The Blue Barn Theatre exists to enhance the cultural life of Omaha, Nebraska
by producing professionally executed, boundary breaking plays that ignite a passion
for the art form. Blue Barn is dedicated to theatre’s most important tradition:
to provoke thought, emotion, action, and change.

Mary Theresa Green, Nils Haaland, Kevin Lawler and Hughston Walkinshaw

The Blue Barn Theatre began in the late 1980's with graduates from the Professional Theatre Training Conservatory at the State University of New York at Purchase. Seeking to continue the deeply shared artistic aesthetic and practice that they had developed over their four years of conservatory training, and also to create theatre outside the constraints of New York City's commercial market, they joined forces with the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts and produced their first play: America in Pieces, three one-acts by David Mamet, Spalding Grey, and Sam Shepard. The first production was produced with $75 and two white sheets and performed in the middle of a bitter cold February. The response to the work was overwhelming, and the Blue Barn was born. In the Fall of 1990, after working for two seasons at the Bemis Foundation, the Blue Barn renovated an empty storefront building on 13th street in downtown Omaha, creating a small black box performance space that was to be the Blue Barn home for the next six years.

By 1991, the Blue Barn was growing fast, adding new core members from a variety of backgrounds, all sharing a commitment to the Blue Barn's original vision. That year, the Blue Barn established a tradition of producing original scripts. The first, called Untitled, was an improvisational piece using large, leather body masks, music, and dance. Since that time we have produced many new works for the stage including The Empty Plough, What the Mirror Gave Me: An Original Play About Frida Kahlo, Murder In the Heartland, 5000 Nights. Reform School Timmy!, Go-Go Boys from Planet X!, Minstrel Show: The Lynching of William Brown, Chelsea/Cruelties, Little Nelly’s Naughty Noel and Toxic Avenger: The Musical!

In June of 1997, the Blue Barn lost its home on 13th Street and was forced to go “On Location” to survive. A potentially disasterous situation was averted and the Blue Barn produced a season of unique and powerful productions in the abandoned Burlington Train Station, a former department store, and the Douglas County Courthouse rotunda.

In 1998, the tenth anniversary season, the Blue Barn moved into its current home, a beautiful ninety-seat proscenium arch theatre in Omaha’s Old Market. The Blue Barn also opened the Abbott/Pinkoff Art Gallery, providing local visual artists a place to display their work.

The Blue Barn’s national reputation is also increasing. In the past couple years the theatre has taken two plays out of the state. In 2003, the theatre was honored to participate in the 10th anniversary of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington D.C. by performing its award winning play A Piece of my Heart about women in the Vietnam War. In 2004, the Blue Barn traveled to New York to participate in the New York City International Fringe Theatre Festival with its original play 5000 Nights. In 2002 and 2003, the Blue Barn created a unique fundraising event, “On the Set with...” which featured upclose interviews and film clips with Oscar winning writer/director Alexander Payne and Emmy winning Actress Edie Falco (The Sopranos).

Now in its 23rd Season, the Blue Barn has established itself as Omaha’s premier professional theatre. After producing over 80 plays since 1989, the Blue Barn’s reputation for high-quality entertainment and pursuit of stories that challenge both the theatre artists and patrons is solid. Today, the Blue Barn's primary goals are to bring in more professional actors and designers from around the country and to increase awareness of the Blue Barn in Omaha and surrounding communities.