Cover photo by Bill Sitzman

48 Hours Into Every Day What it takes to be the renaissance man of Omaha theater by Julien R. Fielding (Originally appeared in the August 21 issue of the Omaha Weekly Reader)

Photo by Bill Sitzman

"He’s the man who fits 48 hours into every day," said Lorie Obradovich of Baby D Productions. "I’ve never seen anyone work so hard in my life. The whole opening week of Tommy (the musical for which she designed costumes) I don’t think he ever went to bed."

"Don has ‘the vision thing,’" said Joseph Basque, the Shelterbelt’s executive director. "He sees things in scripts — how to make it work, how to make the characters real, how to draw out the humor of a situation. I was fascinated at how many people last summer told me that they really didn’t like the script for The Marriage of Bette and Boo, but they really liked the production he directed. He managed to take a stage full of unlovable characters, draw out the dark, miserable humor of their lives and somehow move you to tears at the end. He has the same touch, whether it is bawdy and smutty, like his Iron Chef one act for Shelterskelter 6 or an incredibly sophisticated musical like Sunday in the Park with George. And he has done it all over town — Baby D, Bellevue Little Theater, Chanticleer, Dundee Dinner Theater, Omaha Community Playhouse and SNAP!"

Nguyen was born in 1972 in war torn Saigon, Vietnam. He moved with his family — his father was in the Vietnamese navy — to the United States when he was 4 years old. Sponsored by the Dunlap family, the Nguyens settled in Milford, Neb. The middle child between two sisters, Don attended school in Lincoln and eventually enrolled at the University of Nebraska where he was an architecture major. Deciding he did not want to sit at a desk all day drafting, he switched to the theater program, even though he considered himself "extremely shy and introverted." A more compelling reason for the change was to connect with his hard working father. "'Three’s Company’ was my dad’s favorite show," he said. "I wished I could make my dad laugh like that." His first role at UNL was in Anton Chekhov’s The Bear, which he said had his dad "laughing his ass off." "That kept me in (the program)," he said. "I saw how my dad enjoyed it."

The acting bug bit Nguyen hard, and he auditioned for as many shows as he could; many of them in Omaha. When he was 19 or 20 years old, he receuved his big break. "I got a call from Creighton University for M. Butterfly so I auditioned and was cast," he said. "It was a role of a lifetime."

Realizing his acting prospects were better in Omaha, he quit school, packed up his belongings and moved. No longer living at home, he soon discovered the cruel reality that a person has to work to pay the bills. "For three to four years, I didn’t do any theater," he said. "I got scared." M. Butterfly was a role to live up to, and he admits he became a bit elitist when it came to auditioning. "Back then I thought the [Omaha Community] Playhouse was it," he said.

Deciding he would have to start over, he auditioned for a bit part in Alias at the Shelterbelt Theatre. "I got the smallest role at the smallest theater," he said. "It was great. For about three and one-half minutes, I got to stand up there and get the crap beat out of me."

He meshed well with the people at the cozy theater so he decided he would become more involved. Following his onstage debut, he directed the Midwest premiere of Departures and then contributed an original script for Shelterskelter 3. Next, he was given the opportunity to direct his full-length play, Three To Beam Up, a piece that deals with a man who believes he is a starship captain. Wanting to assume even more responsibilities, Nguyen took on marketing duties at the theater. He had completed a marketing degree at Bellevue University, and this seemed the perfect fit.

1998 was a year of change, for the theater and it began experiencing some growing pains. "We became a legal entity and put some bylaws in, and [subsequently] a lot of people lost interest," he said. In fact, by this point the people who had been building the theater since 1993 — Scott Working, Rob Baker, Alicia Dunn, L. Scott Blankenship and Christa Miller — had either gone onto other projects or were in the process of leaving.

Nguyen views what happened to him as a frog that’s been sitting in a pan of water on the stove. Because the heat increases slowly, the frog doesn’t realize it is slowly being cooked to death. Like that amphibian, Nguyen one day woke up to find that he was the only one left; it was truly a case of finiding a way to keep the theater going or closing up shop. Naturally he chose the former.

Since 1999 he not only has helped renovate the theater — the seating has been improved and a lobby and bar area was created — but he also has worked with SNAP! Productions to create a cooperative partnership; the two entities share the space at 3225 California St. A full-time computer programmer, Nguyen devotes whatever spare time he has to the Shelterbelt, often contributing scripts and providing acting talent, direction and set design in the process.

Despite his fierce loyalty to the Shelterbelt, he’s happy to lend his talents to other theaters. "It’s dangerous to stay in one place," he said. In fact, some of his favorite roles were played at other venues. "I loved playing Bob in Beyond Therapy (at SNAP!), and I liked doing Bondage at the Blue Barn. I was dressed in a leather face mask through the entire play and only at the end revealed myself. I had to learn to talk with the rest of my body." His acting has garnered him effusive praise from his critics and his peers. "I don’t want to take away from his directing, but I told him he ought to become an actor," Obradovich said. "He has so many areas of talent."

Basque agrees: "I think he's a remarkable talent. There are few people around here that have the range of exceptional theater talents that he possesses. He is an outstanding actor and a gifted director. He has received multiple TAG nominations for directing both comedy/dramas and musicals. As an actor he is equally adept in a straight comedic role or in a hardcore drama. He is a talented lighting and sound designer, he is an imaginative set designer and an excellent writer. As you can see in Tommy, his talent extends to film as well. Plus he has designed wonderful Web pages for Shelterbelt and SNAP!"

Many who have worked with Nguyen highlight his professionalism and sensitivity to the craft. Erika Hall, who stars as the mother in Tommy, explained it best: "On a personal level, Don is a fun, almost childlike guy. He’s very trustworthy; the guy would do anything for you. He gets a big kick out of little things, and if he gets amused by something the whole room starts laughing before long because he has this great, kind of infectious laugh that just takes everyone else right along with it. His professional demeanor is another story though. He is brilliant as a director, very intense, and you can almost see the wheels turning. He’s great at visualizing what will work, and he understands whatever character he is trying to get out of you to the last detail."

When it comes to drama, she said that Nguyen realizes the importance of character development. Recently she said she e-mailed him a few detailed questions about a complex character, and he responded with a page-long explanation of what she had been through and how she's feeling. "If you totally understand the director's perspective on where he thinks the character is coming from, it's a lot easier to give that director what he's looking for," she said. "He encourages his actors to use their own interpretation of the character, too, because ultimately you have to be comfortable with what you are doing or it won't work. His stuff always works. I've never seen him do anything bad, and I'm 100 percent sure I never will."

When it comes to acting, Nguyen said a person has to be without fear. "Acting is about doing what’s interesting," he said. His instincts have proven him right more times than not and he has several Theatre Arts Guild awards to prove it. One of the more challenging roles he has undertaken was the lead character, Mickey, in Love Is Strange, an original play by Daena Schweiger about domestic abuse. "It was an interesting experience for me," he said. "I had to dig deep to pull that out."

To date, one of his most rewarding projects has been an adaptation of The Who’s rock opera Tommy, which ended Aug. 10. For the show, he had to figure out how to get a Broadway-size production into a space that seats less than 50 people. "The sound was the biggest obstacle to overcome," he said. "It was one of the drawbacks. We had to soundproof the walls, but the sound rocks. During tech week I got about six hours of sleep." His dedication was rewarded with consistently sold-out performances. Nguyen himself said he enjoys acting but prefers directing. "It forces you to have a big picture. When I get involved in a show, I look at all the elements. Now I have a set of glasses — it’s like in The Matrix you start to see the code."

Even with a board in place, and a public relations person and executive director to carry some of the Shelterbelt burden, Nguyen is not about to slow down any time soon. He already has committed to a production of The King & I, his wife, D. Laureen Pickle will co-star, and he is busy writing an original musical; he’s writing the book to accompany songs written by a well-known rock group. If he pulls this project off — he is in negotiations — this might prove once and for all — there’s nothing beyond Nguyen’s grasp.