Although she has lived on the Monterey Peninsula since 1980 in the house that she and her husband inherited in Pacific Grove, Neva Hahns did not appear on a local stage until the spring of 1995. However, her life as an actress actually began in Toledo, Ohio, where she performed in high school productions, and continued at the University of Toledo with the role of Maggie in THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER. Her acting experiences in college led her to join the Toledo Repertory Group.

She loved acting but needed to make a living, so she decided to move to New York to seek work in publishing. Her first job after college was as a proofreader for Macmillan Publishers; she specialized in children's books. She continued proofreading for Marvel Comics, among other things making sure that each comic strip character was correctly matched with his or her dialogue balloons. After World War II she left publishing and the East Coast to take a secretarial job for several years with the U. S. Army in Germany. While working in Germany, Neva joined an American dramatics group. Upon her return to the States, she lived first in Denver and then in San Francisco. She then returned to Europe, went back to New York, and finally settled in Los Angeles. Wherever she roamed, Neva always enjoyed attending the local theatre presentations.

In Los Angeles, she acquired a teaching credential and spent the next twenty years in L. A. public schools teaching English, journalism and drama. When she and her husband retired and moved to Pacific Grove, her husband's health failed, so Neva spent the next several years caring for him. During that period, she managed to serve on the P. G. Arts Commission, where she met actor/art gallery owner Skip Kadish. Neva told him of her previous experience in the theatre, and he encouraged her to audition for the Unicorn production of I HATE HAMLET. She won a role in the Carey Crockett production and made her first appearance on a Monterey stage in April of '95.

Neva Hahns in THE RIVALS May 1996

Since her local debut, the versatile actress has appeared in l5 local plays and in a wide variety of roles. She played the mother of Professor Higgins in PYGMALION and The Ghost of Christmas Past in A CHRISTMAS CAROL. She was a woman trying to get her family together in ASPIRIN & ELEPHANTS and a woman who felt she was a victim of life in BRUTALITY OF FACT. In the Conrad Selvig production, SCOTLAND ROAD, at the Cherry Foundation, Neva played a one-hundred-year-old man who survived the sinking of the Titanic by disguising himself as a woman in order to qualify for the first life boat. She was one of Jake's seven women in JAKE'S WOMEN and played multiple characters in Marcia Hovick's production of SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY at the Indoor Forest Theatre.

She was one of two sweet old ladies who put lonely old men out of their misery (after first making certain of the men's religion) in ARSENIC AND OLD LACE. This past June, Neva Hahns sang her first musical role; she was Mrs. Peachum in the Unicorn Theatre production of THREE PENNY OPERA. She has become such a mainstay of local productions that MPC drama department head Peter DeBono asked her to read several months before he cast TARTUFFE on the main stage of MPC.

Like many other truly busy people, Neva finds time for volunteer work. She is on the boards of both Unicorn Theatre and Pacific Grove's Museum of Natural History Association, and, for the latter, she is editor of the quarterly newsletter. She is also active in the Alzheimer's Association and Health Projects Center in Salinas.

When asked if she had a secret ambition, Neva's response was "You bet! I've always wanted to be a sultry chanteuse in a smoky nightclub. And one of these days, I'm going to have a shot at Norma Desmond in SUNSET BOULEVARD produced by somebody, somewhere." Neva feels fortunate to have been able to do so many parts and to meet "so many wonderful, talented people" connected with local theatre. "And to realize that there are, indeed, great chances out there...even for old broads like me."