Lofte to host Nebraska Premiere of Tuesdays With Morrie

The staged version of best selling author, Mitch Albom’s Tuesday’s With Morrie will be presented at the new Lofte Community Theatre in Manley, NE this December. The play is produced by Rhonda Lake of Lincoln.

Tuesdays With Morrie is the Nebraska premiere of this play written by Mitch Albom and Jeffrey Hatcher and features veteran performers Doane College President Phil Heckman as Morrie Schwartz and Jeremy Kendall as Mitch Albom.

A constant on The New York Times Bestseller List for more than four years with more than five million copies sold and an Emmy-winning television film presented by Oprah Winfrey, TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE is the autobiographical story of Mitch Albom, an accomplished journalist driven solely by his career, and Morrie Schwartz, his former college professor.

Sixteen years after graduation, Mitch happens to catch Morrie's appearance on a television news program and learns that his old professor is battling Lou Gehrig's disease. Mitch is reunited with Morrie and what starts as a simple visit turns into a weekly pilgrimage and a last class in the meaning of life.

Tuesdays With Morrie opens Friday, December 8th at 7:30 p.m. and runs through Saturday, December 23. Performances are Thursday thru Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m. The play runs one hour and 20 minutes with no intermission.

Phil Heckman is cast in the role of Morrie Schwarts and is a veteran actor who has been in countless plays and musicals most often seen in comedies and musicals at the Lincoln Community Playhouse. Phil is a philanthropist, speaker, Rotarian and involved in many fundraising activities for several arts organizations. Dr. Phil Heckman is retired as the 9th President of Doane College from 1967 – 1987.

Jeremy Kendall will play Mitch Albom and is currently on hiatus for the holidays from the national tour of the Kennedy Center production of Alice. Jeremy received his MFA in Acting in 1996 from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and is an actor and director and former artistic director of the Lincoln Community Playhouse . He has directed Pump Boys and Dinettes, The Outsiders, I Hate Hamlet, Seussical: The Musical, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Noises Off!, To Kill A Mockingbird, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Odd Couple female version and The Mousetrap.

Jeremy has acted professionally for over ten years and most recently with the Nebraska Repertory Theatre where he appeared as the Alien in Resident Alien, Androcles in Androcles and the Lion, and Carl in Bus Stop. Jeremy has also acted in Lincoln productions including All My Sons, The Civil War, Salute to Pearl Harbor, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet and Over the River and Through the Woods where he first worked with Phil.

“This is a play about the journey of the heart,” says the plays director Rhonda Lake, “I can’t think of a better time that the holidays to celebrate the joy of living with the ones we love.” Rhonda Lake, director of the production, directed productions at the Lincoln Community Playhouse from 1992 – 2001. Rhonda is currently teaching theatre and directing at Doane College and assisting in the admissions office as well as teaching acting to the Crete area youth on Saturday mornings.

Tickets for the production at the LOFTE theatre are $14 general admission and $13 for groups of 20 or more. To reserve your tickets please call the Lofte Ticket office at (402) 234-2553.