Mary Lee Hoganson didn’t intend to audition for a role in the Drama Group’s production of Sound of Music in 1969. She was teaching at Bloom High School and was working with students on an upcoming production. The Drama Group was in an adjacent room conducting auditions. When Mary Lee auditioned, she got a lead role.
to The Drama Group. (Marilyn Thomas/H-F Chronicle)
It’s 50-plus years later, and Mary Lee and her husband Russ of Homewood are still involved with the Drama Group, a community theater group based in Chicago Heights. Mary Lee has starred in and directed for numerous productions, and Russ is great at designing sets and taking on other tasks.
The couple married while attending the University of Iowa. She graduated and got a job teaching theater at Bloom High School. She’d danced as a child and teenager and had always been interested in musicals, but at the time the university didn’t have training for that type of theater. The Drama Group satisfied her desires to perform.
While she was teaching at Bloom, Russ joined the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. Mary Lee was in the Drama Group’s first production of “Fiddler on the Roof,” and Russ was helping build the set for the production on the stage of Bloom High.
Then Russ got his draft notice and shipped off to Viet Nam. Mary Lee went back to Iowa and got a degree in school counseling. When Russ was discharged, they returned.
“I think the big reason we settled in the South Suburbs was the Drama Group. For me coming back, it was a draw and Russ’s folks were in Park Forest and he finished his degree at Lewis (University) in social justice,” she recalled.
He was rehired by the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. He had various positions in the office during a 34-year career, but the one he’s most remembered for is as Flying Officer Russ giving traffic reports on WGN-TV.
Mary Lee took a theater teacher job and transitioned to a counseling position at the University of Chicago Lab School. She worked there for 27 years. Upon her retirement, she got hired by Homewood-Flossmoor High School to establish its college counseling office. When she left H-F, she was elected the president of the National Association of College Counselors serving from 2005-2009.
Over all the years, The Drama Group has never lost its appeal for the couple. Mary Lee remembers she was directing a play when she learned she was pregnant with their son, Jonathan. They can tick off shows they’ve been involved in, “Sweet Charity,” “You Can’t Take It With You,” “Show Boat,” “Ragtime,” and they recall dozens of other plays and musicals.
At the University of Iowa, Russ had taken theater courses and had an interest in the tech side. That’s where The Drama Group uses his talents.
“I came down (in 1974 for “Can’t Take It With You”) with all these plans rather than these little sketches everyone was used to, not very detailed. I had given them plans of the entire piece with steps on how to build it, all drawn out. It looked overwhelming, but it was just doors and windows and stairs and walls. After that, I got a call every once in a while to come help design the set and then it was more and more over the years.”
Even in retirement, they have dedicated much of their time to the Drama Group. Productions transitioned from Bloom High to The Drama Group’s Milord Studio Theater, 330 202nd St. in Chicago Heights. Russ helped design the seating risers giving each guest a good view of the stage.
In 2022, Mary Lee directed “Crowns” in May and “The Christmas Schooner” in December. In November 2023, she got invited to be on a play reading committee and she is assistant director for “Ain’t Misbehavin’” set for the stage in February.
Mary Lee was the first woman to serve as The Drama Group board president. She was re-elected for a second term. The Hogansons recognize that The Drama Group is changing. They say it’s for the better.
They aren’t retiring, but they are happy to see new faces taking on major roles and leadership positions.
“Between COVID and Black Lives Matter, the culture of theater changed dramatically because of that. Both Russ and I have been huge proponents of making the group more diverse, more eclectic and bringing in different voices to tell their story,” Mary Lee said.