Best gifts go both ways

Jamie Ulmer • December 16, 2025

The best gifts involve both giving and receiving. The last several weeks at Theatre Lawrence prove that point.


Actors, musicians, stage crews, front-of-house volunteers, and more have given their valuable time this month to deliver performances of the crowd-pleasing, nostalgia-filled musical White Christmas. For those involved in the show, this often means missing holiday parties of their own, waiting until the last minute to do their shopping, and enduring long days and late nights.


They have been rewarded by Lawrence and the surrounding area with the gift of a run that will have played to 99% capacity over three weeks. For volunteer performers who share their talents with the community simply because they love it, such an enthusiastic response from audiences is the most meaningful reward. The fact that not just friends and family, but the entire community, chose to make time in their busy holiday schedules to support them and Theatre Lawrence means so much to so many.


This is just one of the many ways we share the gift and impact of the arts back and forth with you, our community. From youth classes at the theatre, to visiting classrooms with Suitcase Stories, to performing at area retirement homes with the re-energized Vintage Players, Theatre Lawrence continues to deliver bright paper packages tied up with strings of favorite things. In return, the community gives us its own gifts by auditioning, volunteering behind the scenes, buying tickets, enrolling in classes, and making donations.



When a community and its theatre make each other better, that is one of the true gifts of a thriving arts organization.

Theatre Lawrence News & Announcements

July 1, 2026
Theatre Lawrence is pleased to announce the first recipient of the Louise ImMasche Striving Artists Project is Anj Marie Riffel and her musical Chasing Nirvana . The show will receive a production at Theatre Lawrence Oct. 2 and 3, 2026. Information about auditions and participating in the first staging of this original musical will be available in the coming weeks. Anj Marie Riffel wears a stack of hats professionally and passionately — including writer, editor, designer, and songwriter — with an enduring love of artistic expression. Her short plays have been featured on stage at Theatre Lawrence for New Works Night. When she’s not searching for her missing iPhone or the meaning of life, Anj can be found wading heart-deep in creative pursuits and loving her people. The Striving Artists Project honors the legacy of Louise ImMasche and the art they created by fostering a space and providing resources to small artists with big shows. This project aims to provide an opportunity to kinder those like Louise – unyielding in their dreams, a need to tell their stories, and looking to go big with the chances they are provided. About the show: Travel back to the heyday of Gen X, when twentysomethings were trying to figure out who they were beyond the walls of Shermer High School—and discovering that reality does indeed bite. Presley Martin is an endearingly awkward, hot mess of a musician who’s hoping her band might be the next Nirvana. While reaching on tiptoe for the stars, she loses her balance and winds up flirting with rock bottom instead. With the resurgence of 1990s culture, CHASING NIRVANA feels simultaneously nostalgic and current. Driven by catchy 90’s alt-rock music, the story appeals to a multi-generational audience, as it examines life’s big questions: Who will love me? Why am I here? What really matters? Packed with heart, humor, and a healthy dose of pop-culture wisdom, we follow Presley’s journey as she navigates a Bermuda love triangle and risks losing herself in the void between two very different dreams. Will she find her own sense of nirvana?
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