LTW's "No Other Nemesis" is Now Showing and it's Hilarious

It's January 28th, 2023, and Live Theatre Workshop is opening another Children's

Theatre show. But this isn't the same as many of their opening nights. In the theatre's courtyard, Assistant Director of Children's Programming Stephen Frankenfield is serving up some delicious nachos, and volunteers are helping give out snow cones to kids in need of a sugar rush before the show. A group of kids is playing in superhero outfits, anxious to see who will win the superhero costume contest.

Live Theatre Workshop (known to many locals as LTW) is a theatre in Tucson, Arizona, which has been open since 1997. They recently moved to a new location on Fort Lowell Road. Their mission is to "entertain, educate, and enlighten" all viewers of their productions.

Most recently, LTW opened "No Other Nemesis" on their Children's Theatre stage. The show was written by Tucson's own Catherine Oda, a teen writer whose first draft of the show debuted as part of LTW's first Young Playwrights of Tucson Competition. The original show was performed on Zoom with a primarily young-adult cast. In an interview with This is Tucson, Oda said that she had written the first draft of "No Other Nemesis" four years prior to its 2023 debut on the LTW stage.

What makes this show so unique is that Oda is not an adult and most of the writers who write the productions performed on the Children's Theatre stage are adults. Oda composed the music for the show as well, the music being a recent addition (the original production did not have music).

I went to the opening of "No Other Nemesis" on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed it. The show is really funny. The writing is fast-paced (except in the moments when the actors onstage go into slow-motion mode) and witty. But the actors add to the humor. The actors increase the "comic-book" dramatics that develop in the show.

The music for this show is also very fun, with intricate rhythms, and the playwright/composer Oda performing accompaniment on the piano. And because the show is a musical, the theatre chose incredible singers as cast members.

The cast is comprised of LTW staff members Amanda Gremel (Director of Children's Programming) and Holli Diffin (Operations Manager), as well as Claire Oda, performing in her first production as an adult, and Gianbari Debora Deebom, who has performed and directed many productions around Tucson.

The cast's voices blend together to create beautiful harmonies, as well as some hilarious evil laughs.

Diffin plays Dr. V, a melodramatic evil villain who is always trying to beat their counterpart, Space Lady. Space Lady is portrayed by Gremel. Both characters must put their differences aside to defeat the new villain in town, The Masquerader, who is played by Deebom. With the help of a reporter/henchman (Claire Oda) and some Bluetooth-intercepting socks, Space Lady and Dr. V. must come together to stop the evil in their city. The show is directed by Leslie Miller, a College of Eastern Utah graduate.

I completely recommend this show to any families looking for great songs and many laughs. I can't wait to see what's next for the incredible cast and their playwright.

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If you go:

"No Other Nemesis" runs Saturdays and Sundays from January 28th through February 12th, 2023 in Live Theatre Workshop's Children's Theatre. The show features Amanda Gremel, Holli Diffin, Gianbari Debora Deebom, and Claire Oda. For tickets and more info, click here!

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