Delaney Driscoll’s Back for Brigit

by Warren Francke

Last year as summer began, we didn’t know where the Brigit St. Brigit Theatre company would perform in the fall after leaving the Downtown Space shared with the Blue Barn. Now, nearing its 20^th anniversary season, the future looks brighter for Brigit.

Not that long after we learned about plans for the Barn to build its own space following a 23^rd season that saw the Old Market company add a development staffer, along comes an email from Delaney Driscoll, not only promising an exciting season but announcing her new role as Brigit’s marketing-outreach coordinator.

If you’re new to metro theater, you might not know that Delaney has been a leading talent for Brigit, Blue Barn and other theaters. But she’s been busy raising a daughter, and hasn’t been on stage since the Barn’s Man from Nebraska by Tracy Letts. Now her daughter is 16, “and I can get out a little more.”

So the good news not only features four promising plays, but word that Brigit’s founder and artistic director Cathy M.W. Kurz will open with Big Maggie, an Irish play by John Keane, and that Driscoll will return to acting in the title role. It’s the story of a liberated widow who takes charge of the family farm and business to the outrage of her adult children.

It opens in September back at 10^th and Dodge, the site of several Brigit offerings last season. My misgivings about that location diminished when I easily found free parking for both shows presented there.

And last season’s wonderful Tartuffe at the Joslyn Castle adds to anticipation of Brigit’s November play, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, in the Castle’s handsome music room. They’ll return to 10^th and Dodge for Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night and an appealing play about theatrical life, The Dresser.

Given that Brigit and the Blue Barn have provided some of Omaha’s best productions over the past two decades, it’s terrific to think that both display signs of thriving.

Meanwhile, the summer offerings that begin with Shakespeare on the Green (see the feature on A Comedy of Errors) quickly spread to the suburbs. We’ve long expected musicals from Ralston and Papillion-LaVista, but their shows come later.

Elkhorn Community Theatre starts the warm weather fun indoors at Elkhorn South High School with the Stephen Sondheim fairy tale mishaps of Into the Woods directed by Sherry Wade. Call 866.967.8167 or visit elkhorncommunitytheatre.com.

Cold Cream looks at theater in the metro area. Email information to coldcream@thereader.com.

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