Clybourne Park

February 28 - March 24, 2013

Written by Bruce Norris

SNAP! Productions is proud to present the Omaha premiere of Bruce Norris’ Pulitzer-Prize-winning play Clybourne Park. M. Michele Phillips directs this critically-acclaimed play, which will run for four weekends (Thursday - Sundays) from February 28 through March 24, 2013.

Clybourne Park unfolds in two acts in the house made famous in Lorraine Hansberry’s classic A Raisin in the Sun. In the first act, set in 1959, a white couple is selling the house at a bargain price, unknowingly bringing the first black family into the neighborhood and creating ripples of discontent among the cozy white residents of Clybourne Park. Act II leaps forward to 2009, where a young white couple has purchased the same house in the now predominantly-black neighborhood. Their plan to raze the house and start again is met with equal disapproval by the black residents of the soon-to-be-gentrified area. Are the issues festering beneath the floorboards actually the same, fifty years later? Bruce Norris’ squirm-inducing satire explores issues of race, property, and community with a combination of biting humor and genuine tenderness, treading the rich and illuminating ground of both comedy and drama.

Clybourne Park’s calls upon eight actors to play multiple characters spanning two time periods. The cast includes Scott Working, Jennifer Gilg, Craig Bond, L. James Wright, Echelle Childers, Noah Diaz, Colleen O’Doherty, and Matthew Hemingway.  The top-notch design team includes Bill Van Deest (Scenic Design), Homero Vela and Bill Van Deest (Lighting Design), Nancy Ross and Lindsay Pape (Costume Design), JoAnn Goodhew (Properties Design), and Brian Callaghan (Light and Sound Board Operator).  Jessica Rogers (Stage Manager) and Steve Hartman (Assistant Director) round out the production team.

Tickets are on sale now for this funny and thought-provoking play. Clybourne Park will run from February 28 through March 24, 2013 at 3225 California Street. Curtain times are 8:00 p.m. on Thurdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and 6:00 p.m. on Sundays. The Sunday, March 24^th show will start at 2:00 p.m. The March 3 performance will be sign-language interpreted. Tickets are $15.00 for adults and $12.00 for Seniors, TAG Members, and Students. All Thursday night tickets are $10. February 28^th will be a free preview to support the Theater Arts Guild’s Scholarship Fund. Reservations can be made online or by calling the box office at (402) 341-2757.



Post-Show Audience Talk-Backs for Clybourne Park

March 9 & March 17, 2013

Clybourne Park explores issues of race and urban development over the past half-century by focusing on residential integration of a neighborhood in 1959 and gentrification of that same neighborhood in “post-racial” 2009.  While Clybourne Park is an actual neighborhood in Chicago, SNAP believes it is reflective of changes happening in communities across the country.

What is the story of your community and the neighbors who come and go?  Is your neighborhood Clybourne Park?   Join in this conversation in our audience talk-back sessions with Clybourne Park actors and local experts on Omaha race relations, gentrification, and community development. Talk-back sessions will be moderated by Mel Clancy, Director of UNO’s Project Achieve, and organized with the assistance of the Anti-Defamation League of Omaha.   Talk-backs are scheduled to begin 5 minutes after the performances end on March 9, 2013, and March 17, 2013.  If you are seeing Clybourne Park on another night but want to join us for the audience exchange, please stop by the theatre for a thoughtful discussion about how Clybourne Park’s issues play out in our own community.

A Raisin in the Sun

March 12, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.

Written by Lorraine Hansberry

featuring Lanette Metoyer Moore, Denise Chapman,

D Kevin Williams, Rusheaa Smith-Turner, Aaron Ellis, Chad Cunningham, Andre McGraw, Raydell Cordell III, Andy Sydan

Lorraine Hansberry's timeless classic, A Raisin in the Sun, tells the story of the Youngers, a black family in 1950s Southside Chicago, and their quest for a piece of the American Dream. When her deceased husband's insurance money comes through, Mama Lena dreams of moving to a new home and a better neighborhood in Chicago. Walter Lee, her son, has other plans: buying a liquor store and being his own man. Beneatha, her daughter, dreams of medical school. The tensions and prejudice they face form the backbone of this seminal American drama about retaining one's dignity in a harsh and changing world.

SNAP! Productions will present a staged reading of this groundbreaking work in conjunction with its production of Clybourne Park, Bruce Norris' Pulitzer Prize-winning take on the other side of the story of A Raisin in the Sun. Join some of Omaha's finest actors to see where the story began on March 12, 2013 at 7:30 at 7:30 p.m. at the SNAP/Shelterbelt Theatre (3225 California). Admission is FREE but seating is limited, so reservations are recommended. Call (402) 341-2757 to reserve your seat today!

Click here for production photos from A Raisin in the Sun