OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – A unanimous vote through Omaha City Council means North Omaha will soon have a dedicated theatre space for local artists and playwrights.
“Our word arts, our spoken culture, our stories, and creative souls, also need dwelling spaces,” says Kim Whiteside, who spoke at Tuesday’s council meeting in favor of the new project.
Council approved a $350,000 TIF bid for the project, which will help create a black-box theatre in the historic North 24th St. district.
“I would like to speak in high support of this project,” said Terri Sanders, publisher of the Omaha Star, just minutes before the council vote. “It will add to the arts that exist in our community, enhance it, and also add to the economic development of the area which we all know needs help.”
The project will extensively rehab the historic F.J. Carey Block building and will add several thousand square feet to the back side of the build, too.
The theatre will be an extension of the Union for Contemporary Art, which is located right next door.
“We have been able to work with so many new and emerging artists here in Omaha,” says Denise Chapman, the Producing Artistic Director for the Union’s theatre program.
“We’ve had several who have worked with us in their gap year of college who are now touring on Broadway, we have a young man who spent time with us and is now working with the Black Theatre Coalition in New York, and we’re so excited to be able to provide more of these opportunities, not only for all our emerging artists here in Omaha but also for all of our well-seasoned artists who may have been overlooked by major institutions in the past,” Chapman adds.
The new theatre will allow the Union to more than double its performing arts capacity.
Supporters at Tuesday’s council meeting say it will provide opportunities and possibly success for community members who never considered the theatre before.
“Many of those who have taken their first steps into the theatre from North Omaha have gone on to great careers in the theatre throughout Omaha and beyond,” Whiteside says.
“I am so excited and pleased,” says Peggy Jones, an arts educator at UNO.
Jones is also an actress and a playwright.
“This is an investment, and I think it’s a well overdue investment, and it’s exciting!” she says. “I cannot wait to see things there and maybe have my works performed there.”
The theatre will be named after Shirley Tyree, who was a fierce member of the Omaha Public Schools Board for more than two decades. Tyree was also an avid performer and artist herself. She passed away in 2021.
They hope to complete construction on the theatre by next Spring.
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