Musical based on real-life stories at Omaha's Table Grace Cafe is now onstage (2024)

Hundreds of people have shared their stories, sought help and found hope at Table Grace Cafe over the last 13 years.

The pay-as-you-can restaurant — started in 2011 by Matt Weber, a graduate of a New York City culinary school, and his musician wife, Simone — gives unhoused and low-income Omahans healthy, expertly prepared meals for free, or for nothing more than a few cents and a little labor.

Omaha native Mary Ziska is one recipient. She said she was homeless for a time and “got into a little trouble” with substance abuse. She ended up in Douglas County Drug Court and was sent to treatment.

Over the course of rebuilding her life, she volunteered at the downtown Omaha cafe in 2016 and ended up with a full-time job and a new support system in the Webers and Table Grace community.

Now, she said, “I will forever advocate for this place wherever I go.”

Ziska — who participated in music at Boys Town High School — is getting an unexpected chance to do just that.

She’s a cast member for “Table Grace Cafe: The Musical,” which premiered at the Scottish Rite Center on Friday night.

Simone Weber hatched the idea for the script a few years after the cafe opened, but it took a while to develop.

“I heard all the interesting people who came through (the cafe) and talked about their lives, then thought ‘This place would make an awesome musical,’” she said.

She began writing songs and the notes flowed, and she produced a recording that featured tunes about the cafe. But she struggled writing dialogue for the script’s music-free moments.

She enlisted Matt’s best friend, Jay Gish, who he had known since childhood in Dorchester, Nebraska. The two had remained close at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where Gish studied broadcast journalism, and were in each other’s weddings. Gish had written for the stage before and Simone thought he could help.

Simone and Gish eventually co-wrote the musical.

They had a table reading for the script in 2019, and hoped to have a full production soon after that. Then the pandemic stalled everything for a couple of years.

Simone wasn’t about to give up. When COVID eased, she started looking for venues and found three: The Scottish Rite Center, where shows were performed over the weekend; Benson Theatre at 6054 Maple St., where it will be onstage Thursday through Saturday; and the Lofte Community Theatre in Manley, Nebraska, where it goes Aug. 8 and 9.

Simone found a veteran director, Dr. Laureen Pickle, who has worked at theaters across the Omaha area; a choreographer, Julie Stanfill; a stage manager, Jenny Cupak-Carroll; and a costume designer, longtime Omaha theater teacher and director Todd Uhrmacher, among other helpers.

She even found a company that will turn a painting depicting a day in the life of Table Grace to a backdrop for the traveling set. The painting is hanging at the cafe, which occupies a small space near 16th and Farnam Streets.

The musical’s plot centers on Sara (Simone Weber) and Mark (Joel Woods) and the challenge they face when a developer wants to demolish their cafe to put up a parking lot. They’re seeking funding for a new building so they can continue to serve their community — including Emily, a bullied teen whose parents aren’t around much; a homeless woman who battles addiction (based on Mary Ziska); a veteran who served in Afghanistan and others.

The 20-member cast includes not only people like Ziska and Keenya Barnes-Heyward, who lives above the cafe, but newcomers such as Emily Stover, who will be a sophom*ore at Creighton University and attended open auditions.

“I did it on a whim,” said Stover, who recently appeared in the musical “Heathers” at CU.

She said she hadn’t visited the cafe before that, but now feels like she’s part of the Table Grace community.

“I’ll definitely want to be here after (the show ends),” she said in an interview at the cafe.

For her part, Ziska is thrilled to be in the production.

“Being in a musical has always been on my bucket list,” she said.

She didn’t think it would ever be possible because she has been diagnosed with stage four heart failure.

She’s also gratified that her story is part of the plot. She’s now housed in her own place and is supporting herself, and the help she got from the Webers, she said, was invaluable.

“Matt and Simone were by my side the whole time,” she said.

Simone said she has plans for the musical after the summer performances. She has contracted with a company to get footage for a documentary on the making of “Table Grace Cafe: The Musical” and may try to show it in an Omaha theater as a fundraiser.

She’s also had several people ask her to bring it to their communities, which brings up the possibility of some sort of tour, though logistics might be tough to work out.

“I’d love for it to be on Broadway someday,” she said with a laugh, “so if anybody’s listening and would like to pick it up …”

She got funding for her production from the Nebraska Arts Council, the Nebraska Cultural Endowment and other donors, including people who have bought tickets for people who may not be able to afford them.

Table Grace also gets support from a number of individuals, churches and other organizations here and elsewhere, including Morning Star Lutheran Church in Omaha, where Simone is still the part-time music director.

She said the production also is a fundraiser. The 2024 budget for Table Grace Cafe is about $500,000, and 85% of the people who dine there are homeless and eat for free or for volunteer labor. It has four full-time workers and six part-timers.

The show is also designed to increase the cafe’s visibility in the Omaha area, and, hopefully, to change some hearts and minds, Simone said. She thinks people need to fight the human instinct to look the other way.

“I hope it inspires the entire community of Omaha to look at each other and help,” she said. “I hope that this piece lifts up that there is dignity, humanity, grace and love in every person.”