New Horizons
PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID OMAHA NE PERMIT NO. 389
A publication of the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging
Celebrating 50 Years
April 2025 | Vol. 50 | No. 4
When all the stars align: Omaha Community Playhouse Centennial brings out its stars C By Leo Adam Biga elebrating 100 years with the 2024-2025 season, the Omaha Community Playhouse (OCP) has a mission of opening the world of make-believe to everyone. True to its community-based model the nonprofit depends on volunteers to fill on-stage and behind-the-curtain roles. For a century now people from all walks of life, including professionals, students, homemakers and retirees, have put their ordinary lives on hold to make theater there. Some build and paint sets. Some work the box office. Others ushergreet. Still others act, sing, dance, stage manage. Few make it their livelihood. But a select few do use it as a stepping stone to theater careers. Some paths even lead to Broadway and beyond. This centennial season some star alums and other Omaha talents who’ve found success in New York are helping the theater celebrate its centennial. On Feb. 1 two-time Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz (Rent, Wicked, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), who acted on the Playhouse mainstage and in the touring Nebraska Theatre Caravan, performed his Broadway, My Way
their careers. Butz called it “foundational.” Lloyd, “formative” and “eye-opening.” Hazell, who grew up seeing shows there, then helped build flats and paint sets, before acting and producing work at OCP, said, “I learned a lot.” Other Playhouse veterans have offered congratulatory notes and reflected on its legacy. Omaha native Broadway veteran Q. Smith made her only Playhouse stage appearance in Oklahoma while still a North High School student. “It was a cool experience,” she recalled. “Everyone was much older than me and very professional. I had a great time.”
COURTESY PHOTO revue as a tribute. Special guest star and Omaha native Pat Hazell, a comic, actor and playwright, joined him. Hazell’s one-man shows and plays have been produced at the Playhouse. In a rare dramatic turn, he starred in its production of A Few Good Men.
On April 5 Omaha native and Tony Award-winner John Lloyd Young (Jersey Boys) headlines OCP’s Century Gala nearly four decades after he played Young Scrooge in its A Christmas Carol. All three artists credit the Playhouse with making a difference in
COMMUNITY MAKES IT GO Resilience is a recurring theme in the Playhouse story, as it’s survived wars, economic crises and the pandemic. When health officials prohibited indoor events during the Covid outbreak the theater took a cue from its post-tornado experience to stage shows al fresco. Crowds turned out. Enduring community support has gotten the Playhouse through thick and thin. --OCP continued on page 9.
Good-Life Tours: Go on a football trip with ease
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hinking about hitting the road with your friends and family for a Nebraska football road
Therapy dogs: Impacting people around the world
Therapy dogs provide numerous benefits to those they serve, including providing comfort and support, and reducing stress Learn more about therapy dogs on Page 16.
game? Look no further than what the Good-Life Tours has to offer when it comes to seeing the Nebraska Cornhuskers in action on the gridiron. “We typically get 50 to 60 people on each of our trips, and a lot of our customers are repeat customers,” co-owner, Gary Mixan said. “People know what product they are going to get, and we listen to what the people want to do and where they want to go.” It began in 1998 when Gary Mixan and Bob Kment decided they were going to Kansas City to watch Nebraska take on Oklahoma State at Arrowhead Stadium. The two former high school classmates realized a lot more people
were wanting to go, so they decided to work together and planned a trip. “For whatever reason, everyone wanted to go to the game at Arrowhead and people came up to me asking for tickets, a hotel and a bus,” Bob Kment said. “We took a bus of 50 people down there and we had a great time.” It was at that moment when Kment and Mixan knew they had enough connections and resources to come up with ways to go on trips for future football games. Every year, the two would look at the upcoming football schedule and decide which destination most fans would want to attend. They would look at the destination, and the time of year of when the games were and then would come up with a plan of what to do in the days leading up to the game. --Football continued on page 8.