Lawrence creative Anj Marie Riffle’s debut musical will transport Theatre Lawrence to the grit and glamor of the ‘90s with a lead female alto named Presley who’s ready to live deep and sing loud.
The production, “Chasing Nirvana,” is made possible by the Louise ImMasche Striving Artist Fund, named in honor of a Theatre Lawrence star who died last year.
The fund is constructed to help stage a full debut theatre performance from a local creator, and “Chasing Nirvana” is the inaugural show.
“Everybody loved Lou, and everybody wants it to be a success for them and for their legacy,” Riffle said.
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‘Suck the marrow out of life’
Riffle is precisely the type of artist the LISA Fund was created for.
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“Chasing Nirvana” was born from a novel Riffle wrote during COVID. The final product, while “fictionalized to the nth degree,” Riffle said, drew from her own coming-of-age in the 1990s. When she got out of high school, she didn’t want to climb the corporate ladder — she wanted to “suck the marrow out of life.”
But Riffle also wanted to capture the flip side of idealistic youth. What happens when you get to your late 20s and 30s, and your dreams don’t sparkle in the way you thought they would?
Riffle finished the novel but wasn’t sure what to do with it. During a playwriting class at Theatre Lawrence, she transformed a chapter into a scene and ultimately it dawned on her: she needed to write a musical.
That’s when she found the LISA Fund.
“It’s a daunting task to think of writing a musical and then not knowing what,” she said. “This just lit the fire for me to see what happens, and I wrote it and submitted and hoped.”
Riffle wrote the music herself, poured her soul and her stories into the narrative, and even created the art on the show poster.
She had the opportunity to also see both staged readings of ImMasche’s self-titled work, “Louise,” which she said was pivotal in her own playwriting journey.
She admired ImMasche’s warmth, work ethic and their all-encompassing spirit, which she witnessed firsthand as assistant director for ImMasche’s last tour in “Rocky Horror Show” at Theatre Lawrence.
“If you ever felt like there were no small parts in theater, working on ‘Rocky’ and working with Louise would definitely make you feel that,” she said.
‘The shiniest star there was’
ImMasche was a crown jewel on Theatre Lawrence stages and a beloved member of the performance community in Lawrence and Kansas City.
“Some people in this world are lucky enough to feel called to make and create,” said Zak Grant, ImMasche’s husband. “I always admired that about them, and their expression was in theatre.”
ImMasche was killed in a car crash in October. They had been driving home from a sold-out performance of “Rocky Horror” at Theatre Lawrence, where they were reprising the starring role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
Sean Kenealy, the director for “Chasing Nirvana,” worked with ImMasche while directing “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”
Kenealy hadn’t met ImMasche before auditions, but everybody kept telling him to hold off on casting until he did.
When the time came, “it was like a wave,” Kenealy said.
ImMasche landed the starring role of Hedwig, which their obituary cited as the performance they were most proud of.
“They were just the shiniest star there was, in my opinion,” he added.
Grant said that even though ImMasche was working on theatrical projects in Kansas City, Lawrence — and Theatre Lawrence, specifically — was always home to them and was where the couple met. He said it was only fitting to create ImMasche’s honorary fund with the organization.
ImMasche penned their own musicals and wore endless hats, Grant said, from director to producer to performer. But there were very few opportunities in the area to stage their work without compromise.
“That’s a large skill set that’s often very hard to surmount, especially because they were a person who was ‘message first, money later,’ and that’s not always an easy sell when you’re talking to people that are trying to run a business and make a show,” Grant said.
He said ImMasche would have been a shoo-in for the LISA Fund.
“I don’t really care about what’s going to make the next Broadway show,” Grant said. “I wanted something that somebody wrote sincerely from the heart with a message that they wanted to make and wanted to send out.”
Jamie Ulmer, executive director of Theatre Lawrence, said the fund is housed in the Douglas County Community Foundation and currently has more than $18,000.
Grant was on the panel alongside Ulmer and other Theatre Lawrence staff that selected “Chasing Nirvana” as the inaugural LISA Fund production.
They first reviewed the submissions anonymously and then brought the writers in for interviews. Grant was moved by Riffle’s vision and the songs, which evoked some of ImMasche’s ‘90s grunge rock favorites, like Courtney Love and Hole.
Riffle wrote all of the music starting on her acoustic guitar. She said she admires when sopranos hit the stratosphere, but there are very few leading ladies in the alto range like her star, Presley.
“If you were gonna just walk into a dive bar in the 90s, (this is) kind of what you would see on the stage, and it might be a little rough around the edges, and that’s OK,” Riffle said. “I hope that it has heart.”
Chase your Nirvana
In seven weeks, Presley will storm the stage with a full band and around 11 other actors to figure out what she needs, not just what she wants. Viewers can be on the hunt for ‘80s and ‘90s easter eggs, with references to “High Fidelity,” “The Breakfast Club,” “Reality Bites” and more.
Kenealy said it’s hard to quantify what goes into making a show like “Chasing Nirvana” because it doesn’t happen without the backing of an entity like Theatre Lawrence.
The LISA Fund will help pay for staff and crew time, give the musicians stipends and fund a full video and audio recording that Riffle can use as a future demo reel.
The number one production challenge, according to Ulmer, is to encourage viewers to branch out to new shows.
“People go to a familiar title or something that’s based on a movie that they’ve heard of, and we’ve got to keep taking risks on going to see something that maybe you’ve never heard of before,” he said. “And you’ll be pleasantly surprised that you did.”
Grant said he recommends pairing “Chasing Nirvana” with “Hedwig” — which also has a screen adaptation directed by John Cameron Mitchell — and the 2019 musical “Almost Famous.” Riffle says it draws on the camp of “Rocky Horror” with a dash of grown-up “Grease.”
Folks can catch “Chasing Nirvana” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2 and Saturday, Oct. 3 at Theatre Lawrence, 4660 Bauer Farm Drive.
Tickets cost $15 for adults over 18, and $10 for students 18 and younger or seniors 62 and older. All ticket sales will go back into the LISA Fund for next year’s production. Purchase yours at this link.
Learn more about the LISA Fund at this link and make a donation at this link.
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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at [email protected].
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