By Andrew Winter
for the Register
Student Theater and Godly Evangelization, or S.T.A.G.E., founded by Lee Ann Hotovy of St. Teresa Parish in Lincoln, has been bringing both actors and audiences closer to Christ for 25 years running.
Hotovy will host a 25th anniversary reunion Sunday, July 27, from 4 to 8 p.m. in the parish hall at Sacred Heart in Lincoln, near 31st and S streets. The event will include a video montage, photos, activities and more, and all are welcome to attend.
When Hotovy was homeschooling her children in the late 1990s, she began putting on simple plays with neighboring homeschool families, both to have fun and to enrich the children’s education. In the fall of 1999, she officially launched S.T.A.G.E., which is open to students and adults across the Catholic community. The following March, Hotovy produced the first official S.T.A.G.E. play, on the story of the Incarnation. That September, she began the 20-year journey of the Fatima play, telling the story of the Marian apparitions in Portugal. The Fatima production took place annually in connection with the Marian Mass, rosary, and candlelight procession held at the Catholic Center in Waverly. This event culminated on the 100th anniversary of the Fatima miracle in 2017.
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Courtesy photos
As of 2025, hundreds of children have performed in numerous S.T.A.G.E. plays in a variety of venues, including St. Teresa Parish in Lincoln, Pius X High School in Lincoln, Boys Town in Omaha, and Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan. Hotovy has written more than 20 scripts over the 25 years of S.T.A.G.E.’s history, and has turned many of them into singing, dancing, laughing musical comedies.
From its beginnings, S.T.A.G.E. has produced approximately three plays a year. Anna Hanselmann and, later, Melanie Kottwitz volunteered countless hours to write music for Hotovy’s productions. While Sada Wondercheck contributed to early tunes, to this day almost all S.T.A.G.E. songs are the work of these two composers.
In the first years of S.T.A.G.E. musicals, Kottwitz played the keyboard live for each performance to accompany the student singers, perfectly memorizing each piece so she could play in the darkness of the theater.
“You get comfortable trusting that your fingers know what they’re doing, and you try not to overthink it,” she said.
Along with the music came dance choreography, and Karrie Seeman came on board to teach the children how to perform choreography movements in time with Hanselmann’s and Kottwitz’s music.
“Melanie, Karrie, and Anna – those are the three legs of the tripod,” Hotovy said of the tripod that continues to support both S.T.A.G.E. and Hotovy herself.
Hotovy and her team worked through countless difficulties, mishaps, and inconveniences on every single production, but the grace and favor of the Holy Spirit have always shone through the messiness. When Hotovy was directing St. Therese of Lisieux’s play about Joan of Arc at St. Teresa Parish, the stage manager accidentally spilled black paint all over Joan’s costume.
Hotovy recalled the moment: “Joan of Arc’s white gown is right underneath [the paint can], and he annihilates her gown. And I’m out front getting something fixed, and I just hear this ‘Oh! Oh! Houston, we have a problem!’
“And so I found myself going over to the rectory and being introduced to the laundry room in the basement, which I’ve never seen before in my life, and washing Joan of Arc’s costume before opening night.”
The paint came out splendidly, and even Joan herself—played by Katie (Pynes) Anetsberger—never knew what had happened.
Kottwitz related her own struggles writing music for S.T.A.G.E.’s play about Father Edward Flanagan. She had a severe concussion that week, but by the grace of the Holy Spirit, managed to record a wonderful track in one try, and that scene became perhaps the best part of the whole production.
Soon, S.T.A.G.E. will work in a new space: the old school building of Sacred Heart Parish in Lincoln. The school closed in 2018, and thanks to the generosity of the pastor, Msgr. Timothy Thorburn, Sacred Heart has allowed Hotovy to remodel the old school gym into a new theater and arts center. Work is currently underway, and Hotovy’s team hopes to complete the project by the summer of 2026.
Hotovy recalled many additional “heroes” of S.T.A.G.E. on the occasion of the 25th anniversary, including Larry Kohmetcher, Felicity Suelter, Mike Zeleny, Amy Johnson, James Duchesneau, Amber Timmer, and Susan Pepino, as well as many photographers, videographers, and seamstresses who helped along the way.
She said her own family members are the brightest stars in the background of S.T.A.G.E.’s mission.
“This wouldn’t have happened without my husband and family support,” Hotovy said. Her husband Steve and daughter-choreographer Lydia have helped keep S.T.A.G.E. running both directly and indirectly for many years.
Hotovy also expressed her “gratitude for the support of the Catholic community … as well as all the families who were involved.”
Hotovy has perfectly fulfilled the exhortation of Pope John Paul II in his 1999 letter to artists: “May the beauty which you pass on to generations still to come be such that it will stir them to wonder!”
