2025-2026 Season

Pella Christian High School's Theatre Troupe will open its 76th theatre season by tackling a variety of dramatic styles, eras, and technical effects during the 2025-2026 school year, according to Director of Theatre Marlo Van Peursem.  Each of the performances will be held in the Vermeer Auditorium at Pella Christian High School, 300 Eagle Lane.

PCHS begins its season this fall with Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic favorite, The Sound of Music.  Winner of five Tony awards, including Best Musical, when it opened on Broadway in 1959, this production is a staple of the musical theatre canon.  Set nearly 90 years ago in Salzburg, Austria, the musical tells the story of Maria, who takes a job as governess to a large family while she decides whether to become a nun. She falls in love with the children, and eventually their widowed father, Captain von Trapp.  The comedic actions of Max Detweiler, a charming and opportunistic music producer who is a friend of the von Trapps, and the romantic interests of Elsa Schraeder, a wealthy socialite and the Captain's intended fiancee, add to the musical’s continuing popularity.   Popular musical numbers include "De Re Mi," "My Favorite Things," "The Lonely Goatherd," "No Way to Stop It" and "Sixteen Going on Seventeen."  Stunning numbers also include those by the Nonnberg Abbey Choir and the iconic solo by the Mother Abbess ("Climb Every Mountain").  The performance will be directed by Marlo Van Peursem with assistance from Aaron Fitzgerald (music), Paulina Loaiza (choreography), Scott Merrin (pit orchestra) and Daryl Van Zee (Tech). Production dates are October 30, 31, and November 1, 2025 with Reserve Tickets available for purchase on-line beginning October 20.

Pella Christian’s Speech Team will perform a cutting from the powerful musical, Rags, for their Large Group one-act entry with the Iowa High School Speech Association.  A sweeping saga which touches on family, tenement life, the labor movement, and the sweatshops of 1910, this is a story of Rebecca Hershkowitz and her son David, their friend Bella, and the Union activist Saul.  When Rebecca finally finds her husband Nathan in the new land, she soon realizes he is willing to do anything to climb the social ladder.  It is a saga of hope and disappointments, of power and greed, of strength and love combined with memorable music.  Large Group District competition begins January 24, 2026 with the annual All-City Home Benefit held January 29, 2026 at Pella HS.  Pella Christian’s annual evening for the Individuals Speech Peer Review will be held February 26, 2026.  PCHS’s speech program is under the direction of Elizabeth Bos, Karla Hodgell and Marlo Van Peursem.

PCHS’s Theatre Troupe concludes the season with one of Agatha Christie’s classic murder mysteries, A Murder is Announced.  Concealed identities, desperation, mixed motives, and another death can all be found before the true identity of the murderer is uncovered.  An announcement in the local paper states the time and place when a murder is to occur in Miss Blacklock's Victorian house.  As her lodgers and curious visitors begin to arrive, tensions mount and when the clock strikes the appointed hour, lights go out, a door swings open, and shots are fired.  With the arrival of Inspector Craddock, a murder investigation begins. Somewhat to his frustration, he is joined by amateur sleuth Miss Marple, who is always one step ahead.  Under the direction of Marlo Van Peursem, A Murder Is Announced will be presented March 27-28, 2026 with Reserve Tickets available for purchase on-line beginning March 9.