Happy Birthday, Donna

Donna Reed Foundation invites you to help us celebrate

Monday, January 26, 2015 5:00 - 7:00 pm CST
5:30 pm  - Special showing of This Is Your Life

Donna Reed Theater
1305 Broadway
, Denison, IA 51442

Please join us on Monday, January 26, 2015 between 5:00 - 7:00 pm for an open house birthday reception for Donna Reed at the Donna Reed Center for the Performing Arts in Denison, Iowa.

Stop by for light refreshments and a special screening of the half-hour long television show, This Is Your Life which aired March 26, 1958.

The show, hosted by Ralph Edwards, surprised Reed with guests that included her parents and siblings, her best friend from high school, her high school chemistry teacher and her one-room schoolhouse teacher.

For our out-of-town friends and fans, please help grow our birthday card collection for Donna Reed with any favorite memories you have for her, her films/shows, encounters, and experiences with anything Donna (including participation in her Donna Reed Foundation for the Performing Arts workshops, events, scholarships, parades, etc - anything is welcome!)

You can send greetings to the Donna Reed Foundation, 1305 Broadway, Denison, IA 51442 or email contact us at our special birthday email address. Excerpts and cards may be displayed at this or future celebrations.

Free screenings of "It's a Wonderful Life" at the Donna Reed Theater, December 14

See It's a Wonderful Life as it was meant to be viewed – on the big screen. 

On Sunday, December 14, the classic holiday movie, starring Denison native Donna Reed and Jimmy Stewart, will be screened twice – at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Donna Reed Theatre. Free admission.

It's a Wonderful Life received five Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. The film won an Academy Award for Technical Achievement for the creation and use of a new method of simulating falling snow.

Bedford Falls display returns.
A miniature replica of Bedford Falls returns to the front window of the Donna Reed Heritage Museum for a winter showing. The HO scale replica was built by model building enthusiast from the Quad Cities area and, for several years, was displayed by the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center in Davenport, Ia. before being donated to the Donna Reed Foundation.

Exhibit on the making of It's a Wonderful Life continues inside.

Step inside the museum and view an expanded exhibit that features a variety of items from the Donna Reed Collection relating to the making of the movie. It includes a letter to pen pal Violet Lindsey mentioning the upcoming filming of the movie; daily call sheets detailing the daily shoot schedule; daily production reports tracking expenses and progress of the filming of a various scenes; Donna Reed's invitation to a screening of the movie from director Frank Capra; and the review of the movie which appeared in Variety. Of particular interest are photos of the new snow-making process developed especially for this film that replaced the practice of using painted cornflakes for falling snow.

Donna Reed Festival Alumnus to perform with Mormon Tabernacle Choir on Their Annual Christmas Concerts

Artist Santino Fontana joins Mormon Tabernacle 

Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square for a series 

of Christmas concerts.

Santino Fontana will headline with “Sesame Street” Muppets™

Back by popular demand after charming audiences at this summer’s Pioneer Day concert, Broadway star Santino Fontana will again join the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square for their annual Christmas concerts on December 11, 12, and 13 in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.

Taking the stage with Santino, and in a first for the Choir, the beloved Sesame Street Muppets™ will join in bringing the holiday spirit to audiences young and old.

The guest artists will also appear with the Choir and Orchestra on the weekly Music and the Spoken Word broadcast and a mini-concert the following Sunday, December 14.

Santino Fontana is known by many for his recent roles playing Prince Hans in Disney’s hit movie Frozen and his Broadway performance as Prince Topher in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, which garnered him a Tony Award nomination.

Fontana was a 2000 Donna Reed Festival acting scholarship finalist.

 Read the news release.

Get Your Tickets Now For This Fun-Filled Evening

Enjoy A Night Out At Our First Friday Film

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.