FLATWATER SHAKESPEARE ANNOUNCES 2011 SEASON

The Flatwater Shakespeare Company begins an exciting new chapter with its 2011 Season. The Company will explore new directions, reclaim an old favorite, and visit different venues while the Swan Theatre undergoes renovation. All three plays will be directed and designed by Bob Hall, Flatwater’s Artistic Director and a 2010 recipient of Nebraska’s Artist of the Year Award.

Angels in America, Part One -- Millennium Approaches opens the season as Flatwater Shakespeare joins forces with The Haymarket Theatre in its newly restored space at 803 Q Street. Part One of playwright Tony Kushner’s modern classic will be staged this spring, with Part Two following in 2012. This Pulitzer Prize-winning play chronicles the gay experience of 1980s America – pride, fear, courage, prejudice, all intensified by the AIDS crisis – with warm humor, savage wit, soaring imagination, heartbreak, and hope. The show runs March 31 through April 17.

William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is very possibly the most popular play ever written – since the time of its earliest performances, it has never left the stage and versions have been presented around the world. Flatwater will perform this fanciful romantic comedy at The Lincoln Community Foundation Gardens, on N Street near Centennial Mall in downtown Lincoln, continuing our tradition of open-air summer productions. The show runs June 9 through June 26. A youth production and a touring version will be also be staged this summer.

Othello, Shakespeare’s most intimate tragedy, bravely confronts themes that are both timeless and absolutely current – identity, racism, love, jealousy, loyalty, and betrayal. Its major roles are among the most demanding and exhilarating in the history of drama. Flatwater’s first-ever production of the play will be staged at the Lincoln Community Playhouse, 2500 S. 56^th Street. The show runs October 6 through October 23.

Flatwater Shakespeare looks forward to working with its partner organizations this season and to seeing both familiar and new faces at our alternative sites. For information about individual shows, call 402-473-2897 or visit us at www.flatwatershakespeare.org.

At the Top in Performing Arts

Flatwater Shakespeare productions and actors were well represented in Journal Star reporter Jeff Korbelik’s top picks for 2010.

In the Top Five Shows – Antony and Cleopatra, directed by Bob Hall, with a special tribute to the “electric chemistry” shared between Vince Learned and Melissa Lewis Nuss in the title roles.

In the Top Five Individual Performances – Melissa Lewis Nuss as our passionate and imperious Egyptian queen.

And in Three of only Four Honorable Mentions – Robie Hayek, “Lincoln’s best comedic actor,” as Launce in The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Bob Hall as Max, the irascible patriarch in Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming; and Gage Wallace in the title role of UNL’s Dylan but also noted for his work as Proteus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.


Photo: Vincent T. Learned and Melissa Lewis Nuss in the Flatwater Shakespeare Company production of Antony and Cleopatra. Photo Credit: John Nollendorfs.