Produced October 2009 at Fir Acres Theatre (Portland, OR)
Directed by Meredith Pamp
Mr. Hamilton: Terry Fletcher
Mrs. Hamilton: Zena Hymes
Edith: Rikki Wynn
Henry: George Williams
A satire of the images that families attempt to project for the outside world, Happy Holidays is a 10-minute play that explores one family’s struggles to take a Christmas portrait.
Produced April 2003 at Fir Acres Theatre (Portland, OR)
Directed by Victoria Pettersen
The Doctor: Jonas Lerman
James Faust/Moses: Daniel DeSloover
Elliott Hertz/Arthur Schopenhauer: Zack Ross
Elena Scholl/Joan of Arc: Andrea Burgess
Inspired by the Doctor Faustus story, Exodus and the Atom is a one-act play that follows an aging academic as he wrestles with the philosophical ideas and figures that have made his career. Meanwhile, reality falls apart around him.
Across a Distance
Productions:
December 2011 at Emory and Henry College (Emory, VA)
September 2010 at University Theatre (Madison, WI)
Directed by Kelly J.G. Bremner
Music by Scott Gendel
Woman: Julia Faulkner
Man: Robert Schleifer
Across A Distance is an original multimedia bilingual (English and American Sign Language) performance piece for Soprano and Deaf actor, devised collaboratively over the last five years by a creative team including performers Julia Faulkner and Robert Schleifer, playwright Nick Lantz, composer Scott Gendel, and director Kelly Bremner. The performance unites Deaf performance and opera through an allegorical tale about Man, a storyteller, and Woman, a scientist, who live on separate islands, longing to connect. Through the assistance of their magical companions, a flock of birds who communicate through song and a pair of trees who communicate through movement, Man and Woman are able to meet. Though Man speaks American Sign Language and Woman speaks and sings in English, the two are magically able to understand one another. But once they break the rules their companions set for them, Man and Woman find their ability to communicate is lost.
At the heart of Across A Distance are a series of probing questions: What is the nature of communication, and what are its limits? What happens when the magical first blush of love gives way to the challenges of uniting two disparate lives and realities? What are the possibilities and limitations of attraction? What is the relationship between knowledge and intuition? How can Deaf performance and opera interact with each other artistically?
Writing for the Stage
Nick Lantz has been writing plays since 2000. He’s especially fond of the short form, and has written several 10-minute and one-act plays, many of which were produced in Portland, Oregon between 2000 and 2003. His first full-length production, Across a Distance, premiered in Madison, Wisconsin in 2010.
Information on Nick’s current project and three previous productions is included below. For more information about Lantz’s plays, contact him.
Selected Productions
Current Project
Nick is currently developing Unearthed, a folk/bluegrass musical, with composer Scott Gendel for Endstation Theatre Company in Sweet Briar, Virginia. More info soon.
Pictures from Across a Distance
The Prophet
Produced November 2011 at the Candy Factory (Lancaster, PA)
A satirical fable featuring a chorus of frogs and a coyote. Written for and produced in Lancaster’s first 24-Hour Play Fest.
Photo by Quin Sammy Baker.
Defamation
Produced May 2012 as part of Play Grounds: Theater on Site, in Lancaster, PA, through the community arts group Wood Stove House.
A rat protests a school play defaming rodents, meets an apathetic mouse and child savant, and runs afoul of the law. The play is set in front of Fulton Elementary in Lancaster, PA.
