Phyllis Schrag believes in the power of people and storytelling.
That belief has shaped her decades as a teacher, her years in community journalism and her leadership in the 30th annual Senior Variety Show, set for Aug. 14-15.
Schrag brings a teacher’s patience, a director’s eye and a community‑builder’s heart to a production that has grown into one of Ames’ most beloved traditions.
Phyllis Schrag is a teacher at heart
Schrag has spent her life helping people shine. She taught high school English and music in South Dakota, subbed in dozens of classrooms, worked in gifted education, taught underachieving readers and even led television and radio broadcasting courses.
“Not everybody learns in the same way,” she said, recalling how she taught future educators to build lesson plans around multiple intelligences.
Her classroom instincts still guide her. Working with performers 60 and older, she said, isn’t all that different from working with teenagers.
“Except when I was teaching high school, I could call their parent,” Schrag told the Ames Tribune. “Now I’m going to call their kid.”
She said it with a laugh, but the truth behind it is simple — she knows how to encourage the performers, how to keep them focused and how to help them shine.
“They’ve auditioned and they’ve committed,” she said. “They want to be doing what they’re doing.”
Phyllis Schrag is a community storyteller
Long before she directed a stage full of seniors, Schrag learned the value of human‑interest storytelling at the Freeman Courier, a small South Dakota newspaper.
That instinct for community is part of why she champions the Senior Variety Show and why she joined the show when she moved to Ames a decade ago.
Schrag promotes the show through interviews on KHOI Radio, including a recent conversation with a 90‑year‑old tap dancer.
Her philosophy is simple. People want to know about people, and the Senior Variety Show provides that with dozens of stories unfolding onstage.
Phyllis Schrag is a performer who understands the stage
Schrag’s directing is shaped not only by teaching and journalism but also by her on-stage experience.
She has performed in several productions, including her portrayal of Emily Dickinson in “The Belle of Amherst,” a demanding one‑woman show that deepened her understanding of character, pacing and emotional connection. Schrag has performed other one-woman shows, bringing to life Frances Perkins and Alice Roosevelt Longworth.
Those solo performances, holding an audience’s attention for an entire play, inform the way she coaches performers.
She knows how to help people inhabit a moment, how to make a stage feel alive and how to build a show that moves with purpose.
The Senior Variety Show’s cast is lifted by care
Schrag’s leadership is shaped by loss as well as experience. Her husband Larry Schrag died in 2025, just two weeks after performing in the variety show. He insisted on being part of it, even with a walker, oxygen and limited mobility.
Members of his quartet found an office chair with wheels so he could roll down the corridor and enter the stage without losing his breath.
“He willed himself to be in last year’s show,” Schrag said.
That memory fuels her commitment to create a welcoming show, whether for those with mobility challenges, performers who need extra time or residents who simply want to be part of something joyful.
Whether she’s coaching a dancer through a Brigadoon jig, guiding newcomers through a George and Gracie pre‑record or reminding performers to use stage makeup under bright spotlights, Schrag is doing what she has always done — lifting people up.
How to get tickets to the Senior Variety Show
The 30th annual Senior Variety Show will be held at 7 p.m., Friday, Aug. 14, and 2 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 15, at Ames City Auditorium.
Tickets are available at Worldly Goods, 60 Forward and Burgies North in Ames; at RSVP in Story City; and at Bricktown Bakery in Nevada. Tickets will also be available at the door if seats remain.
Net proceeds benefit local senior‑serving organizations. The show has contributed about $250,000 to Story County organizations that support older adults. This year’s grant recipients include Wreaths Across America, Ames Ecumenical Housing, Ames History Museum, Heart of Iowa Band and Seniors in Story.
The show’s purpose remains the same as it was in 1995. It’s about celebrating aging through the performing arts and celebrating the people who make that possible.
Ronna Faaborg covers business and the arts for the Ames Tribune. Reach her at rfaaborg@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Meet fabulous Phyllis Schrag, director of the 30th Senior Variety Show
Reporting by Ronna Faaborg, Ames Tribune / Ames Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ronna Faaborg, Ames Tribune | USA TODAY Network
