People of Lincoln: Judy Hart
Her Key to Loving Lincoln was Involvement
By Randy Bretz
It was the Lied Center that brought Judy Hart to Lincoln more than 30 years ago, but not for the reason you may suspect. She moved to Lincoln with her husband and their 7- and 2-year-old daughters so he could take a position with the Lied Center. She was 40-years-old and initially hated Lincoln. But, as she says, “That is when my entrepreneurial, community engagement genes kicked in. I embraced my role as mom and started over professionally.”
You see, Hart is a professional actor (SAG and AEA) who moved to New York, and then to New Jersey. Before this, she completed a higher education journey that started at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, continued at Ohio University, and finally resulted in earning a BFA in theatrical performance from UNL in 1975.
After relocating to Lincoln in 1989, she worked as faculty at Nebraska Wesleyan, UNL, and Doane College. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg regarding her involvement in, and contribution to, our community.
In 1991, Hart started working as a teaching artist with Arts Are Basic, a Lied Center outreach educational collaboration with classroom teachers. There she met fellow artists Sherry Cole Weber and Pippa White Lawson. Together, they created Angels Theatre Company, after a conversation that they didn’t see their stories represented on stage. The organization continues today with a very active calendar
of events.
“I started my career as an actor, director, and teaching artist. The creation of a theatre company became my ultimate work of art.”
Angels Theatre Company began with its first performance at St. Francis Chapel
on South Street, and continues today with performances and events at Lied Center, Wyuka Stables, The Mill, and Turbine Flats.
Hart is a testimony to the benefit of plugging in and making friends. As she put it, “I have learned to love Lincoln and the Midwest. I’m thankful to have such support for the arts in this city. Today, I’m involved with Justice in Action, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, the Unitarian Church, Irvingdale Neighborhood Association, and Walking in the Footsteps of our Ancestors project. I just love it when people get together to make something, to create an experience that helps give them a positive outcome. I think when people are isolated, they think they’re the only person dealing with an issue. But when they get involved as a community, they discover that others are working through the same issues.”
Randy Bretz is well past 55, and he enjoys life as a father, grandfather, great-grandfather, storyteller, author, professor, communicator, and civic activist.