Kristie Berger apologized for looking a little tired. The 43-year-old stage actress from Chicago said she tends to suffer from insomnia every time she begins to work on a new play. In this case, it's two of them.

Berger plays the mother of a 12-year-old boy in "Resident Alien" and the diner owner in William Inge's classic "Bus Stop."

The tall redhead is one of two Equity (union) actors cast in the summer Nebraska Repertory Theatre productions. Nebraska Wesleyan University graduate Joseph S. Moser is the other.

"Resident Alien" opens Thursday at Howell Theatre. It's Stuart Spencer's sly comedy about a green-faced alien bus boy who "jumps ship" when his colleagues land to abduct a test subject.

"Bus Stop" begins the following Thursday, July 14, on the Howell stage. It's Inge's story about a busload of people stranded at a diner during a howling Kansas snowstorm.

Berger is not in the Rep's third play, "Androcles and the Lion," which opened Thursday.

Berger said her lack of sleep stems from wanting to produce the best performances possible for Lincoln audiences.

"I will go to sleep and then wake up and think, ‘What happens if I try this?'" she said.

She'll then roll out of bed and pen her thoughts in her scripts so she won't forget them the following day.

"This goes on all night," she added. "It's ridiculous, but I'm obsessive about my work."

She's not kidding.

The day of the newspaper interview is supposed to be her day off, but she has brought her scripts to a downtown coffee shop to work on her lines.

"I want to be ready," she said. "I can't afford a day off."

Her work ethic is part of the reason she's succeeded in the volatile theater business.

An Indianapolis native, she headed to Chicago after graduating from Washington University in St. Louis. She made theater her major after taking an introductory acting course.

"It wasn't that great of a class, but I knew this was something I wanted to do," she said.

Credit the jolt of energy she felt while performing with others on stage. It was unlike anything she had felt or done before.

"It was the most alive I've ever felt," she said. "It's the way it continues to be."

In Chicago, she paid her dues at smaller theaters before earning roles at such noted places as the Goodman, Steppenwolf and Victory Gardens theaters.

Berger became a "full-time" actress in 2000, meaning she no longer needed to work day jobs, which included gigs with a dating service and a podiatrist's office, to pay the bills.

She supplements her theater work with voice-overs and commercials.

"I'm lucky," she said. "Every day I don't have to work a day job is great."

She wound up in Lincoln after answering a Nebraska Rep audition call in Chicago. She had never been to Nebraska before, other than driving through the state to get somewhere else.

So far, she's enjoying the experience. Two big reasons are the plays.

Berger said Spencer's play is filled with "really smart humor."

"The humor is not jokes," she said. "It comes from these very real situations. I know. It sounds weird because this is a play about an alien coming to Earth."

And Inge, like Tennessee Williams, is known for creating rich, complex characters. "Bus Stop" is filled with several of them.

"I'm kind of the anchor of this place," Berger said of her diner owner role. "I'm like the eye of the storm with all these things going on around me."

Enough things to keep her up at night, working to perfect her character even more.

Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.