Posted: 4/29/2025
Mesarch and Gross on stage in off-hours
By Ronica Stromberg
By day, Mark Mesarch is a web designer in the School of Natural Resources. By night, he is what is known in show biz as a “triple threat.”
He sings. He dances. He acts.
At times, he even directs.
So, maybe it’s more accurate to call him a quadruple threat. Adding another level to such ponderances, he has now brought a coworker, Bridget Gross, into the act.
Gross, a recruitment specialist, also sings, dances and acts. She landed a 'Paparazzi' role in the upcoming play "Chiaroscuro: Sketches of Caravaggio" showing through the Angels Theatre Company at Turbine Flats on May 4 at 2 p.m. and Eastmont Living Auditorium on May 7 at 6:30 p.m.
Mesarch is directing the play. He acted most recently in the Lincoln Community Playhouse's nine-day sold-out run of "Fiddler on the Roof" in February and March. It was his fifth time to act in 'Fiddler on the Roof.'
The Pennsylvania native has acted almost 50 years, 36 at the Lincoln Community Playhouse, and designed lighting 20 years. The playhouse will recognize him as a “Legend,” its equivalent of the Kennedy Center Honors, at the playhouse on June 19 at 7 p.m. The event will honor four creatives or actors as Legends by sharing stories of their lives and performances and adding their names and photos to playhouse plaques.
"I'm very humbled about this honor," Mesarch said. "I just never expected that I would be one of the Legends at the playhouse."
He started acting in middle school and really found his step in the role of a son in “Fiddler on the Roof.” He said, at the time, he had hopes to play other parts in the musical when he got older. He has since gotten to play four other roles, most recently, the innkeeper, Mordcha. He expressed the hope of still playing the rabbi.
Memorizing all the lines of a play has become more challenging as he’s aged, he said, but his previous performances in “Fiddler on the Roof” have made that play more doable.
"I definitely know what comes next," he said.
Gross said memorizing can be challenging for her also but, in 'Chiaroscuro' and other plays in the Angels Theatre Company's Salon Reading Series, the actors have the script in hand to read from. She said not having to memorize the script has made those plays more appealing to her.
Like Mesarch, she started acting in middle school plays, took a break in college and returned to acting as an adult. She acts for fun, she said, and balances the time spent on it with other hobbies like running, knitting, crocheting, teaching color guard at Lincoln East High School and helping choreograph winter guard at the university. She has danced since 4 years old and taken part in color guard since 11 years old.
Neither she nor Mesarch have degrees in theatre arts. Gross received her bachelor’s in environmental studies in her home state of Ohio and her master's degree in entomology from Nebraska. Mesarch received his bachelor’s in meteorology in Pennsylvania and his master's in agronomy from Nebraska.
They may receive a small stipend from the Angels Theatre Company for their part in plays, but Mesarch said his work for the Lincoln Community Playhouse has been free except as the lighting designer.
"Obviously, we do not do this for the money or anything, but even though it's a very small stipend, it’s nice to feel appreciated in that way," Gross said.
The Angels Theatre Company offers plays in its Salon Reading Series free but accepts donations to defray costs. The "Chiaroscuro" play Gross is about to act in and Mesarch directs is part of this series. It depicts scenes from the life of Caravaggio, an Italian artist who painted shortly after Michelangelo's time. Playing 'Caravaggio' is Stephen Buhler, a professor of English at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Brian Bornstein, a Nebraska emeritus professor of psychology and courtesy professor of law, wrote the play.
The Salon Reading Series draws scripts from playwrights read for development and possibly produced. The plays forego an elaborate set, lights and costumes and, instead, focus more on telling the story. Mesarch said they often touch on current issues or challenging topics.
"They're ones to make you think," he said. "They're not necessarily purely entertainment."
Both he and Gross expressed plans to continue in community theatre. Mesarch said he finds performing in it fun because it lets him be someone other than himself. He also said the backstage dynamics can fascinate him as much as the onstage ones.
"I very much like to see how things work," he said. "And there are times when in a play that I really enjoy watching what goes on backstage. There's choreography on stage that the audience sees, but there's choreography that goes on backstage so that people don't run into each other."
As a director, he continues to seek talent and audiences for future plays. The public may also attend the summer celebration of him becoming a Legend at the Lincoln Community Playhouse. Mesarch will give an acceptance speech and said he already knows what he will say.
"I'm going to talk about that I'm only up here because of all the other people that I worked with and that helped me do what I love to do,” he said. “It's the Lincoln Community Playhouse, and the word community is incredibly important, and that's how I see it."
