KB or Not KB?

It’s Sir Patrick Stewart, KB (Knight Bachelor), now. The legendary Shakespearean actor, also famed for Star Trek: The Next Generation and numerous films, was on Her Majesty’s New Year’s Honours List for services to drama.

One memorable performance, of course, was on Sesame Street –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb4X2DuLisc

Another memorable performance will be aired on PBS later this year, with Stewart appearing as Claudius in the recent RSC production of Hamlet, featuring Doctor Who’s David Tennant in the title role. Stewart had previously played a televised Claudius in the BBC/Time-Life Shakespeare version with Derek Jacobi as Hamlet.

Also knighted was Nicholas Hytner, Artistic Director of the National Theatre in London.

Applause for 2009

Flatwater Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Swan was named one of the “Top Five Shows of 2009” by the Lincoln Journal Star, which noted the contributions of Melissa Lewis Nuss, Joel Story, and Robie Hayek – along with Bob Hall’s direction. The production also featured Becky Key Boesen and Sasha Dobson in the title roles and Dick Nielsen as the jealous Master Ford.

For Individual Performances, honorable mention went to Nathan Weiss as Algernon in the Flatwater / Haymarket Theatre co-production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.

Our associate artists, appearing in other contexts, almost swept the five “Top Individual Performances”: George Hansen (most recently Petruchio in 2008’s The Taming of the Shrew) in Nebraska Repertory’s The Drawer Boy; Melissa Lewis Nuss (Mistress Quickly in Merry Wives) in TADA’s Company; Sasha Dobson (Mistress Ford in Merry Wives) in Vino Veritas for the Nebraska Repertory; and Ryan Kathman (Parson Hugh in Merry Wives) in True West for the Angels Company.

Congratulations to all for an impressive year!

Photo: Becky Key Boesen as Mistress Page and Sasha Dobson as Mistress Ford in Flatwater Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. Photo by John Nollendorfs.