Omaha Community Playhouse
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Omaha Community Playhouse, located at 6915 Cass Street in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, is a nationally recognized community theater.
Founded in 1924, the Playhouse's first president was Alan McDonald, architect of the Joslyn Art Museum, and its first play, directed by Greg Foley in April 1925, was The Enchanted Cottage, which starred Dodie Brando, mother of Marlon Brando. When, later in the Playhouse's first season, the need arose for a young man to play the lead for You and I, Brando found the twenty-year-old Henry Fonda, son of her friend Herberta Fonda, for the part.[1] It was Fonda's first acting role. The Playhouse would later see the acting debut of Marlon Brando, Dorothy McGuire, and Julie Wilson, and appearances by Letitia Baldrige, Glenn Cunningham, and Lenka Peterson.
The Playhouse experienced tremendous growth throughout the 1980s and 1990s under the direction of Charles Jones. By the time Jones resigned in 1997 the Playhouse was widely considered the best of its kind in the United States[citation needed], and had the largest financial endowment of any community theater in the nation[citation needed] due to the generosity of Marge Durham.
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[edit] External links
- Omaha Community Playhouse is at coordinates Coordinates:
[edit] References
- ^ Bain, David Haward (2004). The Old Iron Road: An Epic of Rails, Roads, and the Urge to Go West. New York City, New York: Penguin Books, 60-1. ISBN 0143035266.
