TAGLines The Newsletter of the Theatre Arts Guild, Inc. – May 2006 Mary Carrick, President Daena Schweiger, Chair/Editor www.theatreartsguild.com What an exciting next few months for theatre in Omaha. Aside from companies mounting their final and near final shows of their seasons, the Great Plains Theatre Conference is coming to our city starting at the end of this month. Many area theatres are participating in the Conference’s Play Labs, providing directors and actors to perform readings of chosen original scripts. A number TAG of other theatres are participating in the conference’s evening programs during the week long event. TAG will also be featured on Sunday evening, May 28th, with a 5-7 minute presentation. N IGHT O UT To all those participating, “break a leg”! What a great opportunity this is for our theatre community to shine! To register for the Conference, visit www.mccneb.edu/theatreconference Best Little Whorehouse in Texas A few other notes… Thursday, May 4th 7:30 PM Chanticleer Community Theater PROGRAMS: We’re excited about the progress we’ve made this year on our workshop programs and Crossing Delancey partnerships with other local arts organizations in terms of reduced admission fees. We look Thursday, May 19th forward to offering more educational opportunities during the course of the year. 8:00 PM Bellevue Little Theatre PUBLICITY: TAG will once again be featured in the Dex Yellow Pages with a ½ page advertisement – this time __________________________ in full color! Thank you to all theatres who have offered advertising trades in order to make this possible. Be looking for a banner on the Dex website as well as some exciting publicity through WOWT. More on that in a future issue! HIS SSUE T I BOARD ELECTIONS: On Stage News TAG is seeking enthusiastic members to run for the Board of Directors. Candidates should be The Green Room / Auditions proactive in bringing new ideas to the table, able to follow through on responsibilities, and available to attend regularly monthly meetings. Those interested should contact Fred Goodhew at Other Good Stuff [email protected]. Terms are three years in length and candidates are elected by the membership. Ballots will be included in Awards Gala invitations along with candidate bios. Election results will TAG Award Info be announced at the Gala. Theatre Planning Calendar TAG AWARDS: __________________________ You know, the TAG Awards isn’t just for our members, it’s open to anyone who loves theatre (and th even if they don’t!). When you begin making your plans to attend the Gala on August 6 think about those you know who may be interested in also attending. Consider forming a table if you N EW haven’t done so in the past. Of, if you’ve never attended or haven’t in the last several years, consider joining us again! Plans are already underway to make this year’s event, Something’s MEMBERS Coming, the grandest ever. I wish I had some witty words for this month’s issue. As it stands, I’m writing a few sentences at a time in between trips to my daughter’s nursery. Losing her pacifier seems to be a traumatic event. No new members for May Which makes me think…there are many similarities to theatre and babies. They are born, evolve, are fulfilling, challenging, and not one day is the same as the last. For some, theatre is also a 24- hour job, or so it often seems! Bottom line, I can’t wait to take her to her first musical. Until next time… Page 1 On Stage News * Opera Omaha Presents * The Urban Prairie Puppet Company Presents Abduction from the Seraglio Puppet Factory May 3 – May 7, 2006 May 13, 2006 As a hilarious conclusion to a successful season, Opera Omaha will The last puppet show of the 2006 season at the Grande Olde Players present an original new production of Mozart’s Abduction from the theatre, 2339 N. 90th Street, will take place on Saturday, May 13. Seraglio May 3- 7, 2006. This charming and popular opera, which "Puppet Factory" will feature puppets of all styles, shapes and sizes Opera Omaha touts as “the I Love Lucy of the 18th century,” offers a doing solo numbers and bits. Audience members will then have a satirical and timely twist on cultural differences between Europeans chance after the show to make their own pop-up puppet! and Middle Easterners. Performances are May 3 and 5 at 7:30 pm, and May 7 at 2:00 pm at the Orpheum Theater, Slosburg Hall. Tickets are $11 to $91 and are available through Opera Omaha at * The Shelterbelt Theatre Presents 402-34-OPERA or online at www.operaomaha.org. Additionally Defending Marriage tickets are available through Ticket Omaha at 402-345-0606. May 4 – May 14, 2006 The Shelterbelt Theatre proudly presents the new drama Defending * Dana College Theater Presents Marriage, by Joe Basque. Defending Marriage is a story of the clash between sincere faith and true love. Fr. Delaney and Gene Novotny Return to the Forbidden Planet have rationalized their relationship with their faith, until Delaney is May 5 – May 7, 2006 tapped to run a "defense of marriage" campaign. Carmen has turned Dana College Theater presents Bob Carlton’s wonderful, zany to her faith after a divorce, until a new love challenges her jukebox musical, “Return to the Forbidden Planet.” This outrageous beliefs. Will they chose faith? Or love? And at what cost? Joe show combines real Shakespeare, fake Shakespeare, 1950’s B- Basque's last play, Ping Pong Diplomacy, won a Theatre Arts Guild movie science fiction and pop tunes from the late fifties and early award and a Nebraska Arts Council fellowship, and recently sixties into a musical theater romp that will have you laughing, premiered Off Broadway. Don't miss this new, thought provoking singing and dancing in the aisles. Directed by Paul Schneider and drama. Nick Zadina directs an outstanding cast, including Bernie Choreographed by Michelle Garrity, with Music Direction by Clare Clark, Jerry Evert, Barb Ross, Tyler Swain, and Tim Herrington. Cowing, this lighthearted show features twenty of the talented Dana Connie Jo Podendorf will stage manage, with lighting design by Tom College Theater students who have made our musical theater Reardon, sound design by Molly Welsh, set design by Michael program one of the finest in the state of Nebraska. Come to the Taylor-Stewart, properties by JoAnn Goodhew, sound operation by opening weekend so that you will have the opportunity to experience Andy Niess and lightboard operation by Sam McGahan. The this delightful musical more than once. The show runs May 5th and production runs through May 14. Show times are Thursday through 6th at 7:30 and May 7th at 2:00 in the Lauritzen Theater on the Dana Saturday at 8 pm and Sundays at 6 pm, with a final matinee on College campus in Blair, Nebraska (just a country mile north, etc.) Sunday, May 14 at 2 pm. Ticket prices are $15 for adults, $12 for Tickets are only $7.50, and you can reserve them by call Sandy TAG members, students and seniors. Reservations can be made by Sonderup at 402-426-7255. calling the reservation line at 341-2757 or online at www.shelterbelt.org. Unfortunately, credit card purchases will not be * The Blue Barn’s Witching Hour Presents available for this show. The Shelterbelt Theatre is located at 3225 Curio & Valentine are Pissed California Street. Defending Marriage is being produced with the May 5 – May 13, 2006 generous support of the Nebraska Arts Council. BLUEBARN'S Witching Hour presents Curio & Valentine are Pissed, an original play by Vincent Carlson, May 5 – May 13. Join us * The Blue Barn Theatre Presents as Witching Hour breaks its own rules in this all-new theatrical event Thom Pain (based on nothing) complete with real characters and (gasp!) a plot. In Curio and May 4 – May 14, 2006 Valentine are Pissed, Vincent Carlson takes two very minor What would happen if Samuel Beckett and John Stewart produced characters from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and brings them center an offspring? The answer is THOM PAIN, an audacious and brilliant stage in a beguiling tale of maiden wooing and dragon slicker- riff on life’s unfulfilled promises, how experiences never live up to wacking. Journey with us to Illyria, where a fearsome beast ravages expectation and how we finally realize the wonder of being alive. the land and one man must find the courage to face his heart in a Though described as a monologue, the play really has two time when love and loyalty meant more than accomplishments and fundamental characters – Thom Pain and the audience, who serve possessions. Directed by Brandon Rohe. Stage Managed by Joy as a foil for Thom as he becomes one of the most compelling, Marshall. Starring Kevin Bensley, Sarah Brown, Vincent Carlson, poignant and disquieting characters ever to grace a stage. Barry Carman, Austin Uhlmer, and Molly Welsh. Friday and Winner of the Edinburgh Fringe Theater Festival and a Pulitzer Prize Saturday nights at 11:00 pm, following the mainstage show, Thom finalist, THOM PAIN offers up a familiar dose of existential angst Pain. coated with easy-to-swallow cleverness that reflects on the beauty and terror of life. This one-man show took New York City by storm Page 2 On Stage News last year extending its scheduled one-month run to over a year. The Desperate to get out of the Lincoln, Nebraska where everyone had BLUEBARN Theatre will produce the regional premiere of this figured him for a loser.