Photo By Bryan Gatchell | USAG BAVARIA - HOHENFELS, Germany -- Alyssa Brown, branch manager for Service Credit...... read more read more
USAG BAVARIA – HOHENFELS, Germany – During the 2025 TOPPERs Awards, which recognizes theatrical excellence throughout Installation Management Command – Europe, a bank manager at U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria – Hohenfels took home three awards for her work at USAG Ansbach.
Alyssa Brown, branch manager for Service Credit Union at Hohenfels, earned outstanding direction for the play "Orphans" at the Ansbach Terrace Playhouse; earned outstanding set design, an award she shared with Nina Kladnik; and earned outstanding play, which she shared with the entire cast and crew.
Brown, who must commute a long way for her second and voluntary gig, has found working in the Ansbach theater program, based out of Bleidorn Kaserne, to be both professionally and personally rewarding.
“Theater gives you so many important life skills,” she said. “From a practical perspective, there’s public speaking, there’s thinking on your feet, there’s working collaboratively with a team. And then from a not-so-practical perspective, there’s just something that’s incredibly fulfilling about it, about working with other people who are just as passionate about a project as you, to be able to create art, not for monetary gain … just for the joy of theater, art and the community.”
Brown’s involvement with the Terrace Playhouse began in adolescence. She first came to Ansbach as a dependent in 2011 and began volunteering with the theater program then. When her parents permanently changed station back to the U.S., she got a job with Morale, Welfare and Recreation, and she continued to volunteer at the playhouse. As much as she extols the values of the performing arts, she says it is not for everyone.
“For the average person, the time commitment to a full-fledged show is usually the biggest hurdle,” Brown said. “Being in a community with no theater, there has been the additional hurdle of the commute.”
As rehearsals ramped up, Brown had to commit to the play – and also to the drive – every weekday as well as the weekends when they finally performed the play. The work, however, paid off.
The Ansbach production of the play received a further three awards in two categories. Spc. Stephen Wilke earned outstanding military performance in a male role in a play, and Emil Navarrete and Sgt. Marco Contreras tied for outstanding lead performance in a male role in a play.
The play "Orphans," whose book was written by Lyle Kessler, is about two young brothers, one who turns to a life of crime and the other who is sheltered due to a perceived illness. The criminal brother kidnaps a mobster, who sees much of himself in the two brothers.
While there is no formal theatrical program at Hohenfels, Brown said that should not hold anyone back.
“Theater doesn’t have to be massive with glitz and glam,” she said. “There’s value in ‘black box theater,’ getting a group of people together to just read plays, or just playing improv games. I think that people think that theater needs to be this big spectacle – and to an extent, we like the spectacle – but at its core it doesn’t have to be all of that.”
For photos from the 2025 TOPPERs, visit https://www.flickr.com/photos/136268426@N03/albums/72177720325733066.
To learn about the TOPPERs-winning USAG Bavaria theater program, visit https://grafenwoehr.armymwr.com/bavariaperformingarts.
To learn more about the Terrace Playhouse at USAG Ansbach, visit https://ansbach.armymwr.com/programs/terrace-playhouse-theater.
| Date Taken: | 05.23.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.23.2025 04:00 |
| Story ID: | 498797 |
| Location: | HOHENFELS, BAYERN, DE |
| Hometown: | ANSBACH, BAYERN, DE |
| Web Views: | 17 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, TOPPERs winner represents both Hohenfels, Ansbach Army communities, by Bryan Gatchell, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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