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Local actress tackles time travel in 'On the Verge'
By JEFF KORBELIK / Lincoln Journal Star
Friday, Sep 30, 2005 - 12:03:09 am CDT

Local actor Andrea Swartz is having a good run of late. She soon will start a new part-time job as a production coordinator at the Lincoln Community Playhouse to go along with her new full-time gig as a chiropractic assistant. She’s also one of three women starring in Flatwater Shakespeare Company’s production of Eric Overmyer’s comedy “On the Verge,” which begins Thursday at the Haymarket Theatre.

To top it off, she will celebrate her 27th birthday on opening night. She is expecting most of her family to watch her perform.

If only a cake would be waiting for her backstage …

“Wouldn’t that be great,” she said, laughing.

“On the Verge” is the latest in a string of shows Swartz has done since returning to her hometown about four years ago from Louisiana, where she worked briefly after graduating from Louisiana College, a small Baptist school in Pineville.

Theatergoers may recognize her from “The Foreigner” or “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story” at the Playhouse, or perhaps they saw her in one of three shows — “Hamlet,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Pride and Prejudice” — directed by Bob Hall.

“I feel like I’m starting to get myself established (in the theater scene),” she said. “It’s not always easy when you’re the new person on the block.”

Hall recruited Swartz to team with local standouts Melissa Lewis and Amy Jirsa in Overmyer’s unique comedy.

The playwright first emerged on the national scene in the early 1980s and is known for his dazzling wit and talent for wordplay. His resume includes TV scripts for episodes of “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “Homicide: Life on the Street.”

In “On the Verge,” three Victorian lady explorers set out from middle America in 1888 on an adventure that takes them beyond the boundaries of Terra Incognita, the undiscovered countries of the natural world and the imagination.

Their mirthful safari spins into time travel. Along the way they encounter many strange characters, including a Yeti, a lounge singer and a cannibal from Alsace-Lorraine, all played by veteran performer Brad Boesen.

They also accommodate themselves to all emergencies, becoming just a bit out-of-sorts as they approach modern times and such oddities as an automobile mirror that reads “objects may be closer than they appear” and a button with the cryptic message “I Like Ike.”

“It’s totally fanciful,” said Swartz, who noted she, Lewis and Jirsa have had a tremendous amount of fun developing their characters. “A lot of weird things happen to these ladies, but they go with the flow. They take it as a normal part of their travels.”

Swartz portrays Fanny, the more conservative and straight-laced of the three. Jirsa’s Alexandra is a zen-loving free spirit, while Lewis is the curious anthropologist of the trio.

“Fanny is concerned with the English language,” Swartz said. “She gets upset when people butcher it.”

Language, Swartz said, is a key to Overmyer’s play.

“At the beginning of rehearsals, we all had dictionaries to learn some of the words and how to pronounce them,” she said.

She promised audiences won’t need one as well.

“They’ll know what we mean without knowing what (the word) means,” she said.

Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.

If you go

What: “On the Verge,” Flatwater Shakespeare Company

Where: Haymarket Theatre, Eighth and Q streets

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Oct. 8 and Oct. 12-15; 2 p.m. Oct. 9 and 16

Tickets: $15, $12 senior citizens and students for Friday and Saturday performances; all tickets $12 for Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday shows; 477-2600