UNO THEATRE HOME

The Department of Theatre has designed course work to develop an understanding of the theatre-making process in each of the areas of the art. Keeping this in mind, the production program offers its students broadly varied and representative seasons of plays with opportunities for technical work, design, and acting as fundamental considerations. Above all, we are committed to the students' individual development and their artistic and cultural maturity.

To ignite in the student, teacher, and community:

critical thinking,
compassionate feeling,
collaborative vision,
and the capacity to delight.

Our faculty is comprised of nationally known directors,
designers and scholars, representing the nation's finest
universities. Each faculty member is highly
active in their chosen discipline. Through innovative instruction
and personal attention, our faculty are dedicated
professionals who care about their student's progress.

The award-winning Del & Lou Ann Weber Fine Arts Building, design by
Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates LLP of New York, was completed in 1992.
This unique four story, 300 foot long structure houses the departments of
Art & Art History, Theatre, Writer’s Workshop,
a state-of-the-art Experimental Theatre, the UNO Art Gallery and the college administrative offices.

The Experimental Black Box Theatre is a state-of-the-art facility. Using transportable seating units, we are able to transform the space from proscenium, thrust, in-the-round, or stadium style seating. This provides the opportunity to produce an array of productions requiring a variety of different styles of staging. The theatre is equipped with a full tension wire grid system (see photo) providing ample lighting positions and flexibility. Three balcony levels surround the stage floor, providing additional stage and audience locations.

The Tech Booth is located on the first floor balcony above the audience. It provides an ideal view of the stage in most configurations. This room is equipped with an ETC Expression III lighting console, 24" digitizing light tablet, AudioPro analogue mixing board as well as a digital mixing console. Two computers support our lighting and sound design software. Midi/Mini discs, CD, dual disk, reel-to-reel and surround sound complete the room. Other notable equipment include ten Automated fixtures by HighEnd and Coemar, color scrollers, and a collection of SourceFour fixtures.

The Costume Shop is centrally located on the first floor. This naturally-lit space functions as both a classroom and the costume construction site for UNO Theatre and the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival. The Costume Shop features a ventilated dye room, separate dressing rooms, a costume storage room and a work area to accomodate multiple projects.

The Directing Lab, familiarly known as 006, is primarily a performance classroom. This room is also one of two alternate rehearsal spaces available for our productions. Because 006 is equipped with a full lighting grid, lighting console and a sprung floor, it makes it an ideal performance space for the annual FAUST production and our student showcase productions.

The Scene Shop is the hub of the production areas. This facility is equipped with all of the power tools that you could want, as well as a fork-lift and dust collection system. Connecting directly to the theatre, adjacent rooms include the shop office, lighting lab, prop design and construction lab, and the paint lab. We continue to implement the latest in construction methods and include an extensive use of steel and traditional building methods.

The Acting lab is primarily a performance classroom for acting, directing, movement, voice, and style courses. This room is also one of two alternate rehearsal spaces available for our productions. The room is equipped with
state-of-the-art home theatre, video and sound system.

The Design Lab is solely dedicated to design and technology classes. This room is equipped with a full lighting grid so students can realize projects in real time. It also has wireless network with LCD projector and surround sound. The design lab is used to teach costume design, scene design, lighting design, model-making, prop design, and drafting.

The computer lab sits adjacent to the design studio. This lab is used to teach technology courses such as PhotoShop for the Theatre, AutoCad, Model-Making and Digital Portfolio. It is equipped with 15 workstations featuring the latest software for digital sound, video, AutoCad and imaging.

The Castle of Perseverance is an additional performance space. Dedicated to the building and the art which is produced there, the castle is an outdoor amphitheatre which seats 100 audience members. Many professors use this space as a classroom on those sunny Nebraska afternoons. The space is also used for theatre performances, poetry jams, and as a wonderful study space.

New Ways/New Works Festival

***STUDY GUIDE***

Festival Director: Amy Lane

February 28 through March 2, 5-9, 2008

The UNO Department of Theatre is proud to present the first annual New Ways/New Works Festival. We put the word out all over the country that we were looking for brand new scripts and in return, we received three hundred and four outstanding submissions from four countries. The New Ways/New Works Festival will feature seven world premieres and five regional premieres.

This festival will be a collaboration with local artists who create "theatrical events," using non-traditional approaches. Emphasizing the experimentation and exploration often termed "fringe" theatre, students and audiences will experience new ways of creating and performing theatre, including spoken-word events, ensemble-based performance and live art pieces.

Play Synopses

New Ways/New Works Festival

New Ways:

1. OT’08 by Doug Hayko is a live art performance piece freely adapted from Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. Borrowing the structure of that play, Hayko and ensemble explore elements of Daily Life, Love and Marriage, and Death in the 21^st-century in juxtaposition to Wilder’s turn of the 19^th-century Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire. This ensemble-created work culminates in a pastiche of visual and auditory layers—a blend of visual art and theatrical performance. A world premiere event.

2. Carry On by Brandon Rohe and Sonia Keffer: a piece of devised theatre that explores the connotations and infinite stories held within a simple suitcase. An ensemble of actors create characters and stories inspired by the props. Travel, departure, arrival, adventure, secrets, journeys, moving, security, etc. are central themes. A world premiere event.

3. Aloud by Katie F-S focuses on the power of language-driven performance. Poetry students from UNO’s Writer’s Workshop have submitted works to be performed in this spoken word event. In addition, the ensemble creates a choral work—an updated version of the Greek chorus, blending many voices into a single powerful performance. A world premiere event.

New Works:

1. Kawaisoo (The Pity of Things) by Jason Grote. Directed by Maire Creegan. A woman, reeling from the tragic loss of her ex-husband in the 9-11 terrorist attacks, desperately seeks to regain a sense of normality. She finds it in the great American “shrine to banality”: the supermarket. A regional premiere event.

2. To the Death of My Own Family by David Meth. Directed by Amy Lane. The story of Nadeema, an Afghani-American woman who returns to Afghanistan to help her father escape, only to witness the slaughter of her entire family. Now, upon her return to the U.S., she is detained in the airport as a terrorist suspect and forced to justify her heartbreaking journey in order to reclaim her citizenship. A regional premiere event.

3. End of Limerence by Benjamin Graber. Directed by Amy Lane. The term “limerence, “ as described by Dorothy Tennov PhD explains a phase of romantic love, a condition that shares similarities with affective mood disorders and lasts a maximum of 18 months. This is a bittersweet two-person play that explores what happens to a couple 18 months after love at first sight.

4. Let It Bleed by Michael Oatman. Directed by Amy Lane. Two former gang members struggle to recover from a violent past. However, they soon discover the past is not always so easily put to rest. After finding the murderer of his sister, Treyshawn calls upon his fellow gang member, Niko, to keep good his promise to avenge her death. Can the past ever really be forgotten? This is a play about the haunting qualities of rage. A world premiere event.

5. St. Jude and the Hopeless Cause by Shayne Kennedy. Directed by Greg Harries. As the patron saint of hopeless causes, St. Jude finds himself overworked with a deluge of daily prayer petitions. Especially unfair is the fact that other saints, like the patron of ice skaters, has plenty of free time on her hands! A hilarious comedy about heaven’s interoffice workings. A world premiere event.

FAUST 10-minute plays:

1. Hagridden by Brendan JD Reilly. Directed by Dani Smith. Haunting play about a man being stalked by a demon he cannot escape, not even in the solitude of slumber. A world premiere event.

2. In This Brothel Where We Ply Our Trade by Tim Siragusa. Directed by Shannon Jackson. An old saying goes that all actors are whores…this play offers live, up-to-the-minute commentary about the Theatre. A world premiere event.

3. Passed Hordes by Mark Harvey Levine. Directed by Ashley Spessard. Stuck at a party where they don’t fit, Isabel and Dennis struggle against revealing too much of their true selves; a comedy about perception and connection. A regional premiere event.

4. Shakespeare Lives! by Mark Harvey Levine. Directed by Andy Shaw. Having trouble with romance? Who better to give advice to the lovelorn than the sonnet-master himself, William Shakespeare? If only he weren’t dead…

5. Todd and Guy Go Camping by Barbara Lindsay. Directed by Sean Carlson. This is it for Todd and Guy. No water. No food. Broken down truck. Stuck in the middle of the desert. This is really it. But before the end, Guy needs to get a few things off his chest… A comedy about two guys at the end of the road. A regional premiere event.

6. The Rudy by Francesca Sanders. Directed by Maria VachaPittack. An a cappella musical and absurd comedy rolled into one. A woman struggles to make sense of the most bizarre audition in the history of theatre. A regional premiere event.

The Birds

Based on Aristophanes pointed satire of contemporary 5^th-Century BCE Athenian life, this is an epic scaled, fast-paced, irreverent and broad satire of contemporary American life and culture, with an original rock score by UNO student Jeffrey Bell.

Our Box Office opens ten days prior to the opening
performance of each production.

Individual tickets are available by calling 554-2335 or by visiting the Box Office located on the first floor of the Weber Fine Arts Building.

Hours of operation are
1:00 - 5:30, Monday through Friday

Become a SEASON SUBSCRIBER and SAVE up to 25%

General Season Ticket = $40.00
Faculty-Staff-Student-Senior = $35.00

Call 554-2406 to reserve yours today!

THEATRE AT UNO:

* are demanding, exciting, challenging, and enjoyable.

* provide a solid framework for all students in the historical traditions of theatre practice.

* offer all students a theatre perspective based on cutting edge scholarship and practice.

* offer all students a wide exposure to the many aspects of theatre practice while encouraging an emphasis in performance, design, or scholarship.

* equip graduates to live lives expanded and nurtured because of their
involvement with the study and nature of theatre.

* provide all students with personal, educational, and professional experiences in
keeping with the goal of our department:

To earn a living and to lead a cultured life, not as two separate processes, but as one.

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

GRADUATE STUDENTS

THEATRE CORE CURRICULUM

FOCUSED THEATRE MAJORS

MINIMUM CREDIT HOUR REQUIREMENT

The total minimum number of hours required for a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre is
130 credit hours
which includes academic core as well as theatre coursework.

The UNO Department of Theatre offers a broad-based Master of Arts in Theatre that emphasizes theatre scholarship, including Theory & Criticism, History and Literature, as well as the opportunity for extensive practical experience in areas such as Acting, Directing, Design & Technology, and Theatre Management. The overall goal of the program is to help you develop a perspective about your role as a theatre artist. To this end, our faculty works with each student to develop a program that best suits their needs and goals. The three options for completing the program are: 1) writing a formal thesis; 2) completing a final project in acting, directing, design, or theatre administration; 3) combining the Thesis and Final Project.

Each academic year, the department presents four to five mainstage productions and each summer co-sponsors the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival. Three assistantships, in areas such as Stage Management, Theatre Administration, Publicity/Marketing, Teaching, or Costume or Scene Shop are available for a two-year cycle. Internships with the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival are available and can be pursued for academic credit. Financial assistance is available through UNO office of Financial Aid and the Dean of the College of Fine Arts.

Omaha has a very active theatre community, and many of our students have worked locally. We count among our graduates the Artistic Director of the Omaha Theatre Company for Young People, Managing Director of the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, Founder of the Living Picture Project and Brigit St. Brigit Theatre Company, as well as directors, actors, arts administrators, designers, and theatre technicians.

Nationally, a number of our graduates have gone on to work in professional theatre in other markets, including New York, Washington, DC and regional theatres across the country. Others have gone on to earn teminal degrees and are teaching and conducting research as the university level. In addition, one of our undergraduates served as a Productions Assistant to the Stage Manager for the Broadway production of Taboo.

We have a strong history of successful graduates.

-UNO Graduates have been seen in major motion pictures-
-UNO Graduates have worked on Broadway and Regional venues-
-UNO Graduates have started twenty-two theatres in Omaha-

-UNO Graduates.........Succeed.-

We are privileged to have a strong affiliation with the
Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, co-sponsoring with Creighton University and the City of Omaha.

Each year the festival presents two Shakespeare productions,
playing to over thirty-three thousand audience members in the beautiful surroundings of Elmwood Park,
right outside our back door.

Each year many of our students work for the
festival both on-stage and off.

Building the sets from the grass up and working with
professional directors, designers, and actors from
around the country.

Please visit the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival website
to learn more about this exciting and vital organization.