Blue Barn Theatre

The BLUEBARN Theatre, located at 1106 S. 10th Street in Omaha, Nebraska, is a nationally recognized theater.

BLUEBARN Theatre
Formation1989
TypePerforming Arts Venue
Location
  • Omaha, Nebraska
Artistic director(s)
Susan Clement-Toberer
Websitehttp://bluebarn.org/
BLUEBARN Theatre's new home on 10th St, completed in 2015.

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 front entryway to BLUEBARN Theatre.

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

  1. "The Bluebarn Theatre's History in Omaha, Nebraska". BlueBarn Theatre. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  2. "BLUEBARN Theatre". Actual Architecture. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  3. Freeman, Betsie. "Blue Barn Theatre's new home has slightly larger capacity, one-of-a-kind features". Omaha.com. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  4. "Welcome to the Bluebarn Theatre in Omaha, Nebraska". BlueBarn Theatre. Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  5. "BLUEBARN Theatre's Production Archive and Gallery". BlueBarn Theatre. Retrieved 2020-09-21.

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