Omaha Theater Company
Conference attendees will experience the first-hand Omaha Theater Company's new play development model. The conference will include a performance of The Grocer's Goblin & The Little Mermaid, a multimedia, puppetry-based production of two classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales. Following the performance, there will be a discussion of Omaha Theater Company's model and collaborative process which will be lead by Company Artistic Director Matt Gutschick, Playwright, Brian Guehring, and Director Stephanie Jacobson.
Conference attendees will experience the first-hand Omaha Theater Company's new play development model. The conference will include a performance of The Grocer's Goblin & The Little Mermaid, a multimedia, puppetry-based production of two classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales. Following the performance, there will be a discussion of Omaha Theater Company's model and collaborative process which will be lead by Company Artistic Director Matt Gutschick, Playwright, Brian Guehring, and Director Stephanie Jacobson.
Coterie Children's Theater
The conference will include a special session by Jeff Church, Artistic Director at The Coterie Children's Theater in Kansas City. Jeff has worked with many of Broadway's top composers and writers through The Coterie Lab for New Family Musicals, a program he started to inject talented and accomplished playwrights from Broadway into the world of 90-minute family musicals.
The conference will include a special session by Jeff Church, Artistic Director at The Coterie Children's Theater in Kansas City. Jeff has worked with many of Broadway's top composers and writers through The Coterie Lab for New Family Musicals, a program he started to inject talented and accomplished playwrights from Broadway into the world of 90-minute family musicals.
University of Northern Iowa - Sturgis Youth Theatre
UNI Department of Theatre will discuss their work devising for students on the Autism Spectrum. Professor Gretta Berghammer, inspired by the work of Tim Webb and the Oily Cart Theatre, will talk about her process for helping undergraduate theatre majors create highly visual, low-language productions designed to engage the audience, as well as visually share a collage of stories through movement and playful pantomimes.
UNI Department of Theatre will discuss their work devising for students on the Autism Spectrum. Professor Gretta Berghammer, inspired by the work of Tim Webb and the Oily Cart Theatre, will talk about her process for helping undergraduate theatre majors create highly visual, low-language productions designed to engage the audience, as well as visually share a collage of stories through movement and playful pantomimes.
Kevin Lawler - Great Plains Theater Conference / Playfest
Kevin is the Producing Artistic Director of The Great Plains Theatre Conference, a co-founder of the award winning Blue Barn Theatre, the founder and Artistic Director of the National Institute For The Lost, and the founder and host of the monthly storytelling gathering “The Stories of O”. From 1996-98, he served as an Artistic Associate at The Omaha Theater Company. Since the 1980’s, he has helped to write, produce, direct, design, and act in many seasons of theatre, including numerous premieres and original works. Kevin will be engaging us in a conversation about how grass roots, site specific, community based work in both methods of production and dissemination can help to circumvent or reimagine the dominant capitalist architecture of theatre production and positively engage both artists and community in soulful ways.
Kevin is the Producing Artistic Director of The Great Plains Theatre Conference, a co-founder of the award winning Blue Barn Theatre, the founder and Artistic Director of the National Institute For The Lost, and the founder and host of the monthly storytelling gathering “The Stories of O”. From 1996-98, he served as an Artistic Associate at The Omaha Theater Company. Since the 1980’s, he has helped to write, produce, direct, design, and act in many seasons of theatre, including numerous premieres and original works. Kevin will be engaging us in a conversation about how grass roots, site specific, community based work in both methods of production and dissemination can help to circumvent or reimagine the dominant capitalist architecture of theatre production and positively engage both artists and community in soulful ways.