Connect
JULY 28 7PM
A Strange Loop

WE MISS YOU!

Connect with the theatre and GPTC Community. Each month a panel of artists examines a theatrical work and shares their personal stories that connect them to the art, and you are invited to be part of the discussion.

To kick off, we’re celebrating the exhilarating, heart-wrenching Pulitzer, Obie, Drama Desk, You-Name-it-He-Won-It award-winning musical,

A Strange Loop
by Michael R. Jackson*

Enjoy it on Spotify before 7 pm on July 28 then join panelists Bryan Moore, Kathy Tyree, Juan Valdovinos and Nik Whitcombe for a great conversation.

Email commons@gptcplays.com to register for the discussion and receive information on how to participate.

A Strange Loop Synopsis

Usher is a black, queer writer, working a day job he hates while writing his original musical: a piece about a black, queer writer, working a day job he hates while writing his original musical.

Michael R. Jackson’s blistering, momentous new musical follows a young artist at war with a host of demons—not least of which, the punishing thoughts in his own head—in an attempt to capture and understand his own strange loop.
— Playwrights Horizons.

*Explicit lyrics, adult sexual/racial content.
Expect pearl-clutching.

The Panelists

Bryan Moore (MFA, University of Iowa)

Bryan Moore is a Professor and Director of Theatre at Concordia University, Nebraska. His 25 years of theatre experience include new play and production dramaturgy, applied theatre, directing, technical theatre, and acting. His dramaturgy includes In the Blood, Glass Menagerie, and new works with the Iowa Playwrights Workshop, Fringe Benefits Theatre, and U. of Iowa’s outreach group, Darwin Turner Action Theatre. Shows directed include The Diary of Anne Frank, Mary Poppins, Harvey, Phantom of the Opera, Rabbit Hole, Lost in Yonkers, The Winter’s Tale, and The Giver. Locally, Bryan develops outreach theatre with college students for area schools and organizations, and is a board member and director at Olde Glory Theatre in Seward. He actively works with the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) and Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA). His research interests include multicultural drama, social/cultural identity, and use of storytelling in drama.

Kathy Tyree

Kathy Tyree has been performing for 30 plus years and has been given the title of “Omaha’s Own Queen of Soul”.

She has been afforded the opportunity to work with some of the best performers, directors, choirs, choreographers and tech crews that Omaha has to offer.  She has won several awards and has experienced a career of glowing reviews of each of her performances.

Kathy believes that it is her life purpose to share her gift with as many people as possible and does not take lightly the opportunities being afforded to her as the owner and operator of Kathy Tyree Productions. It is her goal to pour into as many lives as possible by continuing to perform and produce live stage performances as well as developing a non-profit organization designed to work with promising visual and performing artist ages 13 years and up.  It is her hope that her efforts will better prepare young artists to be disciplined, artistically competitive and confident as they take the steps necessary to launch their careers in the performing arts industry on any and all levels.

Kathy’s mission in life is to ensure that anyone who encounters her, always leaves better than they came….

Juan Valdovinos-Preciado

Juan Valdovinos-Preciado is an actor and musician as well as local nightlife entertainer at the OMC. He has been Involved with theater productions with SNAP, GPTC as well as the Omaha Community Playhouse. He is currently Pursuing a degree in music education with a minor in musical theater at UNO.

Nik Whitcomb

Nik Whitcomb is an actor, director, and casting director born and raised in Omaha, NE. Nik recently returned to the Omaha Theater Company for Young People (The Rose), where he took his first theatre class, and made his main stage directorial debut with ELLA ENCHANTED THE MUSICAL. Nik has also worked with the Great Plains Theatre Conference, The Performing Arts Program at the Union for Contemporary Art, Blue Barn Theatre, and won a number of awards for his portrayal of the Dryer/Bus in CAROLINE, OR CHANGE at the Omaha Playhouse.

Nik is known across the Midwest having worked with many major theatrical institutions such as Guthrie Theater, Goodman Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Ordway Center for Performing Arts, and the Old Log Theatre to name a few and was named a “Theatre Worker You Should Know” by American Theatre Magazine. Currently based in Chicago, IL, Nik is a Casting Associate with Paskal Rudnicke Casting and works on a number of other projects both in front of and behind the table. Nik is also a 2020/2021 Directing Apprentice with the Actors Theatre of Louisville and is the creator and host of THE COME UP with Nik Whitcomb.