It’s an exciting week in the life cycle of an Omaha
Community Playhouse production. Actors are moving out of the rehearsal hall
they’ve spent over a month in and moving to their set on the mainstage. They
only get about a week to get situated before an audience arrives, so everything
has to come together quickly. This is the point where actress Alissa Hanish has
a moment to share her experience with Shakespeare in Love.
Alissa is making her OCP mainstage debut in this
production as Viola, but she’s no stranger to the Playhouse. Immediately after
moving from Chicago to Omaha, Alissa auditioned for the 2015 production of Mauritius “on a whim” and landed a lead
role. She followed that up with performances as Rose in the Alternative
Programming staged reading of Dogfight,
and most recently, Nina in this season’s Stupid
F@#%ing Bird.
Moving into the Hawks Mainstage Theatre is an exciting milestone
for Alissa. Having done many performances in black-box style theatres, she
feels that this stage is the right space for this story. “It’s back to the time
of Shakespeare where everything was presentational and everything was for the
audience.”
When asked about how she describes the show, her go-to
explanation is “it’s Shakespeare, but it’s accessible.” Those who never quite
fell in love with the Bard or worry that everything will go over their heads
have nothing to fear. “It’s half Shakespeare, half modern speech that you can
completely understand,” she says, “and very, very similar to the movie.”
In regards to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Oscar-winning portrayal
of Viola in that film, Alissa didn’t feel pressure to copy or compete. The
biggest thing she took away was the actress’s approach to playing a man. Those
familiar with the story know that while Viola longs to be an actress, it is a
forbidden profession for women at the time, so she assumes a male identity–Thomas
Kent–in order to audition. “I was very scared that spending half of this show
as a man, it would come across as doing too much,” says Alissa, but just as
Paltrow did in the film, a subtle change in voice pitch (aided by Lindsay
Pape’s gorgeous costumes) does enough without becoming distractingly comical.
Shakespeare in Love is playing in the Hawks Mainstage Theatre April 13-May 6, 2018. More info can be found here: http://www.omahaplayhouse.com/tickets/view/shakespeare-in-love/
