BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2022 A3
LOCAL & STATE
Returning to the stage — finally
Holcomb
Continued from Page A1
Duggan had requested the des-
ignation of a section of Highway
86, which runs through Holcomb’s
hometown of Richland, as a Fallen
Hero Memorial Highway, Bates
wrote in his email.
The first step in that process
is having the Oregon Legislature
pass a concurrent resolution hon-
oring the person for whom the
highway section would be dedi-
cated.
Owens introduced that resolu-
tion, which was scheduled for a
reading in the House on Monday,
Feb. 21.
Owens said he was pleased to
introduce the resolution and to
support Duggan’s proposal to
honor Holcomb.
Bates also testified in favor of
the resolution on Feb. 15 during a
meeting of the House Rules Com-
mittee.
Holcomb is one of just 13 Ore-
gonians bestowed with the Medal
of Honor.
That medal, and Holcomb’s
other military medals, are dis-
played at the Baker County Court-
house, 1995 Third St. Holcomb’s
family offered the items to the
county for public display in 2014.
Holcomb Park, the county park
on Brownlee Reservoir near Rich-
land, was named for John Hol-
comb and dedicated on July 4,
1993.
Holcomb, who was born on
June 11, 1946, in Baker City, grad-
uated from Eagle Valley High
School at Richland in 1964.
President Richard Nixon
awarded Holcomb’s Medal of
Honor to his parents, George and
Wadean Holcomb, in 1971 in
Washington, D.C.
Holcomb was killed during a
firefight in which, according to
the citation that accompanied his
Medal of Honor, he demonstrated
“indomitable will and courage
after his unit was attacked from
three sides.”
When the machine-gunner in
Holcomb’s squad was hurt, Hol-
comb “seized the weapon, ran to
a forward edge of the position,
and placed withering fire on the
enemy. His gallant actions caused
the enemy to withdraw.”
After the first attack, Holcomb
carried several of his wounded
comrades to a safer spot.
Holcomb manned the machine
gun again and repulsed a second
enemy attack, but a rocket ex-
ploded near his position, destroy-
ing the machine gun and wound-
ing Holcomb. The enemy artillery
also ignited a grass fire.
Even after he was wounded,
Holcomb “crawled through a
grass fire and exploding mortar
and rocket rounds to move the
members of his squad, every one
Kostol
Continued from Page A1
The cemetery was nothing but
dirt and sagebrush until 1987
when numerous volunteers from
throughout Baker County began
work to recognize the site.
The cemetery was dedicated
in 1992.
Virginia Kostol passed away in
December 2020 at the age of 94.
Her passion for family, friends
and community service is well-
known by those who knew her,
and her generosity will be felt by
many in Baker County for gener-
ations to come.
Regional
theaters begin
recovering after
pandemic
cancellations
experience in a darkened
theater. That communica-
tion between the actors and
the audience, there’s nothing
that compares to that. We’re
striving to get back to that as
soon as possible even if we
have to take strange precau-
tions to be able to do it. It’s
worth it. “
In Baker City, Eastern Or-
egon Regional Theatre has
presented a few shows — the
children’s theater presented
“Jungle Book” in the fall of
2021, and “Pride@Prejudice”
wrapped up a two-weekend
run Feb. 20.
“Because theater is
known as collaborative
art, it was one of the few
art forms almost totally
shut down during the pan-
demic,” said Abby Den-
nis, EORT artistic director.
“Since our art form requires
being around others, the-
ater people were completely
cut off from being able to
work through the over-
whelming emotions from
the past two years.”
Bemrose said seeing a
show come together is the
greatest reward of theater,
along with how accom-
plished the cast and crew
feel. Hale said it is the way
the performing arts bring joy
and life to those on and off
the stage.
“As a society, we focused
so much on being afraid
of death (in the pandemic)
that we stopped doing the
things that brought us joy,
the things that made us
alive,” Hale said. “One of
the best ways to celebrate
life is through the arts. If
people keep coming out,
we’ll keep doing it.”
Dennis said returning to
the stage is “bittersweet.”
“I love being able to en-
tertain my community, but
it hurts to think of every-
thing we’ve lost over the
past two years,” she said.
EORT’s 2022 schedule
includes “Women Play-
ing Hamlet,” “God of Car-
nage,” and the children’s
theater will present “The
Enchanted Bookshop” and
“Macbeth.”
In Pendleton, tickets are
still available for “Little
Women” for both week-
ends, Feb. 24-26 and March
3-5. For information, go to
www.elginoperahouse.com.
“It’s going to be an amaz-
ing show,” Marshall said.
“Come fall in love with
these sisters and have a
great night of theater again
— finally.”
BY JENNIFER COLTON
For EO Media Group
PENDLETON — When
“The Sound of Music” closed
on March 1, 2020, Pendle-
ton’s College Community
Theater expected to open its
next production in six weeks.
Instead, rehearsals at the Bob
Clapp Theatre would be can-
celed for two years.
“Little Women: The
Broadway Musical,” the
first Pendleton-based the-
ater production since the
coronavirus pandemic,
runs the next two week-
ends, Feb. 24-26 and March
3-5, in the theater on the
campus of Blue Mountain
Community College.
“When COVID hit, it was
really scary because nobody
knew what to expect,” said
Margaret Mayer, president of
the CCT board of directors.
“We had no idea it would
be two years, no one knew.
Here we are.”
Almost exactly two years
later (“Sound of Music”
opened Feb. 20, 2020; “Lit-
tle Women” opens Feb. 24,
2022), Mayer was back in the
theater as music director for
“Little Women.” Caitlin Mar-
shall is directing.
“The last two years have
been really stressful. Peo-
ple need something that can
take their minds off every-
thing,” Marshall said. “I re-
ally just feel it’s important to
keep some kind of normalcy
with all the chaos going on.”
That idea of normalcy has
prompted shows to come
back this month in Herm-
iston and La Grande, even
with COVID-19 impacts.
At Hermiston High School,
Jordan Bemrose brought to-
gether 70 students for per-
formances of “Beauty and
the Beast.”
“The biggest reason we
wanted to jump back into
live theater is mostly to give
these fantastic students
something exciting to look
forward to,” she said.
Bemrose added the per-
forming arts students are tal-
ented and hardworking and
need opportunities to shine.
“With online school, we
missed out on so many per-
formance opportunities that
now, being back in person,
we wanted to make up for
that loss of time,” she said.
“For many students, sing-
ing, acting and playing their
musical instruments is their
whole life and inspiration
and what they aspire to do as
careers after high school.”
With the lingering im-
pacts of COVID-19, the
Hermiston production re-
quired masks to rehearse on
stage and careful tracking to
John Noble Holcomb’s Medal of Honor.
of whom had been wounded, to
more secure positions.”
Then Holcomb crawled to a ra-
dio and reported the attack. His
report allowed other units to pin-
point fire on the area and defeat
the third and final attack.
On the occasion of Holcomb
Park’s dedication, Baker City Re-
altor Mike Nelson described Hol-
comb as “a man who exemplified
the ultimate plateau of human be-
havior.”
Prior to Veterans Day 2019,
Jimmy Robbins, a Florida sol-
dier who served in the same unit
with Holcomb in Vietnam — D
Company of the 2nd battalion,
7th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division
— said in an interview with the
Baker City Herald that Holcomb’s
heroism quite likely saved Rob-
bins’ life among many others that
December day.
A total of 23 American soldiers
were killed in the firefight, and 53
— Robbins among them — were
wounded.
Robbins, who lives in Alabama,
said that although he wasn’t a
close friend with Holcomb, he en-
joyed spending time with the Ore-
gon soldier.
“You could tell how he cared
about people,” Robbins said.
He remembers in particular
that Holcomb once shared with
him and other soldiers the home-
made jerky and elderberry wine
that his grandfather had sent from
Baker County.
Baker County’s other Fallen Hero
Memorial Highway
In 2015 the Oregon Legisla-
ture designated a section of Ore-
gon Highway 7 near Baker City as
“Mabry Anders Memorial High-
way” in honor of the Baker City
soldier who was killed in Afghani-
stan on Aug. 27, 2012, at age 21.
The bill designates Milepost 36,
near Phillips Reservoir, in honor
of Anders.
“We are so grateful to Virginia
and the Kostol family for a won-
derful gift of historical preser-
vation,” Savage said. “We look
forward to honoring Virginia
and her commitment to this im-
portant chapter in Baker County’s
history.”
The Chinese Cemetery is
owned by the Chinese Consoli-
dated Benevolent Society of Port-
land. The Baker County Histor-
ical Society is charged with its
care and community education
efforts.
To date, thousands of local vol-
unteer hours have been dedicated
to preservation of this heritage
cemetery.
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group, File
Eastern Oregon University students rehearse “We’ve Got Your
Number” on Jan. 26, 2022. After a delay due to COVID-19 cases
among the cast, performances are set for Feb. 25 and 26 at
McKenzie Theatre in La Grande.
avoid quarantine that could
cancel rehearsals — or per-
formances. That same fear
became a reality this month
for Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity’s “We’ve Got Your
Number,” a choreographed
choral performance. Several
students tested positive for
COVID-19, and the show
was postponed two weeks
to Feb. 25 and 26. That de-
lay pushed “A Gentleman’s
Guide to Love and Murder,”
a stage musical planned to
open March 10, into EOU’s
fall term.
“It’s exciting to be back
and yet it’s frustrating at
the same time. The biggest
problem with bringing the-
ater back is COVID is still
doing everything it can to
prevent it from coming
back,” said Ken Wheeler,
associate professor of the-
ater at EOU. “As much as
things are getting better
and we’re seeing the sun
at the end of the storm, it’s
still affecting it.”
For tickets to “We’ve Got
Your Number,” visit www.
eou.edu/music.
Returning to the stage
during a pandemic requires
flexibility and creativity.
When the pandemic hit,
the Elgin Opera House’s
spring 2020 production of
“Matilda” was only weeks
away from opening. Instead
of opening that March, the
show was postponed for a
year and a half.
In between, the Opera
House tried outdoor pro-
ductions as well as a fully re-
corded production of “High
School Musical Jr.” During
this musical, rehearsed in
the winter of 2021, actors
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since 1948 — with a $4
million state grant and $4
Continued from Page A1
million from the district’s
capital budget.
staff generally preferred
The district will use the
to lose two days of winter money to build an esti-
break rather than two
mated 5,000-square-foot
days of summer break, to cafeteria/kitchen/multi-
accommodate the later
purpose building on the
start to the school year,
Baker Middle School cam-
according to the district
pus, and replace the leak-
press release.
prone roof at South Baker.
For the 2022-23 school
A public open house to
year, the last day of school review the proposed de-
for students at the Baker
sign for the BMS building
Early Learning Center,
is set for Tuesday, Feb. 22,
Haines Elementary, and
at 5:30 p.m. at the school,
South Baker Intermediate Fourth Street and Wash-
will be June 6, 2023, while ington Avenue. COVID
the last day of school for
protocols, including
students at the other dis-
face coverings, will be
trict schools will be June
followed.
8, 2023.
Other projects in-
All schools will begin
clude:
the 2023-24 school year on
• Replacing heat-
Sept. 5, 2023, and end on ing, cooling and ven-
June 6, 2024. Winter break tilation systems in
will begin for everyone on all district schools —
Dec. 20, 2023, two days
Baker High School
later than usual.
(main gym, small
The district added the
gym and auditorium),
$4 million from the bond Baker Middle School,
measure — the first dis-
South Baker, Brook-
trict voters had approved lyn, Haines, Keating
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were split into cohort groups
that rehearsed and recorded
on different days with no
live audience.
“When we announced we
were recording ‘High School
Musical,’ we thought we’d get
just a few people audition,”
said Terry Hale, Elgin Opera
House executive artistic di-
rector. “We had 70 or 80 kids
from five different counties.
That’s how important this is.”
Hermiston High School
also saw large participation
numbers with “Beauty and
the Beast,” a show they’ve
been rehearsing since the
middle of November.
“(I wish people knew)
how hard these students
work and how much time,
effort and talent are needed
to put a full show together,”
Bemrose said. “It takes weeks
to learn lines, music, chore-
ography, organize props and
set, and get all of the moving
pieces together, including
the orchestra, who rehearse
separately and join us during
our dress rehearsal week. We
rehearse at least two hours
after school during our pro-
duction months, and dress
rehearsal week we rehearse
after school four to five
hours finalizing everything.”
Those hundreds of hours
do not include the extra
pandemic struggle of re-
hearsing with masks or re-
turning to the stage after a
two-year hiatus.
“Everyone is out of
practice with the pro-
cess, but we’ll work at
overcoming those hand-
icaps just so we can put
the show on,” Wheeler
said. “There’s nothing
that beats a live shared
and Baker Early Learning
Center (formerly North
Baker).
• Upgrading security
and access control at all
schools, including im-
proved security cameras,
fire alarms and public ad-
dress systems, as well as
key card systems and door
sensors to control access.
The district will also cre-
ate secure entry vestibules
at Brooklyn and South
Baker.
More information
about the bond projects is
available at www.bakersd-
bond.org/.
Lisa Britton of the
Baker City Herald
contributed to this story.
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