Brian Guehring Awarded Orlin Corey Medallion

Brian Guehring, the Rose Theater Education Director and Playwright-inResidence has been named a recipient of the Children's Theatre Foundation of America's (CFTA) Corey Medallion Award.

The award recognizes the recipients for their contributions and achievements in the enrichment of the lives of children in the United States through nurturing artistic work in theatre and the arts. CFTA chooses and honors one individual and one organization with the Corey Medallion Award each year. In the past, the award has been bestowed upon people and organizations including Seattle Children's Theater, Children's Theater of Minneapolis and The Cleveland Playhouse. It is a great honor that Guehring was chosen for this award.

"To be honored by my peers in the field and to win an award that my mentors and the giants in the field have won, is a tremendous honor," said Guehring.

Guehrings contributions to the enrichment of children are vast at The Rose. As the Playwrightin-Residence Guehring has written 7 scripts that have been produced on Rose stages. These shows include, most recently, Sherlock Holmes & the First Baker Street Irregulars, The Grocer's Goblin & The Little Mermaid, If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, The Bully Show, The Misfits and Holiday time Around the World.
Perhaps most importantly, Guehring founded the Teens 'N' Theater program, Pride Players, at The Rose in 1999. Pride Players is a performance troupe that is largely based in improvisation that explores what it means to be LGBT or a straight-allied teen in Omaha.

Pride Players has been recognized by many organizations including The National Education Association, Heartland Pride, and American Alliance for Theater and Education and has given away $20,000 in college scholarships for graduating Pride Players.

"I can think of no better time to honor a theatre artist and activist like Brian Geuhring, and I am unspeakably proud to present him as the CTFA honors him with this Orlin Corey Medallion," said Suzan Zeder as she finished up her presentation speech at the annual award celebration.

As the Education Director, Guehring teaches classes throughout the school year and leads camps throughout the summer, including an improv camp that focuses on teaching the basics of Improvisation. Guehring has also been seen on the Rose mainstage in productions including Robin Hood, A Year With Frog & Toad, Honk! and Shrek the Musical as Lord Farquaad.

The receipt of the CATF Orlin Corey Medallion is not the first time Guehring has been honored for his work. The American Alliance for Theatre Education, the Kennedy Center and the Nebraska Arts Council, to name a few, have also recognized the impact of his artistry.

Guehring earned his MFA in Children's Theater and Creative Drama from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2006 he was honored with a Human and Civil Rights Award from the National Education Association.

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. In 2016, American Theatre magazine named The Rose one of the 20 top children's theaters in the United States. 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. Over the course of a year, approximately 70,000 people attend the public performances held at the theater, and nearly 30,000 students attend field trip shows annually. The theater strives to introduce young people to a mix of both traditional favorites and ground-breaking original productions. A number of plays and musicals have made their world premiere on The Rose stage, including Pete the Cat: The Musical, Sherlock Holmes & the First Baker Street Irregular, Zen Ties, Buffalo Bill's Cowboy Band, and The Grocer's Goblin & The Little Mermaid. We take pride knowing that The Rose is the place where children of all ages experience theater for the first time, and we are dedicated to helping them appreciate theater for a lifetime.