By Regina Hinkley
Pivot, Angels Theatre Company, Thursday October 9, 2025
“I want life and death to mean something. And it does when you’re in love.”
For those who have never been to Wyuka stables, it’s farther down than you think it is. And when you eventually find the stables and enter the building, you’ll be greeted with a kind of intimacy that is quite rare in theatre these days. The “stage” is a corner of the brick floor, and it’s about half the size of a normal staging space. If that. But it never feels like the actors on stage are compressed or uncomfortable. In fact, the closeness lets the audience feel like they’re simultaneously a part of the community that they’re watching and also intruding on the action of the story. Which, cleverly enough, speaks a lot to the themes of the play.
PIVOT tells the story of…well, I’m not actually going to tell you. I’ve never cared about spoilers, but this is a play that should be experienced without knowing anything about it. At all. Go in blind. If you do, you’ll be taken on the same ride as Kara, George, Anne, and Doug, and that is truly the best experience in this case. Just trust me on that. But what I can tell you is that PIVOT is a labor of love. Written by Alex Lubischer, who has an impressive amount of plays and accomplishments under his belt, and directed by Jamie Bullins, who also boasts a laundry list of credits, the play has been expertly crafted to highlight the characters and the surprisingly hilarious, though incredibly morbid, story. You don’t have to live in the countryside to know any of these people; we’ve all met grizzled farmers, awkward best friends, overbearing yet distant fathers, and people who can’t seem to stop digging themselves further into a hole no matter what you do to try and help them. And even if you find yourself wanting to look away, you’ll be drawn right back in as these people struggle to do the right thing for everyone.
Of course, the characters themselves couldn’t shine without the phenomenal performances of the cast. Maia Gerdes, who plays Kara, has almost the weight of the whole play on her shoulders. She is the emotional heart of the play, inviting you to feel deep sympathy for a woman who is making all of the wrong decisions for many of the right reasons. Richard Nielsen and Diane Gonzolas, playing George and Anne van Acren respectively, keep us grounded to reality and try to be the voices of reason. The two have wonderful chemistry, and are quite charmingly reminiscent of many couples that you might find around the Nebraska community: gruff and headstrong, but sweet and reliable. Like your neighbors down the road. Zachary Kriefels takes on the role of Doug, who can’t seem to catch a break at all, and he does so with a lot of heart. In many ways, he acts as comedic relief, with his emotional acting only being beaten out by his physical acting. Watching him stumble on stage with two different eye patches on is certainly difficult to do with a straight face (and that’s the only spoiler you’re going to get). And last, but certainly not least, Scott Shomaker provides three different performances, playing the roles of Levi, Father Matt, and Ryan. And despite the fact that Shomaker’s voice and look is quite distinct, that never matters. Each performance is uniquely different in voice, physicality, and approach, and each one is memorable and exceedingly well done. It’s not often I can forget that several roles are being played by the same actor, but here, it was easy.
Outside of the plot, PIVOT is about a lot of different things: family, grief, love, loss, acceptance, and the lengths that we go to in order to try and hold on to what we think we might be losing. I walked away from this show having laughed and cried, and I think that’s the perfect way to describe it. With this production, Angel’s Theatre Company and Lubischer remind us of the magic of live theatre, and that we should hold our loved ones tight; we never know what might happen.
“…there is a community out there for everyone. You just have to find it.”
If you go: PIVOT runs from October 9-12 and 16-19 at 7:00 pm (the 12th and the 19th are matinees at 2 pm) in the Stables at Wyuka Cemetery. The show is outside, so dress accordingly for the weather. Tickets are $15 for students and $20 for adults and can be purchased at https://angelstheatrecompany.ticketspice.com/pivot
Regina Hinkley is a theatre student at the Johnny Carson School of Theater and Film at UNL. She is a playwright, performer, and avid enjoyer of theater of all kinds.
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