents have been portrayed on-screen, uncovers the beauty of Iowa's historic theaters and introduces Iowans who have made an impression on-screen and behind the scenes.

The 6,400 square-foot exhibition includes components from major films depicting Iowa and Iowans such as State Fair (1933, 1945): The Music Man (1962); Cold Turkey (1971); Field of Dreams (1989) and The Bridges of Madison County (1995).

Visit Hollywood in the Heartlands