GPTC PlayFest 2022/23
Omaha’s (Free!) Season of New, Contemporary Performance
PlayFest makes more plays for more people in Omaha. As part of the Great Plains Theatre Commons, PlayFest broadens public access by providing a season of free, high-quality theatrical events. Community organizations and artists (both local and national) participate in the storytelling we see on stage. Evening performances are held at geographically diverse venues. PlayFest gives voice to the stories that have the power to unite and inspire diverse audiences. The form of these works can vary, including traditional plays, devised work, short forms, music and dance. Much of the content celebrates Omaha stories. Neighborhood Tapestries is a program that puts Omaha stories on stage. Each year this program presents work based on the lives of Nebraskans. The result is a vibrant portrait of our city.
The 2022/23 season includes two plays that were developed as PlayLabs at the GPTC New Play Conference. The other play is by local playwright and GPTC staff member, Ellen Struve.
Spring
World Premier
PRACTICE HOUSE by Rachael Carnes
“Practice House” explores a world turned upside-down, and finds a path towards fragile hope.
Practice House is based on a real chapter in American education, in which babies were leased from local orphanages for the purpose of training women in the new and improved “scientific parenting methods.”
The world of this play depicts a loss of liberty and human rights. The author has derived all characters, plot and dialogue from actual events in American history.
Wednesday, May 31 @ 7:30pm (this performance will have ASL Interpretation)
Thursday, June 1 @ 7:30pm
Friday, June 2 @ 7:30pm
All public performances are at Yates Illuminates, 3260 Davenport St.
*Seating is limited. Reservations highly recommended.
Nobody under the age of 14 will be admitted due to mature content.
Click here to make reservations.
The show will run approximately 2.5 hours with a 15 minute intermission.
A recorded version of the play will be screened at a later date during the summer. If you are interested in attending virtually, please email commons@gptcplays.com
A handful of tickets are held back for walkups at each performance.
All performance venues are ADA compliant for accessibility. For any accessibility questions or needs please contact Quinn at q.corbin@gptcplays.com.
Directed by Susie Baer Collins
Stage Manager: Krista Freimuth
Cast: Kara Davidson, Evelyn Hill, Mary Kelly, Lauren Krupski, Cork Ramer, Erika Hall-Sieff
Scenic Design: Bill Van Deest
Props Design: Hannah Clark
Costume Design: Denise Ervin
Co-Sound Design: Kevin Lawler, Brendan Greene-Walsh, and Susie Baer Collins
Audio Engineer: Craig Marsh/Pink Giraffe
Staff: Bo Bowman, Alyssa Gonzalez & Steve Knox
Poster Design: @qmetalc
Playwright Rachael Carnes received a 2020 Oregon Literary Fellowship, and has had productions of her work across the U.S., U.K., the Middle East, Canada and Asia, with invitations to develop work at the Inge Theatre Festival, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Playwriting Intensive, the Midwestern Dramatists Center Conference, the Mid-America Theater Conference, the American Association for Theatre in Higher Education New Play Development Series, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Lighthouse Writer’s Workshop, the Cambridge U.K. WriteON Festival and the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival. Her work is seen in many literary journals. She and her family live in Oregon. www.rachaelcarnes.com
A warm thanks to our current 2022/2023 PlayFest Sponsors: Nebraska Arts Council, Mutual of Omaha and the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how NEA grants impact individuals and communities, visit arts.gov.
Winter
OLD BAT by Ellen Struve
Having lived through a fire, a plague and a war, a desperate woman hunts for treasure on a mythological island populated by monsters, heroes and storytellers. This time she may not survive.
A Co-Production with Benson Theatre. 
March 23rd and 24th @ 7:30pm.
Benson Theatre, 6054 Maple St.
Click here for reservations to March 23rd
To join the livestream of the show on March 23rd click here between 7:15 pm and 7:30pm on that evening. The meeting ID is: 811 0932 3487. The passcode is: 834994.
Click here for reservations to March 24th
This is a new play by Omaha playwright, Ellen Struve. The play is being workshopped throughout March with support from a director and cast, a dramaturge and a designer. The performances are both staged readings.
Play Description – In league with a hero, Kira hunts for an unknown treasure guarded by a nymph and a cyclops. She is an ordinary woman beset by extraordinary times. She’s survived a fire, a plague and a war, and is driven by her child’s survival. Finding the treasure is as difficult as finding her place in these ancient stories. She enlists the help of the elements, betrays her companions and is betrayed and discovers the need for transformation.
Written by Ellen Struve
Directed by Amy Lane
Cast: AJ Adhiambo, Francisco Franco, Nils Haaland, Haley Haas, Moira Mangiameli & Dennis Stessman
Stage Manager: Grace Luis
Designer: Anita Sibony de Adelsberg
Dramaturg: Amy Wegener
Poster Design: @qmetalc
Ellen Struve (Playwright) Plays include Recommended Reading for Girls published by PlayScripts Inc. (O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist, GPTC Stage Write Award), Prince Max’s Trewly Awful Trip to the Desolat Interior (selected for the 2015 PlayPenn Playwrights’ Conference, Great Plains Theatre Conference PlayFest Production), EPIC (GPTC PlayFest Production), The Octopus Play(EST/Sloan Commission at BLUEBARN Theatre), The Dairy Maid-Right (Mid-America Arts Alliance Artistic Innovation Grant), Untitled Series #7 (Theatre Arts Guild Best Comedy), among others. She was playwright-in-residence at Creighton University where she co-taught Theatre for Social Justice. She has conducted community arts residencies for ten years, beginning as a Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts Community Fellow and continuing as a WhyArts Resident Artist. She served as a peer facilitator for Amplify Arts’ Artist Inc. cohorts. She is a Nebraska Arts Council Individual Artist Fellow. She served on the board of Shelterbelt Theatre 2009-2019 and is currently on the board of Comunidad Maya Pixan Ixim. During the pandemic, she founded Picture Window Puppet Theatre. She has degrees from University of Iowa and School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
A handful of tickets are held back for walkups at each performance. All performance venues are ADA compliant for accessibility. For any accessibility questions or needs please contact Quinn at q.corbin@gptcplays.com. Recommended for ages 10+ The show will run approximately 90 minutes and will be followed by a talkback. All public performances are at Benson Theatre, 6054 Maple St.
Fall
GOOSE by Michael Yichao
GOOSE is a play about family, getting older… and a magical interstellar space goose.
All public performances at Yates Illuminates, 3260 Davenport St.
November 18 and 19 @ 7:30pm
November 20 @ 6:00pm
Click here to reserve your seats!
A handful of tickets are held back for walkups at each performance. All performance venues are ADA compliant for accessibility. For any accessibility questions or needs please contact Quinn at q.corbin@gptcplays.com. Recommended for ages 10+
Dallin is getting older, and nothing is quite as he expected. In act one, he turns 13 and no one shows up to his birthday party. In act two, he returns home after a long time away, now with his own 13 year old daughter. As he confronts challenges and his ever evolving relationships with his family and himself, an unexpected old friend appears to take him on a journey through time and space.
Written by Michael Yichao
Directed by TammyRa’
Cast: Artie Shaw, Darryl Brown, Jr. & Aniyah Skanes
Scenic Design: Kevin Lawler
Props Design: Savannah Savick
Audio Engineer: Craig Marsh/Pink Giraffe
Stage Manager: Nicholas A. Jansen
House Manager: Katie Cameron
Poster Design: @qmetalc
Michael Yichao is a playwright and actor currently residing in Seattle, WA. His plays have received recognition from the O’Neill Theater’s National Playwright’s Conference and the John F Kennedy Performing Arts Center, among others, and have been produced across the US and Canada. Yichao has been an invited playwright at the Last Frontier Theater Conference, Great Plains Theatre Conference, and the Association of Theater in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference. When not writing plays, Yichao works in video games, currently serving as Lead Narrative Designer at Phoenix Labs. Find him on Twitter and online @michaelyichao | Michaelyichao.com
A warm thanks to our current 2022/2023 PlayFest Sponsors: Nebraska Arts Council, Mutual of Omaha and the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how NEA grants impact individuals and communities, visit arts.gov.
2016 PlayFest Highlights
2015 PlayFest Highlights
All performance venues are ADA compliant for accessibility. For any accessibility questions or needs please contact us at 402-370-8259. Thank you.
PlayFest is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how NEA grants impact individuals and communities, visit arts.gov.