Omaha theater director, visual artist Roxanne Wach, 58, dies

She begged her mom to take her to tryouts, but Mom didn’t like social situations.

“A family friend finally said, ‘If you don’t get this girl to an audition, I will,” Dan said, and her mom relented.

Eventually, young Roxanne was cast in “Cinderella “ at the Omaha Community Playhouse, launching one of her many lifetime vocations.

Family, friends and social media followers are now remembering Roxanne Wach’s community impact and loving personality. She died at age 58 last week in Omaha after several years of ill health.

Above all else, said longtime friend Sherry Fletcher, she was kind, and she delighted in helping others.

“She was one of those take-the-shirt-off-my-back kind of people, truly a caring person who would literally do anything for you,” Fletcher said.

Roxanne was born in Fremont, Nebraska, and raised in Omaha, graduating from Westside High School. She earned a degree in fine art, commercial art and communication from Midland Lutheran College in Fremont, now Midland University.

She directed or choreographed scores of live theater productions in the Omaha area and performed or worked behind the scenes in many more. She was associated with SNAP! Productions from its inception until 2003, then became the executive director of the now-dormant Shelterbelt Theatre. She also has directed pieces for the Great Plains Theatre Commons every year since it was founded.

She was a board member for the Theatre Arts Guild and the winner of numerous theater awards.

“She directed me in several shows,” Fletcher said. “I love her as a director, and I thought I did some of my best work for her.”

Directing, said Dan, was a natural for her.

“She was intensely organized and very detail-oriented. When she read a script she was going to direct, she would start to see it in her head, and when she was done, she would re-create that,” he said.

With a journalism degree, Roxanne liked to write and was a member of the International Center for Women Playwrights, for whom she did graphic design.

She also had a trained voice and, with Dan, sang in the Opera Omaha chorus for a time. And she played the guitar.

Her impact extended to the art community. As a visual artist, she participated in shows at galleries across the Omaha area. And, as executive director of Compassion Omaha, she combined her kind heart with her creativity.

Dan said the couple founded the nonprofit group to encourage Omahans to reach out to one another in kindness.

“The premise of the group is how we treat each other matters, and you can spread compassion at home, school or work,” he said. “It was our way of trying to do something in the community.

Roxanne curated art shows centered on compassion at the Om Center in the Old Market. At events, her group would ask people to write notes about what compassion meant to them and what it might look like. They then gave them to local artists, who produced a piece based on the responses and displayed it.

Inspired by the message of Buddhism, she sponsored Omaha visits for groups of Tibetan monks.

She also was a licensed massage therapist and had a reputation as a healer. She started at an early age during the run of “Cinderella.

“When dancers would be feeling aches and pains, she would come over to them with her hands and say, ‘I know how to fix that’ and she would make their pains go away,” Dan said.

Travel was another passion for Roxanne. Her husband said their journeys took them all over the world.

The couple met at a surprise birthday party thrown by a mutual friend. They were together for 35 years and married for 32. Dan said.

“We were a good team, a support system for each other,” he said. “We’ve been able to accomplish so much.”

A memorial service for Roxanne Wach will be held at a later date.