CHOOSE MYSTERY
Washington Irving’s masterpiece comes to spooky life with a top-notch ensemble and sheer theatrical invention. Omaha’s own Ben Beck and Jill Anderson incorporate music, dance, and puppetry into a world premiere adaptation, with scenic design by Sarah Rowe and original music composed by Olga Smola. The headless horseman rides again!
Sponsored by:
Bruce Reneaud & Kerry Dobson
Nancy Gilliland & Ray Kawaguchi
CHOOSE LAUGHS
Instead of performing Charles Dickens’ beloved holiday classic for the umpteenth time, three actors decide to perform every Christmas story ever told – plus Christmas traditions from around the world, seasonal icons from ancient times to topical pop-culture, and every carol ever sung. A madcap romp through the holiday season, this laugh-out-loud comedy offers a hilarious alternative to anthropomorphic Nutcrackers and singing Victorian children.
Sponsored by:
Devin Fox & Rob Block
CHOOSE VIGILANCE
Fifteen year old Heidi earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions across the United States. In this hilarious, hopeful, and achingly human new play, she resurrects her teenage self in order to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women and the founding document that shaped their lives. Hailed as the best play of the year in 2019 by the New York Times and earning two Tony Award nominations, this boundary-breaking play breathes new life into our Constitution and imagines how it will shape the next generation of Americans.
Sponsored by:
Sara Foxley
Corey Erkes & Laura Peet Erkes
James & Susan Tracy Charitable Foundation
CHOOSE RESILIENCE
Brought from Guangzhou in 1834 as an “exotic oddity” The Chinese Lady follows the true story of the first woman from China to enter America. Afong Moy is paraded around for the American public to indulge their voyeuristic curiosities by delivering a performance of her “ethnicity.” Over the course of 55 years, Afong Moy begins to challenge her views of herself, her culture in the hands of others, and her disconnect from her homeland while grappling with her search for her own identity in America.
“By the end of Mr. Suh’s extraordinary play, we look at Alfong and see whole centuries of American history. She’s no longer the Chinese lady. She is us.” ~The New York Times
Sponsored by:
Bruce Reneaud & Kerry Dobson
Jannette Davis
CHOOSE POWER
Somewhere in America, an army of pre-teen competitive dancers plots to take over the world. And if their new routine is good enough, they’ll claw their way to the top at the Boogie Crown Grand Prix Finals in Tampa Bay. A 2019 Pulitzer Prize finalist for drama, Dance Nation is a stark, unrelenting exploration of female power featuring a multigenerational cast of women portraying our 13-year-old heroines.
Sponsored by:
The BLUEBARN invites you to celebrate THREE ARTIST-DRIVEN approaches to innovation in the creation of new work for the stage. Our Big Damn Doors are not just a primary feature of the architecture of the BLUEBARN, but a metaphor for the festival itself: wide-open doors and unbounded possibilities. BLUEBARN is proud to support emerging artists from the Omaha-Council Bluffs Metropolitan area whose work has the power to drive change in our community, and who’ve been most impacted from systemic biases in opportunity. Artists that identify as Global Majority (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), LGBTQIA2s+, neurodiverse, and artists with disabilities have been prioritized.
— Sponsors —
LGBTQIA2S+ Equality Fund
Adah and Leon Millard Foundation
Last season’s live storytelling sensation, Musing, returns to the BLUEBARN stage! Story curator Seth Fox will present Miscellanea Volumes One & Two: Storyteller’s Choice – two one-night-only events that feature compelling true stories exploring a variety of themes, all told by the people who lived them.
To have your story considered for a future Musing event, or for more detailed information about Musing, please contact story curator Seth Fox at musingomaha@gmail.com.
THANKS TO OUR SEASON SPONSORS
BLUEBARN is incredibly grateful for the wonderful artwork created by Sarah Rowe for our 34th season. Sarah is a multimedia artist based in Omaha. Her work is a call to action, building meaningful cross-cultural dialogues by utilizing methods of painting, illustration, sculpture, performance and Native American rituals in unconventional ways. She projects her vision of contemporary Indigenous experience with an offbeat enchantment. Her imagined landscapes are bold and vibrant, containing a shape-shifting bestiary of tales both familiar and strange. Rowe is of Ponca and Lakota descent.