Morrie Enders: Setting the Stage for Others
The Lincoln Community Playhouse is celebrating 81 years, but the beloved community stalwart likely would not have made it past 65 years without Morrie Enders, who retired as Executive Director this July.
Long before Morrie came to Lincoln, theater was already his passion. In fact, he estimates that more than half of his adult life has been spent in rehearsal rooms. He has directed 204 plays, and while the show must always go on, looking back, he believes his career comes back to one simple mantra: “Everyone needs their own spot.”
The First Place He Belonged
In fourth grade, Morrie played a king in a classroom play, wearing a bathrobe from home as his costume. The moment stayed with him because, as he puts it, “It was the first time I can remember people telling me I had done something well.”
The next year, for the first Earth Day, Morrie co-wrote a play about a man destroying the forest and Mother Nature setting him straight. He played the littering man, throwing trash around the stage while the kindergarteners in the front row fell over with laughter. “From that point on, I knew theater was what I wanted to do,” he says.
That feeling carried him through high school theater, Central Michigan University, and eventually into directing. Morrie discovered that while acting had its appeal, the rehearsal room was where he felt most alive. He loved watching people take risks and become part of something they could not create alone.
A Do-or-Die Moment
A call from Rod McCullough brought Morrie to Lincoln in 2009. The Lincoln Community Playhouse was looking for a new Executive Director, but the opportunity came with a warning. “Rod said, either this phone call will be a great day for you or the worst day of your life,” Morrie remembers. The Playhouse, it turned out, was in serious financial trouble. “The theater was probably three months away from closing,” says Morrie.
Still, Morrie saw potential. He believed the theater could survive if the Playhouse was able to show the community why it mattered. One early boost came from Phil Heckman, a well-known actor and former president of Doane College. Heckman offered Morrie fundraising advice and chose to perform his farewell show, “Say Goodnight Gracie,” to raise money for the Playhouse. Phil’s performance raised enough funding to help the Playhouse keep going.
The Second Act Begins
The harder work of becoming a true community theater again came next. When students from Belmont Elementary came to see a play in late 2009, the Playhouse had planned to charge a nominal fee. But when Morrie met the students, he decided—in the moment—they should be admitted free of charge. “We’re the community theater,” he recalls, “and we better start acting like it.”
Soon, the Playhouse was working with the Boys & Girls Club, inviting people to donate needed items in exchange for tickets. People began noticing the change; the Playhouse was becoming a place for everyone. By September 2010, that shift had a sound. On opening night of “Hairspray,” Dani Boal, playing Tracy Turnblad, hit the big note in “Good Morning Baltimore.” Morrie was standing in the back of the theater. “This is the cannon shot that says we’re back,” he remembers thinking.
Outreach Takes Center Stage
More milestones followed. The Penguin Project became what Morrie calls the Playhouse’s “calling card,” giving young people with disabilities the chance to perform onstage alongside peer mentors. This program was followed by the RadioActive Players, which gives actors 55 and older the chance to sing, dance, act, and find community.
Productions also grew more ambitious. When the Playhouse staged “Cabaret” in 2023, complete with moving lights and an upgraded sound system, Morrie saw audiences experience the results of years of careful investment.
The Power of Yes
For all the productions, the programs, and the improvements, Morrie’s philosophy remains deeply human.
“We live in a world of ‘no,’” he says. “As a director, one of the best things you get to do is say ‘yes.’ Yes, you sound beautiful singing that song. Yes, you look great in that costume. Yes, you moved me.”
Morrie sees that positive outlook come to life most dramatically in The Penguin Project. Outside the theater, these young performers often experience a world of no."Onstage, those same children sing, dance, speak, hug, laugh, and take their place in the story,” he says.
“In a world of no, say yes.”
Still Finding Spots for Others
Retirement, for Morrie, is not an exit from theater. He is retiring from administration and fundraising, not from the rehearsal room. He hopes to continue directing, work with The Penguin Project on a national level, lead theater-related trips, and spend a little more time on his porch. After 39 years in community theater, he still thinks about the people who needed a spot and found one under the lights. “I never expected that my life would touch so many other people,” he says.
Morrie Enders helped save a theater. But his lasting legacy is that he keeps broadening the spotlight, again and again, so that future generations can come to the Lincoln Community Playhouse and shine.