OCP Artistic Director Announces Departure

Omaha, NE.–After serving as artistic director for four-and-a-half years, Kimberly Faith Hickman has announced she is leaving her role at the Omaha Community Playhouse (OCP) at the end of 2020. Hickman plans to return to OCP in spring of 2021 as a guest director for the highly anticipated production of Willy Wonka and to teach for OCP’s Henry Fonda Theatre Academy.

Susan Baer Collins will serve as the interim artistic director upon Hickman’s departure until OCP completes a nation-wide search for the organization’s next artistic director. Baer Collins held various positions on staff at OCP from 1987 to 2014, most notably associate artistic director. She also served as an interim artistic director at OCP from 2015 to 2016.

“I am very proud of the programmatic, artistic and educational growth that has occurred at OCP during the last four-and-a-half years,” said Hickman. “I have collaborated with incredible people, both onstage and off, and the Omaha Community Playhouse staff is among some of the best that I have worked with in my 18 years of working in theatre. I look forward to those collaborations continuing in this new capacity.”

“Kimberly brought an enormous amount of creativity and passion to OCP over the last four years,” said Katie Broman, Executive Director. “She has contributed so much to our organization in many positive ways. We appreciate all of her hard work, and we wish her the absolute best in any and all future endeavors.”

Hickman joined the OCP staff in 2016 and quickly became a driving force in the organization. In addition to programming four seasons and directing 19 productions, Hickman established the OCP Directing Fellowship, a program that provides up-and-coming directors the opportunity to gain valuable directing experience. She worked with Autism Action Partnership to develop sensory-friendly performances, designed to create a welcoming environment for those with autism spectrum disorders, sensory sensitivities and other special needs to experience live theatre. She coordinated Spanish-translated performances, offering real-time translation services during popular productions via headset. Hickman also rebranded OCP’s existing education department as the Henry Fonda Theatre Academy.

OCP will commence a nation-wide search for the organization’s new artistic director. “We are committed to hiring an artistic director who is both exceedingly talented and passionate about leading OCP into our next 100 years of service to the Omaha community,” Broman said. “We will seek the most qualified candidates who share OCP’s values of inclusivity, artistic and educational impact, excellence, stewardship and community.”

“On Golden Pond” Opening at Maples Repertory Theatre

The fifteenth season of live professional plays at Maples Repertory Theatre continues with Ernest Thompson’s American classic, On Golden Pond, October 24 – November 4. A truly golden gem, On Golden Pond is a play for all ages. It explores with humor and wisdom the struggles of getting old, being the adult child of your parents and being twelve years old. The beauty of On Golden Pond is the empathy and understanding that it evokes for each of those stages of life.

On Golden Pond is the funny, poignant story of Norman and Ethel Thayer, who for 40 years have spent their summers at a lake house on Golden Pond in Maine. We watch as they experience the perilous journey into creaky joints, arthritis, forgetfulness and heart palpitations. This is the unique journey of a long wedded couple whose quiet, routine summer on the lake is disrupted when their daughter drops off her significant other’s teenage son. She asks that they keep this suburban teen so that she and her fiancé can spend quality time together on a European vacation. As most parents do, they agree to help out and so this wonderful coming of age tale begins.

Featured in the Maples Rep production are James Anthony and Judi Mann, a pair of actors who are married in real life. Playing their daughter, Chelsea, is Ashley Pankow, a Kansas City based actor who has been part of the Maples Rep Company several times. These three actors face the daunting challenge of stepping into roles made famous in the 1981 film version by Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn and Jane Fonda. In the intimate setting of the Royal Theatre, the audience will be able to connect with the characters and their struggles and joys in a unique way.

On Golden Pond is a coming-of-age story in the sense that it explores many stages of life. The “seniors” know their lives are changing and the can look back on experiences of a long life. The “middle-aged” daughter is finding it necessary to connect with her parents in new ways. The young boy finds himself in a completely new environment and making an unexpected connection with the elderly couple. Hopes, dreams, regrets and possibilities all play a role in this special summer On Golden Pond.

Performances and Ticket Information:

Wed. Oct. 24 – 7:30

Fri. Oct. 26 – 2:00, 7:30

Sat. Oct. 27 – 2:00, 7:30

Sun. Oct. 28 – 2:00

Tues. Oct. 30 – 2:00

Wed. Oct. 31 – 2:00

Fri. Nov. 2 – 2:00, 7:30

Sat. Nov. 3 – 2:00, 7:30

Sun. Nov. 4 – 2:00

Tickets: $24-31

Call 660-385-2924 or visit maplesrep.com to get your tickets today!

Rated PG for some strong language and adult themes

Location

Maples Repertory Theatre
102 N Rubey St
Macon, MO 63552

Cast

James Anthony as Norman

Judi Mann as Ethel

Ashley Pankow as Chelsea

Todd J. Davison as Bill

Andrew Stachurski as Charlie

Henry Kallerud as Billy Ray

Maples Repertory Theatre Announces 2018 Season

Maples Repertory Theatre is pleased to announce its 2018 season.

The summer portion of the season (June-Aug) will feature:

Mamma Mia!

This smash-hit musical featuring the songs of ABBA is one of the top 10 longest-running Broadway musicals. Mamma Mia! is a delightful tale of love, laughter and friendship. Donna is slowly warming up to the notion of her daughter Sophie’s impending wedding when her life is upended by the unexpected arrival of three former beaus, all possible candidates to walk Sophie down the aisle. With all your favorite ABBA hits such as “Dancing Queen,” “Take a Chance On Me,” “Honey, Honey” and more, find out why Mamma Mia! has become an audience favorite!

Tom, Dick, and Harry

In this hilarious story of three brothers, Tom and his wife are about to adopt a baby. His brothers are anxious to help make a good impression on the woman from the agency who has arrived to check on the home and lifestyle of the prospective parents. Unfortunately Dick, who has stashed boxes of smuggled brandy and cigarettes in the house, and Harry, who is in possession of a cadaver he is planning to sell illegally to a medical school, fail miserably. The adoption agency representative is aghast – and the illegal Croatian aliens who do not speak English are no help at all.

The Drowsy Chaperone

 In a loving send-up of the frivolously inconsequential stage musicals of the Jazz Age, a fan known only as Man in Chair gives a spin to the original cast recording of one such musical, providing the audience with amusing minutiae about the play and the players.

The fall portion of the season (Late Sept/Early Oct-Dec) features:

Dearly Departed

In the Baptist backwoods of the Bible Belt, the beleaguered Turpin family proves that living and dying in the South are seldom tidy and always hilarious. Despite their earnest efforts to pull themselves together for their father’s funeral, the Turpin’s other problems keep overshadowing the solemn occasion: Firstborn Ray-Bud drinks himself silly as the funeral bills mount; Junior, the younger son, is juggling financial ruin, a pack of no-neck monster kids, and a wife who suspects him of infidelity in the family car; their spinster sister, Delightful, copes with death as she does life, by devouring junk food; and all the neighbors add more than two cents. As the situation becomes fraught with mishap, Ray-Bud says to his long-suffering wife, “When I die, don’t tell nobody. Just bury me in the backyard and tell everybody I left you.” Amidst the chaos, the Turpins turn for comfort to their friends and neighbors, an eccentric community of misfits who just manage to pull together and help each other through their hours of need, and finally, the funeral.

On Golden Pond

This is the love story of Ethel and Norman Thayer, who are returning to their summer home on Golden Pond for the forty-eighth year. He is a retired professor, nearing eighty, with heart palpitations and a failing memory—but still as tart-tongued, observant and eager for life as ever. Ethel, ten years younger, and the perfect foil for Norman, delights in all the small things that have enriched and continue to enrich their long life together. They are visited by their divorced, middle-aged daughter and her dentist fiancé, who then go off to Europe, leaving his teenage son behind for the summer. The boy quickly becomes the “grandchild” the elderly couple have longed for, and as Norman revels in taking his ward fishing and thrusting good books at him, he also learns some lessons about modern teenage awareness—and slang—in return. In the end, as the summer wanes, so does their brief idyll, and in the final, deeply moving moments of the play, Norman and Ethel are brought even closer together by the incidence of a mild heart attack. Time, they know, is now against them, but the years have been good and, perhaps, another summer on Golden Pond still awaits.

Away in the Basement:  A Church Basement Ladies Christmas

It is the 1959 Sunday School Christmas Program. As the children rehearse, kitchen ladies are finishing up goodie bags and touching up Nativity pieces. Little do they know what surprises await when they are called upon to step in and save the day.

Season tickets go on sale November 1, 2017.  For more information, visit http://www.maplesrep.com, e-mail info@maplesrep.com, or call 660-385-2914.  Maples Repertory Theatre is located at 102 N Rubey St in Macon, MO.