Star City Film and Theater Festival’s 10th season finds permanent home in Three Dolphins Theater in Waukon; Event scheduled for September 25-26

Mike McAbee to perform Saturday night

by Julie Berg-Raymond

Katie O’Regan Films LLC has announced the 2026 Star City Film and Theater Festival is Friday and Saturday, September 25 and 26. This year marks the 10th season of the festival and the first time it will be held in its new, permanent home - Three Dolphins Theater, located at 501 3rd Street SW in Waukon.

Highlights of the 2026 festival include a live musical performance by the popular Iowa-based singer-songwriter and comedian, Mike McAbee, featuring a set-list of original tunes; and a Q&A session, live from Hollywood via  Zoom, by 2026 Festival Guest of Honor Thaao Penghlis - who for many years portrayed Tony DiMera on “Days of Our Lives.” Penghlis is an award-winning actor, author, and creator/host of the new podcast: “The Great Escape - Journey of Mary & Joseph.”

The festival also includes 12 films - featuring talk-backs with attending filmmakers; a staged reading from “The Dream Café Musical” - a comedic love story for the whole family, written by Katie O’Regan and read by O’Regan and McAbee and others; and a Friday night light meal, a Saturday morning breakfast and an evening meal prepared by barbecue chef Dave Mikkelsen. For attendees who will not be eating, admission to the rest of the festivities is free - these attendees should call 563-419-4490 to reserve a place in the theater.

SOME FILM FESTIVAL HISTORY
O’Regan initiated the film festival in Spring Grove, MN in 2020. The festival featured an independent film called “Senior Entourage,” directed by L.A.-based artist Brian Connors. One of the stars of that film was multiple award-winning actor, the late Ed Asner - who came to Spring Grove as the inaugural film festival’s Guest of Honor. The second film festival was held in Caledonia, MN. Actor-producer Daniel Baldwin was a Guest of Honor of the festival, which included a screening of his award-winning documentary film, “My Promise to PJ.” His brother, Alec, was the other Guest of Honor and did a Q&A with attendees via Zoom.

“For nine seasons, the festival lived on the road,” O’Regan says. “From Spring Grove and Caledonia to Sheboygan and beyond, it borrowed spaces in other towns, other venues.” Over 100 filmmakers have attended the festival through the years. “They didn’t just screen films and leave,” she says. “They ate together under tents. They grilled food in makeshift outdoor kitchens. They made friends with each other and sometimes worked with each other. Collaborations were born in folding chairs, not conference rooms. That’s what happens when the scale stays human.”

THREE DOLPHINS THEATER
A sweet story already involves what O’Regan calls the “tall, big, beautiful white shed” that is the Three Dolphins Theater.

While she was away for a few months in the fall of 2019 - in New York City acting, producing, and directing “Good Morning, Miss America,” a play by Phyllis Yes, off-Broadway - O’Regan’s father, Francis, hired local contractors to build a big shed on the double lot next door to his house.

“He said he only built it because he needed a place to park one of his tractors,” O’Regan recalls. But he knew she would buy it. “When I came back, Daddy told me, ‘The theater is getting built. If you buy this from me when I’m gone you can make it into a theater. And I’ll be sitting in the third row.’”

Francis passed away in 2023. His daughter bought the property, just as he said she would. “It took me three years, but I got the cement poured and the curtains hung by July 9, 2025,” she says. “The projector came next; then the chairs; then the sound.”

The Three Dolphins Theater - named for the three dolphins on the O’Regan family crest - has 50 seats, two stages, a projector, and the set-up for recording O’Regan’s new podcast, “We’re Still Here!” (visit www.katieoregan.com to listen to her interviews with Mike McAbee and chef Dave Mikkelsen). “And it sounds better than it has any right to,” O’Regan says. “The theater has perfect acoustics and good lighting and film equipment.”

A 1969 D22 Winnebago sits in front of the theater, and it serves as a ticket booth. “There’s an outdoor kitchen, with food grilling,” O’Regan says. “A tent for meals and talks; a restroom in the 1865 house, and a porta-pottie outside. Street parking.”

And at the end of the third row, in pride of place, sit two recliners - in honor of O’Regan’s parents, Francis and Leona.

The Three Dolphins Theater is dedicated to her grandparents, Maurice and Mary O’Regan - and “to all the generations of O’Regans that came from Ireland to Hanover, Iowa (where I, too, was born), and to my beloved parents, Francis and Leona”(www.katieoregan.com).

“JACKPOT - AMERICA’S BIGGEST LOTTO SCAM”
Described at imdb.com as “[t]he story of the ‘Hot Lotto’ scandal, a $20 million fraud so ingenious it took more than a decade to unravel,” one of the 2026 festival’s featured films (showing Saturday at 10:30 a.m., following a breakfast of eggs, pancakes and coffee), “Jackpot - America’s Biggest Lotto Scam,” is “[t]old by the confounded state Lottery CEO and the brash, young investigator who dared to outwit his mysterious adversary” (imdb.com).

The “confounded state lottery CEO is Terry Rich (for O’Regan’s interview with him, visit her podcast “We’re Still Here!”); the “brash, young investigator” is Rob Sand, of Decorah, who is the State of Iowa Auditor and a gubernatorial candidate in Iowa.

MORE INFORMATION
For a complete schedule for the 2026 Star City Film and Theater Festival, including a list of films and links to their trailers, and more information, go to www.katieoregan.com.

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