Pride Players will present on Thursday, February 9 (7 pm FREE teen night), Saturday, February 11 (7 pm) and Sunday, February 12 (4:30 pm) on The Rose Theater's Hitchcock Stage.
Now in their 18th year, the cast of Pride Players uses improvisation to create songs, poetry, monologues, and skits that explore what it means to be a gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, or straight-allied teen in Omaha. The group has been honored by many organizations including The National Education Association, Heartland Pride, and American Alliance for Theater and Education.
"I think people should come see Pride Players because it really is educational in a super fun way. The whole experience has been so fun and everyone is so welcoming, and I want people to see all of the work we've done to put this show together," said Mahala Bush, a member of the Pride
Players troupe and student at Bellevue East Hish School.
Pride Players has a company of 20 teenagers from 7th grade to 12th Grade. They attend 10 different Omaha schools, including Omaha North High School, Millard North High School, Bellevue East High School, Bellevue West High School, Westside High School, Brownell Talbot, Omaha Central High School, Westside Middle School, Kiewit Middle School, Northwest High School and Home School.
Pride Players explores topics such as the reaction to the election of Donald Trump, the Orlando shooting, and other pressing issues in todays society.
Other topics include gender reveal parties, using they/them pronouns, teachers who create safe spaces, microaggressions, Joan of Arc, and more. The troupe performs four times each season at The Rose Theater, and this performance is 75 minutes long and includes 20 performance pieces.
When speaking of the importance of this production, A Pride Player said, "Pride Players is important to me because it provides a safe space for people to be themselves and express LGBTQA+ issues in a relateable environment. Pride Players is important to share with others because it showcases modern and relevant local issues faced by LGBTQA+ not only in the metro area, but everywhere."
In their history, Pride Players has performed for over 12,000 teens, parents, teachers, counselors and family members helped raise over $35,000 for their community partners: GLSEN-Omaha and PFLAG-Omaha.
Pride Players has been honored by The Rockefeller Foundation with a Performing and Community Transformation National Grant, The National Education Association with a 2006 Human and Civil Rights Lead 2012 conference and Heartland Pride as Grand Marshalls of the 2011 Heartland Pride Parade.
Pride Players has also given out $14,000 in college scholarships to alumni through the Tracy Iwersen Pride Player Scholarship Fund.
In addition to performing at The Rose Theater, Pride Players has also toured to the Iowa State School Counselors Conference, the Iowa State Conference for LGBT safety in schools, the 2006 LGBT Task Force Creating Change National Conference in Kansas City, a Nebraska student education conference, a national theater education conference in Utah, and several local colleges, high schools, conferences, events, and community meetings.
Pride Players has proudly worked with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer youth and student groups in Kentucky, California, Wisconsin, Iowa, Boston, Kansas City, Lawrence, and Pittsburgh to collaborate with them to create new skits, help them start their own troupes, or to perform some of the skits.
Pride Players #18 will be presented in The Rose Theater's Hitchcock Theater on
Thursday, February 9 (7 pm FREE teen night), Saturday, February 11 (7 pm) and Sunday, February 12 (4:30 pm). Tickets are $6 each and available at The Rose Box Office, (402) 345-4849, or at the door the day of the show. Pride Players is sponsored by The Mukti Fund, Mammel Family Foundation, Burlington Capital Foundation , the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.
About The Rose
The Rose Theater is one of the largest and most accomplished children's theaters in the nation, with a reputation for enriching the lives of children and families through top-quality professional productions and arts education. The Rose is committed to making the Arts Accessible to all children, providing opportunities for thousands of children throughout the community to attend shows and participate in classes each year.
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