(Le Mars) — It turns out it was the janitor who was responsible for the brief disappearance of the lunch lady during last evening’s Le Mars Chamber of Commerce Mystery Dinner Theater. Nearly 500 people attended the fun event that helped
raise money for the Le Mars Area Chamber of Commerce. The theme for the evening was set back in the 1950’s inside an elementary school. The decor resembled what you would find at an elementary school. The evening meal was also meant to take
back the attendees to their childhood days as Hy-Vee, the caterer, had trays that looked like those normally used for school lunches, and the servers were dressed like the old time school lunch employees. The janitor, portrayed by Tracy Wingert, started the play by telling the audience that he knows everything that happens at the school. Throughout the play, the janitor would make brief appearances and talk about various things like the women’s bathroom was locked due to a backed-up toilet. There were a few inside jokes scattered throughout the
play, such as when student Donald, portrayed by Nathan Kass said on a couple of references that he would like to have a hotdog, rather than what was being served at the school lunch, and Tracey Wingert made a reference to a former Le Mars
Community School custodian, Loren Pageler. The students were portrayed by Jessica Brownmiller, Candice Nash-Farrer, Peggy Sitzmann, Mark Strub, Kelsey Langel, Kylie Petty, Micah Lang and Nathan Kass. The featured teachers were Julie Bietelspacher, Linda Mayrose, Jill Young, Jody Adler and the Physical Education teacher/coach was portrayed by Kevin Eekhof. Kevin Richards was the school’s principal, Teresa Petty was the P-T-A president, with the school secretary played
by Lu Langel, and Danna Schuster was the lunch lady. Rich Ziettlow, Allyn Anderson and Jeff Neary provided some musical interludes for the play. The play was locally written by Dave Grosenheider, Rich Ziettlow, and Mary Reynolds.
