Special performance marks
director McCullough’s exit
By Kale Grafel
Staff writer
Rod McCullough and
Rhonda Lake will star in a one
time production of A. A.
Gurney’s “Love Letters” on
Monday <at the Lincoln
Community Playhouse.
The show is part of a farewell
party for McCullough, who has
served as executive director of
die playhouse for 18 years.
“There was some discussion
about a farewell event,”
McCullough said, “and what I
really wanted was to act one last
time”
McCullough said he and
Children^ Theatre Director Lake
decided on “Love Letters”
because it is intended to be read
rather than memorized, and it
would be easy to produce.
“There are two actors, a table
and two chairs,” McCullough
said.
McCullough, a Lincoln
U There was some discussion about
a farewell event. And what I really
wanted was to act one last time.”
Rod McCullough
executive director, Lincoln Community Playhouse
native, began his association
with the playhouse in 1967 when
he played Stanley Kowalski in
“A Streetcar Named Desire.”
McCullough graduated from the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree
in English.
Though McCullough did not
take acting courses while at
UNL, he did participate in shows
on the theater department’s sec
ond stage, which is now known
asTheatrix.'
McCullough acted in the
movie “Miracle of the Heart,”
which was filmed at Boys Town,
as well as an Unsolved Mysteries
segment and two other movies.
As executive director of the
playhouse, McCullough said he
is responsible for “going out and
raising enough resources to keep
(the playhouse) going, then try
ing to slow them down before
they go out die door”
McCullough soon will be
leaving Lincoln to take a job as
managing director of the Fulton
Opera House in Lancaster, Penn.
The play begins at 7:30 p.m.
Monday following a 6:30 p.m.
reception at the playhouse.
Tickets are available to the pub
lic for $25 by calling the Lincoln
Community Playhouse box
office at 489-7529.
‘Picnic’ concludes Rep’s season
■ William Inge’s play
will be directed by
thater veteran Gene
Anthony.
By KateGrafel
Staff writer
The Nebraska Repertory
Theatre’s final production of the
2000 season will open Thursday
at 7:30 p.m. in Howell Theatre,
featuring William Inge’s “Picnic”
and guest director Gene Anthony.
“Picnic” takes place in a
backyard in a small 1950s Kansas
town. The yard is shared by
neighbors Helen Potts and Flo
Owens, both heads of all-female
households.
Helen and Flo are portrayed
by Shirley Mason and Mary
Douglass, UNL theater profes
sors.
The story line explores the
impact that Hal Carter has on
these two households when he
unexpectedly appears on Labor
Day to visit former college buddy
Alan Seymour, played by Steve
Barth.
Jude Thaddeus Hickey, who
plays Hal, said Hal falls for Flo’s
daughter Madge, who just hap
pens to be Alan’s girlfriend.
“When Hal finds out, he tries
to stop it,” Hickey said, “but it’s
just inevitable.”
“Picnic” has brought Anthony
to Nebraska theater for the first
time. A tenured associate profes
sor of theater at Marshall
University in West Virginia,
Anthony has worked in 56 cities
in 40 states.
Anthony, who spent the first
eight years of his career teaching
high school drama in Toledo,
Ohio, moved on to professional
work at the Goodman Theatre in
Chicago.
During a 12-year stint in New
York, Anthony played comic vil
lain “Mr. U.” on ABC soap opera
All My Children.
Regarding soap opera work,
Anthony says: “They hardly pay
me enough to do it; they couldn’t
pay me enough to watch it”
A back injury during his last
“AMC’ taping sent Anthony back
to school. He now teaches stage
movement, musical theater and
dance, various acting courses and
practical courses for the aspiring
actor.
Though he acts once a year in
a major role to maintain his
integrity as an acting professor,
Anthony says he is “reshaping his
artistic life as a director.”
Anthony will be teaching a
two-hour workshop on Physical
Abstracting at the Nebraska
Repertory Theatre Camp next
week.
He also stars in “The Last
Night of Ballyhoo,” which
opened July 6 and is being pre
sented in rotating repertory with
“Picnic.”
Charles O’Conner, a UNL
professor of scene design,
designed the set for “Picnic.”
The front porch of the Owens’
cream-colored house faces the
center of the stage from upstage
right. Opposite is the side porch
of the blue Potts house.
The shared backyard, nestled
in the fan-shaped area between
the two houses, contains a tree
stump and rusted 1950s furniture.
O’Conner made use of wet
blends and spatters to create an
appearance of dirt and grass on
the painted stage floor.
Images of clouds, the moon,
sunrise and sunset are projected
onto the cyclorama, a rigid white
cloth that serves a screen, using
Gobo templates.
“Picnic” will be performed in
Howell Theatre at 7:30 p.m. on
July 13, 15,21,27, 29, August 2
and 4 and at 3:00 p.m. on July 23
and August 6.
Tickets for both “Picnic” and
“The Last Night of Ballyhoo” are
available through the Lied Center
Box Office at 472-4747.
Admission prices are $20 for
patrons, $18 for UNL faculty,
staff and senior citizens and $7
for youth.
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