A legacy of theater, drama and plays

Ruth Winkler reflects on her time directing plays in the community

PLAINS – “If you see me doing another play, you’ll know miracles exist. And I believe in miracles.”

That’s how Ruth Winkler summarized her career in a nut shell. Winkler, who is now terminally ill, has been writing, producing and directing plays in Sanders County for 24 years.

The passion for plays has been with Winkler since the beginning. She said she has been producing plays since she was old enough to talk. Growing up, Winkler remembers directing her brothers and the neighbor kids in fairy tales. It was a popular past time for her and has deep family roots.

“It goes way back. My grandma used to do the same thing and my mom was always entertaining and doing little monologue stories at church or other functions,” Winkler said.

The love of drama spanned to her children as well. Two of her daughters majored in drama and have gone on to write and produce some of their original works.

Four years ago, Winkler was diagnosed with colon cancer. That cancer has now spread throughout her body and into her pelvic bone.

Although no time limit has been given, Winkler said the doctors said she had a zero percent chance without chemotherapy – a treatment Winkler has opted out of.

After organizing the Easter play for the Clark Fork Valley Christian Co-op, members of the audience asked whether or not this would be Winkler’s last play. But her very passion for drama continues to motivate Winkler to carry on, to one more play, and maybe another one after that.

“If I can’t get up and do (plays), I might as well be dead,” Winkler said. “Whatever it takes for me to struggle out of that bed and get down there.”

Winkler said the time with the kids helps heal her. It’s a time where the pain isn’t as bad and a time where her imagination can help put together a play she has envisioned.

“You get involved with the kids and you don’t feel the pain anymore,” Winkler said. “You are laughing all the time, and that’s good for the cancer, too.”

Winkler got her start putting on plays in Sacramento, California. After relocating to Paradise in 1987, she realized there was a lack of drama and music in the school system, something she was determined to change.

Winkler volunteered to be the music teacher and also took over the production of the annual Paradise School’s Christmas play.

Once her kids had moved on from the school, Winkler thought that would be the end of her career. However, the love she developed for the kids along the way kept her producing play after play.

“By the time my kids were done in Paradise, I was so involved in all the other kids,” Winkler said. “Watching them become what they can become, that’s the best.”

She continued to work with the kids, harnessing a talent from her pupils that kept her thriving. She later branched out and started to put on plays at church and throughout the community as well.

During her career, Winkler said she has put together hundreds and hundreds of plays – something she is not ready to give up on.

In the fall, Winkler plans to put together a play with the co-op once again called Twelve Dancing Princesses. The play is one of her favorites from childhood and she hopes to start producing it in the fall, if all goes well.

“I’ll keep doing it till my dying day because I love it,” Winkler said.

Winkler is in the phases of planning what she calls her last production – her funeral. Although she hopes there is plenty of time before she has to pull out the stops for one last performance, she already has a handful of songs she wants her grandkids, as well as past actors in her plays, to perform.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow, The Second Star to the Right and A Whole New World are on the list. Most of the songs come from fairy tales, something she credits to her love of plays.

“That’s what I love about fairy tales. There’s a place you can go to that’s better than it is here and that’s what I believe too, when you die. You go to a better place,” Winkler said.

In the land over the rainbow, the pain is gone and happiness thrives.

That happiness is still with Winkler, especially when she puts on a production. With plenty of oomph still in her mind, Winkler is motivated to continue on, producing play after play, ultimately leaving her mark on the communities of Sanders County with her theatrical performances.