THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI to Open Season 28 at The BLUEBARN Theatre

The BLUEBARN Theatre is proud to open Season 28 with Bertolt Brecht's compelling and timely drama, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.

BLUEBARN Producing Artistic Director Susan Clement-Toberer directs with Barry Carman serving as Assistant Director with set design by Martin Scott Marchitto, lighting design by Ernie Gubbels, costume design by Lindsay Pape, sound design by Molly Welsh, and properties design by Amy Reiner.

Shows run September 22 - October 16, 2016; Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday October 2nd, 9th, and 16th at 6 p.m. Single tickets for The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui are $30 for adults; and $25 for students, seniors 65+, TAG members, and groups of 10 or more.

Described by Brecht as 'a gangster play that would recall certain events familiar to us all', Arturo Ui is a witty and savage satire of the rise of Hitler - recast by Brecht into a fictional, small-time Chicago gangster's takeover of the city's greengrocery trade in the 1930s. The satirical allegory combines Brecht's Epic style of theatre with black comedy and overt moralism. Using a wide range of parody and spoof - from Al Capone to Shakespeare's Richard III and Goethe's Faust - Brecht's compelling parable continues to have relevance wherever totalitarianism appears today.

BLUEBARN founding company member Nils Haaland brings Brecht's title character to comic and menacing life. The Acting Company consists of many BLUEBARN Theatre veterans including: Paul Boesing (Frost/Nixon), J.J. Davis, Jennifer Gilg, Mary Kelly (33 Variations), Mark Kocsis, Daniel Luethke, Mike Markey (Our Town), Sydney Readman (Bad Jews), John Ryan, Paul Schneider, and Erika Sieff (Bug). Actors making their BLUEBARN debut include Steve Denenberg, Noah Diaz, Jens Rasmussen, Daena Schweiger, and Brennan Thomas.

Bertolt Brecht was one of the most influential playwrights of the 20th century. His works include The Threepenny Opera (1928) with composer Kurt Weill, Mother Courage and Her Children (1938), The Good Person of Szechwan (1942), and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1941). Brecht began writing plays while working at an Army hospital. Brecht's work fit nicely with the Dadaist and Marxist movement of the time. The increased dissatisfaction with society after World War I fit Brecht's anti-bourgeois writing. He fled Nazi Germany and settled in the US, until setting in Berlin following World War II.

The BLUEBARN Theatre has been bringing professionally-produced plays to area audiences since 1989. Since its inception, BLUEBARN has produced over 100 plays and has established itself as Omaha's professional Contemporary Theatre company. Striving to bring artistically significant scripts and professional production values to Omaha and the surrounding region, BLUEBARN is known for high-quality entertainment and the fearless pursuit of stories that challenge both theatre artists and patrons. To provoke thought, emotion, action, and change through daring and innovative theatre.

Pictured: Nils Haaland. Photo by Ken Guthrie.

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