{"id":455751,"date":"2025-05-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=455751"},"modified":"2025-05-23T13:45:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T13:45:57","slug":"toppers-winner-represents-both-hohenfels-ansbach-army-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=455751","title":{"rendered":"TOPPERs winner represents both Hohenfels, Ansbach Army communities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n WIESBADEN, Germany — Alyssa Brown, third from right, accepts the outstanding play award during the April 26, 2025 TOPPERs award at U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden. Her team won the award for the play “Orphans.” Tommy Mize, right, director of Installation Management Command – Europe, presented the prize. (U.S. Army photo by Dane Winters, U.S. Army Europe Entertainment Branch)
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\n USAG BAVARIA – HOHENFELS, Germany — Alyssa Brown, branch manager for Service Credit Union in the U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria – Hohenfels community, holds up her TOPPER award, which she earned for her work on the Ansbach Terrace Playhouse production of Lyle Kessler’s “Orphans.” Brown has volunteered with the Ansbach Terrace Playhouse, commuting more than an hour each way during productions. (U.S. Army photo by Bryan Gatchell, USAG Bavaria Public Affairs)
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USAG BAVARIA \u2013 HOHENFELS, Germany \u2013 During the 2025 TOPPERs Awards, which recognizes theatrical excellence throughout Installation Management Command \u2013 Europe, a bank manager at U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria \u2013 Hohenfels took home three awards for her work at USAG Ansbach.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheater gives you so many important life skills,\u201d she said. \u201cFrom a practical perspective, there\u2019s public speaking, there\u2019s thinking on your feet, there\u2019s working collaboratively with a team. And then from a not-so-practical perspective, there\u2019s just something that\u2019s 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 \u2026 just for the joy of theater, art and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the average person, the time commitment to a full-fledged show is usually the biggest hurdle,\u201d Brown said. \u201cBeing in a community with no theater, there has been the additional hurdle of the commute.\u201d<\/p>\n

As rehearsals ramped up, Brown had to commit to the play \u2013 and also to the drive \u2013 every weekday as well as the weekends when they finally performed the play. The work, however, paid off.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

While there is no formal theatrical program at Hohenfels, Brown said that should not hold anyone back.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheater doesn\u2019t have to be massive with glitz and glam,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s value in \u2018black box theater,\u2019 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 \u2013 and to an extent, we like the spectacle \u2013 but at its core it doesn\u2019t have to be all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For photos from the 2025 TOPPERs, visit https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/136268426@N03\/albums\/72177720325733066.<\/p>\n

To learn about the TOPPERs-winning USAG Bavaria theater program, visit the link here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To learn more about the Terrace Playhouse at USAG Ansbach, visit the link here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 \/ 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption \u2013 WIESBADEN, Germany — Alyssa Brown, third from right, accepts the outstanding play award during the April 26, 2025 TOPPERs award at U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden. Her team won the award for the play “Orphans.” Tommy Mize, right, director of Installation Management Command – Europe, presented the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455753,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-455751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=455751"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":455756,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455751\/revisions\/455756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/455753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=455751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=455751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=455751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}