Acting coach Andie Peterson (at left) and choreographer Colby Schwartzwalter lead an ensemble from “The Little Mermaid.” Both were part of the program as students. (Photo/Scott Brusven.)

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

Colby Schwartzwalter danced in his first Gooseberry Park Players show in 2009, when he was a freshman at Moorhead High School. Eleven-year-old Andie Peterson started three years later. 

After four summers with the summer troupe, both went on – Colby to study communications and dance at the University of Duluth, and Andie (after four more summers with Trollwood) to the musical theater performance program at Baldwin Wallace University in Ohio.

And now they’re back at home, Colby in Moorhead and Andie in West Fargo, sharing everything they learned on the Gooseberry stage with another generation of young performers. The 47 young performers they teach in the performing arts center at Horizon Middle School are the latest contingent to spend their summer mastering acting, singing and dancing.

After two months of education, direction and relentless rehearing, the Gooseberry troupe debuts its 42nd summer musical next week. Performances of “Disney’s The Little Mermaid” are scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, July 22-26, and 2 p.m. Saturday, July 27.

Colby has been part of the company’s artistic staff since graduating from MHS in 2014. “I assisted to choreographer Karly Pierce, who had mentored me in high school,” he says. Named head choreographer in 2018, he continued his role throughout college, then between seasons in professional theater with the Duluth Playhouse and Norshore Theater. Since returning to his home town, he has designed and directed dancers in Moorhead High musicals, where he also coaches speech.

Andie is spending her first summer as an acting coach with the Gooseberry Park Players. She graduated from West Fargo High School in 2019 and from Baldwin Wallace’s highly competitive program in 2023. She divided the past year between the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival’s “Little Shop of Horrors” and performing on board the Disney Cruise Line.

Colby and Andie have spent every weekday this summer with the Gooseberry troupe’s 47 performers, 12 technicians and 12 musicians. The program is open to young people from age 11 through 18. Unlike other summer theater programs, there is no charge for the students who enroll. Though it has been based here since 1983, when Ann Vander Maten produced its first show outdoors in Gooseberry Mound Park, the program is an independent nonprofit unaffiliated with the school system. Players are recruited from Moorhead, Fargo and West Fargo, as well surrounding communities – a total of 20 schools over the years.

Colby credits his years of performing with the local summer theater for solidifying his love of dance. “I learned a lot from Karly. I realized how much I enjoyed dance, and I stuck with it. It’s weird to say, but I fell into it, and I just kept going. Now it’s interesting to be on this side of things, directing these talented kids. They remind me of myself 10 years ago.”

Andie agrees. Her experience, until now, has been out front in the spotlight as a vocalist and actor. “This is my first opportunity to work on an artistic staff,” she says. “Coming from the performing side, this has made me realize that my talents can be applied on both sides of the table. I bring a performer’s perspective when I coach the cast. It’s cool to be on the teaching side.”

She reflects on how the summer program shaped her dreams. “After high school, I didn’t really believe I could do this. I was afraid. It looked really hard. Now, I can encourage other kids who think the same thing. I can tell them, ‘I know you can do it,’ because I’ve been there myself.

“Success in theater comes down to being a good human being … learning to collaborate with and appreciate others. Theater is the best place in the world to make friends with like-minded people. It’s friendship. It’s fun. It’s challenging, mentally and physically. At the end, though, the pay-off is huge. You get to share something you love with a whole community.”