Hello and welcome to Leaving Iowa!
......................A Comedy about Family, Vacations and the Memories that Matter Most
Hello! I am so excited to get started on "Leaving Iowa" at Moody! Thanks for your interest in auditioning. Take a look around and feel free to shoot me any questions. Hope to see you at auditions Dec 4!- LIndsey Branson, Director
Clinging to the childhood memories of family vacations the two-act comedy "Leaving Iowa", is a superb play that will leave audiences appreciative of the ordinary experiences of life. The main character Don, who narrates this humorous and nostalgic tale, returns home for a family baptism and ends up taking a journey to find the final resting place for his father's ashes. The play presents 1960's Americana in such a poignant yet humorous light that audience can't help but allow their own imaginations to drift to their own families and road trips. In the process of taking the journey to find the best final resting place for dad's ashes, Don follows his Dad's travel guide. The play is constructed both in present day and as a flashback to Don's childhood years. Other key characters in the play are his mother, who has over the years been the unflappable mediator in the family as well as his spoiled sister who always got her way as a child. Dad pops up in the reflection scenes and the audience is allowed to see the make up of this man who is being eulogized in the play. The audience develops an empathy toward the narrator as his seems to never get his way, whether it is traveling to the Wisconsin Dells or making his parents believe that his sister stole his arrow head. Dad is seen as a bit of an antagonist to Don throughout most of the play, but by the end of the comedy the audience and Don have come to understand and appreciate Dad for all of his foibles and qualities. The few actors who play the other parts in the play can absolutely steal the show. These characters vary from a cook and waitress to a farmer and his wife. The play is so successful because it artfully weaves the story of a family. A son who longed to get away from Winterset, Iowa (the home of the Duke) only to come back and appreciate the wonderful and sometimes tortuous family vacations. Watching this play is like looking in a mirror. The audience sees their own parents or children in the characters. Most people can relate to fighting with a sibling in the car or driving parents crazy with that exact same squabbling. This is the beauty of "Leaving Iowa" it is a tale of the everyman, but it is a tale that is entertaining and thoughtful at the same time.
Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"..."Leaving Iowa" has genuine charm and humility. It knows what it is -- a simply structured homegrown comedy and a celebration of the oft-unappreciated parenting skills of the so-called Greatest Generation -- and it lives as happily in its own warm skin as an ear of corn ripening along Interstate 80 on an August afternoon."- Chris Jones
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...You don't have to be the child of a small-town Iowa couple living in the midst of hog farms and cornfields to identify with everything about "Leaving Iowa," the simultaneously hilarious and touching play by Tim Clue and Spike Manton."- Hedy Weiss
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"... And beyond the somewhat cliched premise is the son's genuine sense of mourning, for his father, for his childhood, and for our nation's loss of its heartland to chain stores and parking lots. Try as you might not to be manipulated into nostalgic twinges, don't be surprised if Leaving Iowa gets you in the end." - Kim Wilson
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...Leaving Iowa grows on you as it meanders its way into your heart. If you stay with the show, the many repetitive car scenes, Leaving Iowa ultimately satisfies as a ‘feel good’ comedy. " - Tom Williams
Clinging to the childhood memories of family vacations the two-act comedy "Leaving Iowa", is a superb play that will leave audiences appreciative of the ordinary experiences of life. The main character Don, who narrates this humorous and nostalgic tale, returns home for a family baptism and ends up taking a journey to find the final resting place for his father's ashes. The play presents 1960's Americana in such a poignant yet humorous light that audience can't help but allow their own imaginations to drift to their own families and road trips. In the process of taking the journey to find the best final resting place for dad's ashes, Don follows his Dad's travel guide. The play is constructed both in present day and as a flashback to Don's childhood years. Other key characters in the play are his mother, who has over the years been the unflappable mediator in the family as well as his spoiled sister who always got her way as a child. Dad pops up in the reflection scenes and the audience is allowed to see the make up of this man who is being eulogized in the play. The audience develops an empathy toward the narrator as his seems to never get his way, whether it is traveling to the Wisconsin Dells or making his parents believe that his sister stole his arrow head. Dad is seen as a bit of an antagonist to Don throughout most of the play, but by the end of the comedy the audience and Don have come to understand and appreciate Dad for all of his foibles and qualities. The few actors who play the other parts in the play can absolutely steal the show. These characters vary from a cook and waitress to a farmer and his wife. The play is so successful because it artfully weaves the story of a family. A son who longed to get away from Winterset, Iowa (the home of the Duke) only to come back and appreciate the wonderful and sometimes tortuous family vacations. Watching this play is like looking in a mirror. The audience sees their own parents or children in the characters. Most people can relate to fighting with a sibling in the car or driving parents crazy with that exact same squabbling. This is the beauty of "Leaving Iowa" it is a tale of the everyman, but it is a tale that is entertaining and thoughtful at the same time.
Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"..."Leaving Iowa" has genuine charm and humility. It knows what it is -- a simply structured homegrown comedy and a celebration of the oft-unappreciated parenting skills of the so-called Greatest Generation -- and it lives as happily in its own warm skin as an ear of corn ripening along Interstate 80 on an August afternoon."- Chris Jones
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...You don't have to be the child of a small-town Iowa couple living in the midst of hog farms and cornfields to identify with everything about "Leaving Iowa," the simultaneously hilarious and touching play by Tim Clue and Spike Manton."- Hedy Weiss
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"... And beyond the somewhat cliched premise is the son's genuine sense of mourning, for his father, for his childhood, and for our nation's loss of its heartland to chain stores and parking lots. Try as you might not to be manipulated into nostalgic twinges, don't be surprised if Leaving Iowa gets you in the end." - Kim Wilson
ChicagoCritic - Recommended
"...Leaving Iowa grows on you as it meanders its way into your heart. If you stay with the show, the many repetitive car scenes, Leaving Iowa ultimately satisfies as a ‘feel good’ comedy. " - Tom Williams