February 27 - March 3, 2006
Theater Conference Draws Enthusiastic Responses
By Bob Fischbach
World-Herald Staff Writer
Reprinted with permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
Omaha-area theaters have enthusiastically jumped on board the planning and presentation of this spring's Great Plains Theatre Conference, rounding up hundreds of actors, directors and evaluators for a playwriting lab that will include the works of scores of authors.
In addition, some theaters will open their doors for conference events and stage special presentations.
The conference, which will feature Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, Broadway director Lloyd Richards, Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal and other theater luminaries, will run May 27 to June 3 at the Fort Omaha campus of Metropolitan Community College.
Playwright Arthur Kopit will be honored at a closing banquet. Playwright Terrence McNally, who had been expected at the conference, had to bow out because of a conflict.
The conference is the brainchild of Albee and Metro President Jo Ann C. McDowell, who have collaborated on past theater conferences in Valdez, Alaska.
Albee said he wants the conference to honor and celebrate the work of great American playwrights and to foster works by newer playwrights in an atmosphere that is "intelligent, sympathetic and semi-private."
"That is exactly what makes Omaha a perfect place," said Susann Suprenant, education manager for Omaha Performing Arts, which runs the new Holland Performing Arts Center. "Omaha is nowhere on the radar of national theater critics, yet it has fantastically devoted theater artists and audiences."
Suprenant is part of a theater conference advisory committee that includes local actor-playwright Rob Baker, Metro faculty members Steve Bross and Andrea Lang, Omaha Community Playhouse choreographer Roxanne Nielsen and Blue Barn Theatre executive director Hughston Walkinshaw.
Writers have submitted more than 75 scripts for the playwriting lab, and that figure is expected to double before Wednesday's deadline. A play-reading committee will select scripts for lab performances.
Each morning of the conference will feature three one-hour sessions of short plays or scenes from new plays, with three scenes in each hour. Eighteen area theater groups have agreed to cast, direct and rehearse three playlets for one of these hours.
Evaluating panels of critics, directors and playwrights will give immediate feedback to the playwrights, who must be present to introduce their work. University faculty members, directors and playwrights from the Midlands will serve on the panels.
The Omaha Community Playhouse will open its big musical "Ragtime" on opening weekend of the conference, but staffers nonetheless will help evaluate work at the short play lab.
"We want to do whatever we can," said associate artistic director Susan Baer Collins. "We're very enthusiastic about the event."
The Holland Center will host three evening events. May 31 will feature Albee, Kopit, Constance Congdon and Emily Mann reading excerpts from their plays. Scenes from their works will be staged June 1, and a staged reading of Kopit's play "Wings" by a guest artist will be June 2.
An evening with Patricia Neal will be in the Joslyn Art Museum's Witherspoon Concert Hall on May 30.
Afternoon master classes will feature longer staged presentations from works of selected authors, including former Omahan Max Sparber. The Blue Barn will revive scenes from "Cruelties" and "Minstrel Show, or the Lynching of William Brown." The theater has featured both Sparber works on its stage.
"We're really excited," said Susan Clement-Toberer, Blue Barn artistic director. "We think the conference will help establish Omaha as a destination for great theater.
"It's an opportunity to showcase Blue Barn work for nationally recognized playwrights and directors. And we may find a play we want to produce out of it, which is also exciting."
Clement-Toberer expects to direct and Walkinshaw will perform for conference events.
Director Roxanne Wach will revive scenes from the musical "Nine," staged last year at Little Apple Productions. Kopit wrote the book for "Nine." That event will be at the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Strauss Performing Arts Center.
Actors from the John Beasley Theatre will participate in a May 29 evening tribute to August Wilson and Arthur Miller. Both playwrights, who died last year, took part in past theater conferences in Alaska.
Suprenant urged local playwrights to submit works for the conference, saying it would be a great experience for those who want to learn how to make their plays better.
"This conference also can promote the production of contemporary theater in Omaha, attracting new audiences," she said.
Metropolitan Community College
457-2733 | istory@mccneb.edu
Deadline: 5 p.m., Mondays and Thursdays
