Thank you, Linda!

 

Flatwater Shakespeare announces the retirement of Linda Zinke, longtime Operations Manager 

 

The Flatwater Shakespeare family must announce that another long time and beloved member of our staff is stepping away from official duties. Linda Zinke, who has been the Operations Manager for seven years, will be retiring. She started out doing short term work helping with grant writing and financial reports, but Linda’s non-profit expertise and financial acumen made her an incredible asset for the company as it has grown. FSC has benefitted greatly from her steady hand, energetic work ethic, and skilled piloting of everyday operations, and it will be hard to fill the role she will leave open. 

Linda had been a long-time supporter of FSC and had a special place in her heart for the shows on which her daughter Michelle had worked. She has been a part of the transition through new Executive Artistic Directors, guiding them through learning the funding processes and nuts and bolts of the company. Of late, she has been helping our new EAD, Marshall Carby, to get oriented before she steps away. Luckily for FSC, Linda’s lifelong passion has been working for Non-Profit Organizations. She worked with Head Start for several years as a Social Services/Parent Involvement Coordinator, and later a Program Director and Early Head Start Director. This work also led to her spending several years as a federal reviewer and assessor of Head Start programs around the country. She moved on from Head Start to be the Executive Director of the Nebraska Association for the Education of Young Children. On top of all of these jobs, she has worked as an adjunct professor at Bellevue University for 20 years. She currently teaches a Master’s level intro class on Sustainable Funding for Nonprofits. FSC can vouch that those students have an excellent teacher.  

Surprisingly, Linda has said that she did not have a lot of background in Shakespeare -- she is not even sure they read much Shakespeare in her small-town Nebraska high school. When she started coming to Flatwater performances, she was not even she would understand the shows. However, she says she grew to love Shakespeare through the quality of FSC productions and their unique ability to connect with the audience. In her many years of watching shows, she also has a few that she highlights as favorites. While she does not always love The Taming of the Shrew, given its content, she recalls the Melissa Lewis and George Hansen production as a stand-out. Her second favorite production was Hamlet with Matt Lukasiewicz in the title role. She was impressed that even with several viewings, the performance always moved her. She also recalls the 2019 Macbeth as an amazing show. 

Linda has been very proud to be a key part of Flatwater Shakespeare’s growth and evolution over the past seven years. She notes that getting to meet and know so many of the regular patrons is a key perk of her time with the company. But she won’t miss many of the long hours that production runs involved, especially as she commutes from Omaha. She is looking forward in her retirement to having more time for family and friends, and to getting out on the links and going to concerts more. In 2021, she also became a Master Gardener and is looking forward to spending some hours playing in the dirt. We hope everything comes up just beautifully for Ms. Linda. Thank you.