SUNRISE - The oldest YMCA in the state of Wyoming, in Sunrise, was the setting for “Coming of Age at the Sunrise Y: 1917-1967” on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. The performance, funded by the Wyoming Humanities Council and the Wyoming Arts Council, and sponsored by the Platte County Historical Society, brought to life families who lived and worked at the mining town and for whom the YMCA was the center of their universe.

More than one hundred people enjoyed the performance that was headlined by teen actors Tracy Chamberlain, Chloe Holbrook, Karley Lehman, Karli Weinkauf and Kit Winter. Dawndrea Daly had two roles, a miner’s daughter and a ladies’ book club member. Rounding out the cast were Joe Reichardt, Kay Kuhlmann, Vic Soto, Ton Winter, Mark Delap and Stacey Reichardt. Their roles included YMCA Director Banty Wendel, a 1972 social studies teacher who came of age at the Y, her high school friend recently returned from Vietnam, the Y’s dance teacher, a newspaper editor, and leader of the ladies’ book club. Theresa Soto served as stage manager.

Written and directed by Kay Sebring-Roberts Kuhlmann (a Sunrise teen and Guernsey-Sunrise High School graduate), the script was created from original research and first-person accounts. She said, “I particularly focused on a story of teenagers who grew up in Sunrise, but that involved also writing about adults. Residents of various ages and ethnicities brought a variety of perspectives.”  She added, “We wanted to focus on this company-owned town whose residents had a unique sense of community ties. The audience witnessed their lives unfolding from the early 1900s and until 1972, five years after the mining company closed the YMCA.”

In preparation for the public performance, Kuhlmann held a dozen theater workshops for the cast at venues that included Soto Street Karaoke Fellowship, Dance Wyoming, Guernsey Senior Center, Guernsey Public Library, and two sessions in Guernsey’s Gordon Davis Park. Individual cast members held rehearsals with Kuhlmann as their schedules permitted.

In capturing how the teen actors felt about participating as their earlier counterparts, Kuhlmann notes that, early on, a teen created a texting group. Among the texts she received were these: “How do you get to Sunrise? Because my BF is asking.”  “Thank you for having us. It was a blast!” and “Hey, would you mind if I put you down for a reference? What was your name again?” Upon receiving photos of her performance, a teen texted: “These are amazing!”  

Sunrise Historic and Prehistoric Preservation Society (SHAPPS) assisted with the set and lighting, lent costume pieces, prepared the performance venue to receive guests, and hosted an after-show reception, and Guernsey-Sunrise High School principal Liesl Sisson led the audience in a post-performance discussion.