Our program's learning opportunities in combination students' sheer grit and determination invariably leads to remarkable growth and unquestionable success.
Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF)
Each year students from UNO Theatre travel to the KCACTF Festival Region 5 Conference for workshops, competitions, and the rare of bringing an invited production.
In 2020, seven UNO students participated alongside 366 from other schools in the annual Irene Ryan Acting Award competition. One of our students was promoted to second round with 64 others. In 2019, one UNO student made it to the finals!
Also in 2020, KCACTF invited UNO to bring its production of Little Wars to the regional festival. The original piece of physical theatre devised by 17 students under the direction of Masters candidate Jeremy Stoll had toured to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August of 2019. It went on to win three national awards from the KCACTF:
- Outstanding Director of a Devised Work
- Outstanding Production Ensembles
- Distinguished Company-Generated or Devised Work
Five years ago, in 2015-16, the UNO production of Animal Farm was also invited to the Region V festival and won the national award for “Distinguished Achievement by Performance and Production Ensemble.”
Local Theatre in Omaha
We have former students working in virtually every theatre company in the region including Omaha Community Playhouse, recognized as one of America’s top community theatres measured by attendance, staff size and budget, Blue Barn, and The Rose Theatre, Omaha Performing Arts, and Nebraska Shakespeare.
Regional, National, and Broadway
Our former students are designers, actors, directors, choreographers, stage managers and talent coordinators that have been directly involved in important regional theatres, national tours, Broadway productions, including:
- The Book of Mormon (Broadway)
- Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity (Regional)
- The Drowsy Chaperone (National Tour)
- Elf (Broadway)
- The Goodman Theatre (Chicago)
- Guthrie Theater (Minneapolis)
- Michael Jackson ONE Las Vegas (Regional)
- A Touch of the Poet (Broadway)
We are equally proud of all our students, but here’s one who describes his journey to success in his own words: student-voices
Want to learn how to transfer to UNOTheatre and become a theatre major? Contact Madison Bowman, School of the Arts Academic Advisor at madisonbowman@unomaha.edu