Here Is a Play Fitted!

The Flatwater Shakespeare Company production of A Midsummer Night's Dream has its initial run at the Lincoln Community Foundation Gardens, 14th and N Streets, June 9-26. Here you may read the names of the actors, and so grow to a point.

Theseus/ Oberon: Darin Hemmer
Hippolyta/ Titania: Catherine Coffey
Egeus: Paul Pearson
Lysander: Rob Burt
Demetrius: Peter Swanke
Hermia: Petrea Whittier
Helena: Maggie Austin
Puck/Philostrate: Mike Lee
Peter Quince: Robie Hayek
Nick Bottom: Eric Ojeda
Francis Flute: Nate Ruleaux
Tom Snout: Andy Dillehay
Snug: Tom Bolin
Robin Starveling: Josh Woolery
1st Fairy/Peaseblossom: Jessie Tidball
Cobweb: Sydney Ray
Moth: Jennifer Holm
Mustardseed: Madison Smith
Oberon Henchman: Jordan Deffenbough
Oberon Henchman: Cory Misek

Stayed tuned for more information about this show -- and its city-wide tour!

(Photo: Statue of Puck -- with famous quotation -- at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC.)

Audience Comments for Angels in America (Two Shows Remain!)

Angels in America is one of Bob Hall's best efforts as a director.

Perfectly cast, beautifully performed . . . If you want to see QUALITY theater in Lincoln, you need to support it.

This is one of Bob Hall's best efforts, with a fantastic cast and, of course, great material to work with. Everyone should see it!

This a great show! Treat yourself and check it out!

I was on the edge of my chair the whole time. Do yourself a huge favor and see this show. I'm already planning on seeing it again.

Caught Angels in America last night. It took my breath away. Thanks to cast and crew. Can't wait for part II.

Two more performances (until 2012, that is) --
tonight and Sunday at 7:30,
The Haymarket Theatre, 803 "Q" Street in Lincoln.
Call 402-477-2600.

(Photo: Nathan Weiss as Louis and Daniel Kubert as Belize in the Flatwater Shakespeare Company / Haymarket Theatre production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches. Photo Credit: Eric Gregory, Lincoln Journal Star)

Auditions for *A Midsummer Night's Dream* This June and July

This is for our summer out-of-doors presentation, running three weekends, Thursdays through Sundays, June 9 - June 26 at Lincoln Community Foundation Gardens. Then we tour a condensed version: eight performances in various Lincoln parks, Thursdays through Sundays, June 30 – July 10. Actors get $400.

Auditions 6:30 – 8:30, Monday and Tuesday, April 4 & 5 - at The Haymarket Theatre, 803 Q St., Lincoln. Actors can present one or two brief monologues. Scenes from *Midsummer* will also be available. If you can not do these auditions, email Bob Hall at bob@bobhall.com.

Genuine, Three-Dimensional Depth

Angels in America still pricks our cultural conscience
Olive Bucklin, Lincoln Journal Star, April 1, 2011


Back in the 1980s, about the time Tony Kushner was creating his masterpiece play, I was working in Omaha with a colleague who was wasting away. The last time I greeted him in the hallway, I said, "Are you alright?" He said, "Yeah, just a cold." In a week, he was dead. I remember people not wanting to go into his office to pack up his things, afraid that his files might be contaminated. Then, there was the problem of his dog. Was it possible, someone whispered, that you could get AIDS from a dog?

Seeing the revival of Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America, the memory of my colleague came flooding back. I gulped down a tear at one point in this very affecting play.

Director Bob Hall has found a way to stage this gargantuan production (with 26 scene changes) in The Haymarket Theatre. In his director's statement, Hall says the play "changes your perception of the world: Not just the way you look at theater, but the way you look at life."

Flatwater Shakespeare and The Haymarket Theatre are presenting the play. The spectacular cast includes Mary Douglass (as Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz, Hannah Pitt and Ethel Rosenberg), Richard Nielsen (as Roy Cohn), Matt Lukasiewicz (as Joe Pitt and Eskimo), Summer Widhalm (as Harper Pitt and Sister Ella Chapter), Daniel Kubert (as Mr. Lies and Belize), Nathan Weiss (as Louis Ironson), Andy Dillehay (as Prior Walter and Man in the Park), Elizabeth Govaerts (as The Angel, Nurse Emily and Bag Lady), Dustin Witte (as Henry and Prior Walter the Fifth) and Tom Bolin (as Martin Heller and Prior Walter the Seventeenth).

Cast members created characters with genuine three-dimensional depth. The dense text was also very well rendered with surprising intimacy, anger and fear. Accents were also handled with both nuance and hilarious audacity. The actors also do some heavy lifting striking sets between scenes. With lights dimmed "Roy Cohn" grabs a desk. "Ethel Rosenberg" drags a set of chairs off stage. This is the charm of a small, handsome theater like the Haymarket.

Whether "Angels in America" stimulates intellectual "earthquakes" in audiences these days is hard to say. We have, over the years, wised up: Dogs can't give you AIDS. But what's so amazing about Kushner's epic seven-hour play (presented in two parts) is that it remains a part of our cultural conscience and still leaves you breathless.

Don't miss Part One at The Haymarket Theatre. And fasten your seatbelt for Angels in America Part Two: Perestroika, coming in April 2012.

Angels in America, Part One: Millenium Approaches continues through April 17 at The Haymarket Theatre, 803 Q Street, Lincoln. Call 402-477-2600 for tickets.

(Photo: Elizabeth Govaerts as the Angel, Andy Dillehay as Prior in the Flatwater Shakespeare Company / The Haymarket Theatre production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches. Photo Credit: Eric Gregory, Lincoln Journal Star)