Blue Barn Theatre
The BLUEBARN Theatre, located at 1106 S. 10th Street in Omaha, Nebraska, is a nationally recognized theater.
| Formation | 1989 |
|---|---|
| Type | Performing Arts Venue |
| Location |
|
Artistic director(s) | Susan Clement-Toberer |
| Website | http://bluebarn.org/ |
Begun in 1989, the theater was founded by a group of 1988 graduates from the theater program at Purchase College: Kevin Lawler, Hughston Walkinshaw, Nils Haaland and Mary Theresa Green.
History [1]
The BLUEBARN Theatre's history began in the late 1980s with graduates from the Professional Theatre Training Conservatory at the State University of New York at Purchase. Seeking to continue the deeply shared artistic aesthetic and practice that they had developed over their four years of conservatory training, and also to create theatre outside the constraints of New York City's commercial market, they joined forces with the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts and produced their first play: America in Pieces, three one-acts by David Mamet, Spalding Grey, and Sam Shepard. The first production was produced with $75 and two white sheets and performed in the middle of a bitter cold February. The response to the work was overwhelming, and the BLUEBARN was born. In the Fall of 1990, after working for two seasons at the Bemis Foundation, the BLUEBARN renovated an empty storefront building on 13th street in downtown Omaha, creating a small black box performance space that was to be the BLUEBARN home for the next six years.
By 1991, the BLUEBARN was growing fast, adding new core members from a variety of backgrounds, all sharing a commitment to the BLUEBARN's original vision. That year, the BLUEBARN established a tradition of producing original scripts. The first, called Untitled, was an improvisational piece using large, leather body masks, music, and dance. Since that time, BLUEBARN has produced many new works for the stage including The Empty Plough, What the Mirror Gave Me: An Original Play About Frida Kahlo, Murder In the Heartland, 5000 Nights. Reform School Timmy!, Go-Go Boys from Planet X!, Minstrel Show: The Lynching of William Brown, Chelsea/Cruelties, Little Nelly's Naughty Noel, Toxic Avenger: The Musical!, and Red Summer.
In June 1997, the BLUEBARN lost its home on 13th Street and was forced to go “on location” to survive. A potentially disastrous situation was averted and the BLUEBARN produced a season of unique and powerful productions in the abandoned Burlington Train Station (current home of KETV's Burlington Station Studios), a former department store, and the Douglas County Courthouse rotunda.
In 1998, the tenth anniversary season, the BLUEBARN moved into its new home, an 86-seat proscenium arch theatre in Omaha's Old Market. The BLUEBARN also opened the Abbott/Pinkoff Art Gallery, providing local visual artists a place to display their work.
By the year 2000, BLUEBARN's national reputation was also increasing. In 2003, the theatre was honored to participate in the 10th anniversary of the Vietnam Women's Memorial in Washington D.C. by performing its award-winning play A Piece of my Heart about women in the Vietnam War. In 2004, the BLUEBARN traveled to New York to participate in the New York City International Fringe Theatre Festival with its original play 5000 Nights. In 2002 and 2003, the BLUEBARN created a unique fundraising event, “On the Set with…” which featured up-close interviews and film clips with Oscar winning writer/director Alexander Payne and Emmy winning Actress Edie Falco (The Sopranos).
In 2012, the BLUEBARN announced that the future home of the theatre at 10th & Pacific was being designed, and launched a capital campaign to raise significant funds in the community to build their dream theater.[2]
BLUEBARN broke ground in Summer 2014 and built a beautiful theater (with the help of many local artisans), and moved into their new 96-seat home in the fall of 2015.[3]
Today, the BLUEBARN Theatre has long established itself as Omaha's premier professional theatre. After producing over 100 plays throughout its history since 1989, the BLUEBARN's reputation for high-quality entertainment and pursuit of stories that challenge both theatre artists and patrons is solid. The BLUEBARN's primary goals are to bring in more professional actors and designers from around the country and to increase awareness of the BLUEBARN in Omaha and surrounding communities.
Mission Statement
The BLUEBARN Theatre exists to provoke thought, emotion, action, and change by producing contemporary, professional theatre.[4]
Production History [5]
* Written for and originally produced by the BLUEBARN Theatre
Season 1 - 1989-90
America In Pieces
– Rivkala's Ring
– Duck Variations
– 4H Club
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea
American Buffalo
Season 2 - 1990-91
Perhaps: 3 One Acts by Samuel Beckett
Sam Bam Thank You Ma’am! One Acts by Sam Shepard
The Examination
The Black and White
The Dumbwaiter
Tent Meeting
Brilliant Traces
Harold Pinter One Acts: Other Places, Victoria Station, and A Kind of Alaska
Untitled*
Season 3 - 1991-92
The Syndrome: Three One-Acts About Living, Loving and Dying with AIDS
Orphans
Fortinbras Gets Drunk
The Empty Plough*
Ficky Stingers
Season 4 - 1992-93
Baby with the Bathwater
Neon Psalms
Upon a Time*
The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me
Season 5 - 1993-94
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
Death and the Maiden
The Empty Plough (at the Lied Center, Lincoln, NE)
Italian American Reconciliation
Season 6 - 1994-95
Keely and Du
Orgasmo Adulto Escapes From the Zoo
What the Mirror Gave Me: An Original Play About Frida Kahlo*
The Zoo Story
Season 7 - 1995-96
In Bocca di Lupa*
Guest Artist Series: Cowboy Mouth, Getting It (Jane Hill One-Woman Show)
Bearing Witness*
5000 Nights*
Season 8 - 1996-97
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
Bondage
Reform School Timmy*
Murder in the Heartland*
Season 9 - 1997-98
Go Go Boys From Planet X*
Quills
Reform School Timmy
Minstrel Show; or The Lynching of William Brown*
Season 10 - 1998-99
Waiting for Godot
Oleanna
The Baltimore Waltz
Three Viewings
Simpatico
Season 11 - 1999-2000
Something is Wrong*
The Hot L Baltimore
The Sampler Plate
Season 12 - 2000-01
Les Belles Soeurs
The Swan
Tartuffe
Wit
Lightning Festival of One-Act Plays*
Vampire Lesbians of Sodom
Season 13 - 2001-02
The Night of the Iguana
The Santaland DiariesThe Ice Fishing Play
Fuddy Meers
Five Women Wearing the Same Dress
Season 14 - 2002-03
Little Nelly's Naughty Noel*
Arcadia
A Piece of My Heart
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Season 15 - 2003-04
Cruelties/Chelsea*
The Santaland Diaries
Hi Hat Hattie!
Vieux Carré
Toxic Avenger: the Musical!*
Season 16 - 2004-05
5000 Nights*
Poseidon! An Upside Down Musical!!!
Edward the Second, a chronicle play
Love Letters
Big Love
Season 17 - 2005-06
The Dresser
The Santaland Diaries
Minstrel Show, or the Lynching of William Brown
Thom Pain (based on nothing)
BLUEBARN Music Festival
Season 18 - 2006-07
The Pillowman
Mad About the Boy!*
The Exonerated
Six Degrees of Separation
BlueBarn Music Festival
Season 19 - 2007-08
Seascape
The Santaland Diaries
The Tulip*
Man from Nebraska
Five Women Wearing the Same Dress
Season 20 - 2008-09
The Goat or Who is Sylvia?
The Odd Couple (Partnership with Brigit Saint Brigit)
Wit
Reefer Madness/The Musical
Season 21 - 2009-10
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Silent Night of the Lambs
Hot ‘n’ Throbbing
Rabbit Hole
Season 22 - 2010-11
Talk Radio
Jacob Marley Christmas Carol
Three Tall Woman
Reefer Madness – The Musical
Season 23 - 2011-12
Bug
Every Christmas Story Ever Told and Then Some
In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)
Spring Awakening
Season 24 - 2012-13
Red
Who Killed Santa?
A Behanding In Spokane
The 39 Steps
Season 25 - 2013-14
God Of Carnage
Jacob Marley Christmas Carol
Gnit
33 Variations
Season 26 - 2014-15
American Buffalo
Every Xmas Story Ever Told (and then some!)
Standing On Ceremony (The Gay Marriage Plays)
Bad Jews
Our Town
Season 27 - 2015-16
The Grown-Up
Little Nelly's Naughty Noël
Frost/Nixon
The Christians
Heathers: The Musical
Season 28 - 2016-17
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
The Ultimate Christmas Show (Abridged)
Hir
Silent Sky
Priscilla Queen of the Desert the Musical
Season 29 - 2017-18
Every Brilliant Thing
The 39 Steps
Venus In Fur
Nureyev's Eyes
The City In The City In The City
Season 30 - 2018-19
Circle Mirror Transformation
An Act of God
I and You
Indecent
The Woodsman
Season 31 - 2019-20
Red Summer*
A Very Die Hard Christmas
Wakey, Wakey
Marjorie Prime **
A Chorus Line **
**Cancelled due to COVID-19
See also
References
- "The Bluebarn Theatre's History in Omaha, Nebraska". BlueBarn Theatre. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
- "BLUEBARN Theatre". Actual Architecture. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
- Freeman, Betsie. "Blue Barn Theatre's new home has slightly larger capacity, one-of-a-kind features". Omaha.com. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
- "Welcome to the Bluebarn Theatre in Omaha, Nebraska". BlueBarn Theatre. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
- "BLUEBARN Theatre's Production Archive and Gallery". BlueBarn Theatre. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
External links
| Topics |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Geography | ||
| History | ||
| Government | ||
| Education | ||
| People |
| |
| ||
