Executive & Artistic Director, Sean Schmeits
The Haymarket Theatre is very excited to welcome our new Executive & Artistic Director, Sean Schmeits. Sean is an theatre artist who has been acting, directing, designing and teaching theatre for over twenty years. Sean has performed locally with The Haymarket Theatre, Flatwater Shakespeare, the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, the Nebraska Repertory Theatre, Lincoln Community Playhouse, Rough Magic, and the Nebraska Theatre Caravan and has directed over a dozen Nebraska Youth Theatre productions, many of them in collaboration with The Haymarket Theatre's founder Fred Stuart. Recently, Sean was the Executive Director of the Bagaduce Music Library in Blue Hill, Maine. He has a degree in Theatre Arts from Nebraska Wesleyan University and has received professional theatre training from the SITI Company in New York and at The Artistic Home in Chicago.
Associate Director, Rob Burt
Rob is proud to be returning to the Haymarket as the newest addition to the creative team. This past fall Rob Assistant Directed Meet the Manglesons and A Christmas Carol. Rob is a graduate of the Nebraska Youth Theatre, having worked extensively with Haymarket Theatre Founder Fred Stuart in the past starting with Fred's first major children's adaptation of Godspell in 2000 at the Lincoln Community Playhouse. He also starred in Fred's 2003 adaptation of Lord of the Flies as Jack. Since then he has kept busy in numerous Flatwater Shakespeare productions and various independent projects through the University Of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is excited to work with the great pool of talent that the Haymarket Theatre has to offer. Rob has a BA in English and Theatre Arts from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.
Financial Manager, Deni Kornbluh
Deni has been with The Haymarket Theatre since 2005. She has a degree in Theatre Arts with a business minor. Deni lived in Vermont for 15 years, where she co-wrote and directed children's theatre. She moved from Vermont to Lincoln seven years ago with her husband and two children.
Founder/Writer/Instructor, Fred Stuart
Fred Stuart is the Director of Creative Development for Theatrical Rights Worldwide. Previously he was the Broadway Junior Project Manager for Music Theatre International. He founded the Haymarket Theatre in 2002 and was the organization's Executive & Artistic Director for seven years before re-locating to New York City in 2008. In 1985, Fred began a long career in the theatre with a two year stint performing in San Francisco's long running musical Beach Blanket Babylon. He joined the Nederlander Organization in 1986 as House Manager of the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles and the Golden Gate and Orpheum Theatres in San Francisco. Fred began teaching children's theatre in 1992 and has continued throughout his career to write and direct plays and musicals for young actors. Fred is a Haymarket Theatre Board member and has returned to Lincoln each summer to direct shows at the Nebraska Youth Theatre's summer program. In the summer of 2011 Fred was invited to be a guest director at New York's legendary French Woods Festival for the Performing Arts, where he worked in residence. Fred lives in New York City with his wife Willo and their 5 year old son Anderson.
Nebraska Youth Theatre Instructors
Dustin Witte has written and directed several Haymarket Theatre children's productions and has been in many Haymarket Theatre mainstage shows. Dustin also works as a freelance scene designer and painter, craftsperson, and basketweaver. Dustin is the recent co-founder of performing arts group OmniArts Nebraska which staged it's inaugural works the lonely book and Marginalia @ 40 in the Fall of 2011 at The Haymarket Theatre. Besides directing plays and camps for the Nebraska Youth Theatre, Dustin can often be found building sets and props for our Youth and Mainstage productions.
Julie Kinkennon-Johnson has acted extensively in local theatre productions, including Flatwater Shakespeare's productions of Macbeth, Comedy of Errors, Loves Labor's Lost and The Misanthrope.
