Lincoln East Rotary Club heard Kevin Colbert, Artistic Director of the Lofte Community Theatre located in Manley, NE. Kevin was involved with the Lofte Community Theatre since its inception in August 1977.
The theatre was a vision of Diane (Bjornborg) Reece a English, Speech and Drama teacher at Weeping Water Public Schools in the early 1970’s. She realized that there was a great deal of talent, not only in the school, but in the surrounding area as well. She envisioned a performance space where anyone interested in performing could gather and do just that was hatched over the kitchen table. The area is agricultural in nature, the obvious setting for this space steered her towards Howard Rathe, who owned a homestead and a large barn on Highway 1, just a few miles from town. At first, Howard was not keen on allowing them to use it because that is where he stored his machinery. But his daughter and wife became interested in the idea of a theatre and so Howard came around and allowed them to use the barn. Howard served for many years on the Theatre board.
Once Howard agreed to the project, Howard and his son, Les, did the bulk of the heavy work, volunteering several hours to renovate the old barn. A cement floor was poured, and the interior was power-washed to clean 80 years of collected dirt and grime. The stage and balcony were built, water lines run out to the barn, and the whole building was wired for electricity.
Diane gathered a group of performers and began rehearsals for “Godspell.” They practiced until it was perfect and polished. The crew, orchestra and crew were compiled completely of high school students and others in the community. They borrowed folding chairs from the local funeral home, and put on the show with theater lights comprised of light bulbs and coffee cans. They had to use portable bathroom facilities and dress outside the building. It held only 204 people. Eventually they added a small dressing room for the ladies and men, but still used portable bathroom facilities.
The show was a hit, the group decided to add two melodramas that year and they, too, were successful. While the cold weather ended the season, it was obvious that the little theater must continue. The Born-in-a-Barn Players operated out of the much-loved renovated barn for 29 years.
In 2006, the Lofte constructed a new post-and-beam style performing arts facility. With a successful capital campaign and a construction loan obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, actors and audience members now enjoy a beautiful climate-controlled venue year ‘round. The property that the current Lofte is on is 10 acres which originally belonged to Kevin’s grandmother. Today, the Lofte offers six core season productions, as well as many special events featuring visiting artists. It is open for weddings and other parties throughout the year. It does have indoor bathroom facilities, dressing rooms and a small concession area. His mother is still the “boss” over the box office.
They hold a week-long children’s theater workshop, a free Veterans Day concert, and host high-school one-act play competitions in the fall. Approximately 12,000 visitors come through the doors annually.
Although the postmark is Manley, NE. The Lofte has taken care to avoid the label of a particular community. The Lofte Community Theater season draws people of all ages, all economic levels, and all employment backgrounds annually. Since the COVID-19 hit Nebraska in early March they came up with some inventive ideas for the summer this year such as built a stage outdoors and did a couple of plays. They also tried to hold outdoor movies (built a screen which was blown over with our 70-mile winds) and lost one weekend, but was able to do two weekends of movies with about 30 cars. This was done in their parking lot. The Board of Directors changes every so many years. They try to use young people who like to do drama and musicals and many of these come from the surrounding farm area besides Lincoln and Omaha. The cost for a drama is around $7,000-8,000 to produce and a musical can cost about $20,000 (which includes the cost of customs for the actors). They hope to do some low-cost productions starting sometime after Easter in April 2021.