SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good afternoon, Bluffs Country. I'm Peggy Sweet and this is Belonging in the Bluffs, brought to you by the Iowa West Foundation. I'm joined in studio today with a new friend, and you know how I love making new friends. I have Jackie. She is the education director of the Rose Theater. Welcome, Jackie. Thank you. So excited to be here. Yes, it's amazing. I love the Rose Theater. You guys have some great productions. You're here to talk about a couple of those, as well as the grant that you got from Iowa West. So I will let you just take it away wherever you want to start. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Well, right now we have a show going called The Great Race. This is a brand new play by an Omaha native, Y Yem. It's a world premiere puppet play at the Rose that brings the legendary origin story of the Chinese zodiac animals to life on stage. Many people know which zodiac animal they are, but the play explores the story of how those 12 animals earned their place. And it's directed by Alan Maroka, who many families know as Alan from Sesame Street.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Really? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Very cool. Oh, exciting. One of the exciting elements about this show is really creative puppetry. The animals are built from imaginative combinations of everyday objects and materials, everything from old sports materials to uh fake leaves. Oh. And the story follows uh three children and their wise grandmother, and they get drawn into the race themselves. It runs from April 17th through May 3rd.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

And we can get tickets on your website?

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

And that would be roseheater.org, and it's theater with an ER.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Yes, that is correct.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

I want to make sure people know that, or you're gonna go to Canada, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Yes. What else do you have coming up, Jackie? Uh we have Frozen the Musical. And that goes from June 5th to June 28th. Uh, this is the Frozen You Know from the movies, and you'll recognize many of the songs from Let It Go and The First Time in Forever to Do You Wanna Build a Snowman. The stage version also expands the world of the movie with a dozen new songs written by the film's original songwriters. And Frozen is really a story about sisterhood and courage, and we have great youth actors joining us for it. It runs from June 5th to June 28th, and it's a great opportunity for families to experience a Broadway scale musical here in Omaha.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Yeah, that is amazing. And you can get tickets for that as well at your website, which again is rosetheater.org. And again, theater is with ER. Yes. Not just R.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Yes. We also have Pay What You Can nights if that's useful for any families. Okay. Tell me a little bit about that. Uh we post them on our Instagram and our website, but this is a night where any family can come and pay what they are able to pay that night for a ticket to our shows. Uh just to make sure that theater is accessible to anyone and everyone who wants to come check us out.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

That's a great option. You just never know who you're going to touch with theater, and it's a wonderful experience for families. So thank you for that. All right, let's really quick talk about the grant you got from Iowa West.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Yes, we are so thankful for this grant from Iowa West. It has allowed us to visit over 560 kids in their classroom all year long. We visited 26 different classrooms with eight different workshops that use creativity to help students build resilience. It's a program called Creative Heroes with the idea that every student has this innate creativity that they can use to be the hero in their own story. So we come in, we read a story, we do a theater exercise that helps them lift that creativity muscle, and then they get to role-play out scenes where they're the hero that interrupts the bully, that makes a new friend, that gets back up after something hard happens. It's been a really transformational program, and we are so thankful to iOS that we got to do that this year.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

It sounds like a very important program too.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Yeah, we've got wonderful feedback from teachers and students that their shyest kid, their kid who is potentially selectively mute, their kiddo who hasn't branched out and worked with others, the theater has brought them in because it's something fun, it's something creative, and it's even a chance for them to pretend to be someone else or to be their bravest self. Something else that Iowa West has made possible for students here in Council Bluffs is actually coming to the Rose to see a live theater piece. So for the past few years, Iowa West has been helping us get first graders over to the Rose to check out a live show. And what a special experience to during your school day get the opportunity to go over and see live theater early on and to know that arts is really for everyone, and everyone should have an opportunity to come see theater and to be a part of the arts at a very young age.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Yes, starting in first grade, that's awesome. Yes, it really is. You just never know who you're going to touch or inspire.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Yes. And then, you know, they they also support us in doing those pre and post-show workshops that allow students to understand the job of an actor and the themes of the show and to really kind of get to see the magic behind the curtain, which is also really special.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

That is wonderful. Well, Jackie, thank you so very much for taking time out of your busy day to stop over and tell us about these shows. And if anyone has any questions or need tickets, we just need to go to the rose theater.org, theater with an E R. And uh we will see you at the Rose.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Yes, please come check us out, come see a show, or come take a summer camp with us, rosetheater.org. Awesome summer camp. Summer camp all summer long. Uh, and we have a we have a blast, ages three to eighteen.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Perfect. We'll talk about that next time you're here. Great, thank you so much. This has been Belonging in the Bluffs, brought to you by the Iowa West Foundation.