Leading Off: Controlling chaos at the Lincoln Community Playhouse

Francoise Traxler had an unusual reaction to the tragic climax of "Romeo and Juliet" when she saw the play as a kid at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

She laughed.

"Apparently when I saw it, I was a kid and I was laughing when Romeo and Juliet both died," the 23-year-old said. "My grandma said that was a sign that I was going to do theater and stuff because, I don't know, I took an interesting approach to the whole thing, I guess."

Turns out, grandma was right.

Soon enough, Traxler, inspired by yearly trips to that Colorado festival, began acting in middle school. Later, she was drawn to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and its Johnny Carson School of Theater, where she studied theater performance and graduated in 2022.

Since then, she's been acting in the Lincoln and Omaha areas, as well as Colorado.

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Shakespeare also stuck with her — Traxler has studied with Prague Shakespeare and at the Globe Theater in London and starred in Flatwater Shakespeare Company's latest season last summer.

Traxler's latest role at the Lincoln Community Playhouse, however, marks a bit of a departure from the Bard. The Broomfield, Colorado, native is set to play the stage manager Annie in "The Play That Goes Wrong," which begins a six-show run at the playhouse Friday.

The comedy, written in 2012, is a play within a play, telling the story of an amateur drama society staging an Agatha Christie mystery to ultimately chaotic effect.

In addition to playing a stage manager who initially wants nothing to do with acting, Traxler is the fight coordinator and intimacy choreographer, in essence managing the controlled chaos and slapstick physical comedy of "The Play That Goes Wrong."

There is, for example, a swordfight during the show as well "injuries" the characters endure as the play, well, goes wrong. There are plenty of romantic scenes — and fainting — involved, too.

"I think everyone at some point has some kind of physical altercation with another character. So there's a lot of teamwork that goes into it and in figuring out what's going to be comfortable for everyone involved," Traxler said. "The goal is to make it look as chaotic as possible, but also make sure the audience isn't actually afraid for the actors."

Controlling chaos, it turns out, is actually a really good skill to have as a fan of Shakespeare. There's a lot of violence and stage combat in the Bard's works, to say the least. And at Prague Shakespeare, Traxler trained in intimacy choreography.

That's not the only draw for Traxler.

"I think that Shakespeare roles, in general, tend to have really well-written women compared to even contemporary shows, so that's a big draw," she said.

So, how does Elizabethan drama translate to a contemporary comedy like "The Play That Goes Wrong?"

"It's definitely been a challenge," she said. "I don't think any of us have been in a play like this because it's so satirical, and it's making fun of what we do kind of. So I've definitely taken a lot of inspiration from the physical comedy that happens in Shakespeare. I grew up watching "The Three Stooges" a lot, so a lot of inspiration from them and the Marx Brothers, but yeah, definitely using classic physical humor.

"The challenge has been mixing that with how seriously the characters in the play are taking what they're doing because we don't want it to look like we're making fun of the people we're playing. The characters in the play are very, very committed to putting this play on, which is really sweet and endearing."

Later this year, Traxler is set to take on a quite a different role, starring in a new play about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.

And then in the fall, she's headed to New York to continue a theater career that has a bright future ahead of it.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: "The Play That Goes Wrong."

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday; 7:30 p.m. May 10-11; 2 p.m. May 12.

WHERE: Lincoln Community Playhouse, 2500 S. 56th St.

TICKETS: $26 for adults, $15 students. Tickets may be reserved at lincolnplayhouse.com or by calling the box office between 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

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