The Shelterbelt Theatre Presents WARPAINT, Opens 4/15

The Shelterbelt Theatre is proud to announce the world premiere production of Warpaint, an intense drama by Michael Oatman and Benjamin Graber. A sad-sack professor and a troubled student develop an unusual relationship that turns to lust and dark obsession.

The shows open April 15 and runs through May 9. There will be a talkback session with Michael Oatman and Benjamin Graber immediately after the April 15th show.

There will be a TAG Nite Out on Thursday, April 15 - donations will be taken for a scholarship fund. We will also be having $8 single and 2-for-$15 tickets opening weekend, and $10 Thursdays April 22, April 29, and May 6. General admission is $15 for adults, and $12 for students, seniors and TAG members. Reservations can be made by calling (402) 341-2757, or tickets can be purchased online at www.shelterbelt.org

Show times are 8 pm Thurs-Sat, 6 pm on Sundays, with a 2 pm show on May 9. The Shelterbelt Theatre is located at 3225 California, Omaha NE.

Production Staff

Director - Gary Planck

Stage Manager - Kristin Soloman

Lighting Design - Sandy Hatcher

Costume Design - Megan Whitaker

Sound Design - Dan Baye

Producer - Craig Bond
Cast

Rusheaa Smith, John Hatcher, Sara Planck, McClain Smouse, Devel Crisp, Kristin Soloman,

The Playwrights:

Michael Oatman (Cleveland, Ohio) is the Playwright-In-Residence at Karamu Theater, the oldest African American theater in the country. The last guy to hold that position was Langston Hughes. He received his MFA from the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts Consortium in 2008. His plays include Indelible, The Chittlin' Thief, In Man, and Let it Bleed.

Benjamin Graber (Omaha, Nebraska) has been a hippie doctor, a sex doctor, a psychiatrist, and a neurobiologist. His research archives are available at the Kinsey Institute. He "retired" due to a visual disability, an unfortunate situation that eventually allowed him to concentrate on his life long passion for writing. He has published some short fiction and poetry, but fell in love with playwriting after attending the first Great Plains Theatre Conference in 2006. He considers himself to have been incredibly fortunate since then to have seven of his short plays either produced or publicly read. He has written four full-length plays one of which, "Hippie Doctor," was his thesis play and produced by the University of Nebraska at Omaha in October,2009. Warpaint, his co-authored play with Cleveland playwright Michael Oatman, was a 2009 national finalist at the Kennedy Center American Theatre Festival in Washington, D.C., and will have it world premiere April 2010 at the Shelterbelt Theatre in Omaha. He completed his MA in Theatre at UNO in December 2009. His new play, Heternormativity, will receive a Play Reading at the Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha in May 2010 and will receive a workshop and reading at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis summer 2010. In March 2010 University of Nebraska at Omaha appointed him Playwright in Residence.