Don’t let the dress fool you.
The gorgeous white gown with silver sequins and velvet adorns a pure villain. Margy Ryan wears it in the Lincoln Community Playhouse production of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”
Returning to the Playhouse stage for the first time since starring in “Dixie Swim Club” in 2011, Ryan will play the White Witch in an adaptation of the C.S. Lewis classic.
“I’m an evil character who gets to look nice,” Ryan said of her dress designed by costumer Karen Statham.
When told her White Witch sounded a bit like Cruella de Vil from “101 Dalmatians,” Ryan agreed.
“That’s not a bad comparison,” she said. “But I want to kill children instead of puppies.”
Scary stuff.
Directed by Dustin Mosko, a graduate assistant at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” opens the Playhouse’s 70th season. Performances begin Friday on the mainstage.
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“Wardrobe” is the first of seven young adult novels making up Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia.” It (and the play) tell the story of four children (Carson Cash, Amanda Schumacher, Matt Stephens and Colleen O’Gara) who inadvertently wander from an old wardrobe into the exciting, never-to-be-forgotten Narnia, where the great lion Aslan (Walter J. McDowell III) struggles against the White Witch (Ryan).
For Ryan, the play is sort of coming full circle for her. A veteran of 39 shows in 17 years, she first appeared in a children’s classic: the stage adaptation of Madeline L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time” in February 1998 at the Playhouse. Ryan had a supporting role in “Wrinkle,” a play that featured her daughter Caitlin (McCleery) Casella as the lead, Meg.
“My daughter and I both loved the book,” Ryan remembered. “She was active in the Playhouse, doing tech and acting. She always kept saying, ‘you need to come and audition with me.’”
Ryan admitted to being a Lewis fan. She’s read “Wardrobe” multiple times and seen the movie and BBC series. She also played Aunt Letty in “The Magician’s Nephew,” the sixth book in the Narnia collection and a prequel to “Wardrobe.”
She showed up to auditions hoping to land the Aslan role. She even frizzed up her long hair into a bushy mane.
“I thought it would be fun,” she said, “but I got the witch.” Not that she’s complaining, because “evil is always fun to play.”
This isn’t even her first time as a witch on stage. She portrayed one of three in Flatwater Shakespeare’s production of “Macbeth,” but noted that director Bob Hall toned down the witchy aspects of the characters.
“He said there would be no cackling, no pointy hats and no green makeup,” she recalled. “I do some cackling (in ‘Wardrobe’), but there’s no pointy hat. It’s a crown.”
And a beautiful white dress.
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