-- Brian Guehring
Playwright-in-Residence and
Education Director, Omaha Theater Company
This site is now listed
on the USA Plays for Kids website :
 .
Thanks for dropping by my web site! Hopefully
this will be a useful and interesting web site for people
(especially directors and producers!) who are interested
in new scripts for young audiences. There’s an official
biography, the latest news in my playwriting world, and
a great database of 17 of my scripts with script samples,
cast sizes, target audiences, production history and
stuff. AND thanks to my brilliant brother each category
can be clicked to sort the database by that category.
My Playwriting Philosophy
I am passionate about theater for young audiences
and I strive to write scripts that challenge, educate,
and entertain young people and their families. As the
Playwright-In-Residence for a professional theater for
young audiences, I have developed a strong ability to
also write both scripts with small casts for professional
theaters and scripts with large casts for youth theaters.
As a student of the great Suzan Zeder, I believe strongly
in continuing to develop and revise my work. I’ll
go through many, many drafts before I let my scripts
go to publication. I’m excited to work with new
theaters and directors to learn more about my script.
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PLAYWRITING
NEWS:
Summer 2009 Update (finally)
THE GIVER
rocks OMAHA
The Omaha Theater Company produced my new adaptation of The Giver in
October and it received a glowing review from the Omaha World Herald. Our company also had our largest group
of middle school field trip audiences ever for one of our productions. Then in December the Omaha World Herald named our production
of The
Giver one of the top ten productions in Omaha for 2008! This is one of the first times a TYA
production has made the list.
MR. PLAYWRIGHT GOES TO DAYTON
The
Town Hall Theater in Dayton Ohio brought me out last November 2nd to
see their production of my script BRAVE LITTLE TAILOR. The company uses both youth
actors and adult actors and the production was wonderful and very funny. I was able to talk back to the audience
and cast. I also went into the
schools and did some workshops about the play with a local elementary school
and high school. Town Hall
Theater produced my adaptation of Where the Red Fern last season, and it was
nice to finally meet my generous hosts Mark Metzger (the Artistic Director) and
Brittany Hayden (the Education Director).
NATIONAL PLAYWRITING AWARD!
My adaptation of Old Yeller was selected as a winner
in the 2008 AATE (American Alliance for Theater and Education) Unpublished Play
Reading Project. I’m very
excited about this recognition. There was a nice stage reading of an excerpt from the play at the 2008
Conference in Atlanta!
BLUE HAIRED SUPERHERO in OMAHA
The
Omaha Theater Company opened my new interactive theater in education play The Adventures of Pyramid Man and Dr.
Nutrition. We performed 60
times in local schools this year in the Omaha area thanks to a grant from Con
Agra foods and will perform 60 more times this fall. And yes, the super-hero has blue hair that looks like
a Dairy Queen soft serve ice cream cone!
WORLD DOMINATION PLAN STARTING
TO TAKE SHAPE
Yes,
my plan for world domination through theater for young audiences scripts is
beginning to take wing. In
addition to the productions here in Omaha and the production in Dayton (they
also took Brave Little Tailor into the schools), The Brave Little Tailor is was
produced by Walnut Street Theater and toured Pennsylvania, New Jersey and
Delaware. My adaptation of Miss Bindergarten went on national tour this last spring. The Bully Show was produced by Lexington Children’s
Theater this spring (complete with a new cyber-bullying update).
PRIDE PLAYERS
My
teen theater troupe Pride Players celebrated its 10th anniversary this year in January. We cast 25 students from 8 different
Omaha area high schools and toured to Iowa. Last spring a group in Southern California used scenes from The Best of Pride Players in their production.
SUMMER CONFERENCE
I
will be attending the joint AATE/ATHE conference this summer in NYC presenting
my work with LGBT Teen theater and drama work with
students with autism.
DRAMATIC
PUBLISHING
My original
plays King Chemo and The Bully Show are available through
Dramatic Publishing and my most recent royalty report told me that The Bully Show had productions in
Florida, Michigan, Hawaii, Montana, Massachusetts and New Jersey last
year. I’m really excited.
SABBATICAL
IS OVER
After 10 years
of working full time for the Omaha Theater Company, I took a three month
sabbatical last spring (March through May) to write and rest and travel. I enjoyed my time off and had a lot of
fun starting to turn King Chemo into
a novel for young people. It
may take me 10 years to finish it, but I’m going to take my time and enjoy the
process of it.
DRAMATIC
PUBLISHING
My original
plays King Chemo and The Bully Show are available through
Dramatic Publishing and my most recent royalty report told me that The Bully Show had productions in
Florida, Michigan, Hawaii, Montana, Massachusetts and New Jersey last
year. I’m really excited.
SABBATICAL
IS OVER
After 10 years
of working full time for the Omaha Theater Company, I took a three month
sabbatical last spring (March through May) to write and rest and travel. I enjoyed my time off and had a lot of
fun starting to turn King Chemo into
a novel for young people. It
may take me 10 years to finish it, but I’m going to take my time and enjoy the
process of it.
DRAMATIC PUBLISHING
My original plays King Chemo and The Bully Show are available
through Dramatic Publishing. They are listed in the 2007-2008 Catalog! How cool
is that? www.dramaticpublishing.com
Winter 2007-2008
Michael Lyon recently interviewed
Joseph Slate (author), Brian Guehring (playwright), and Kevin Ehrhart (director) about
bringing their musical version of Miss Bindergarten to the stage.
Brian Guehring's
original plays :
The Bully Show
and
King Chemo
are now
available through Dramatic Publishing. They are listed in
the new 2006-2007 Catalog!
CONFERENCES
I just got back from the ASSITEJ/USA conference (or the TYA/USA conference)
in Minneapolis and saw some great international performances. Next I go to
TCG (Theater Communications Group) for an education director conference. Then
in August, I travel to Vancouver (assuming my passport returns by then) to
go to the AATE conference (American Alliance for Theater Education). I am leading
a session on the role of the playwright in a Theater In Education play.
PUBLISHED ARTICLE
Theater for Young Audiences Today, the journal for the United
States Center for the International Association of Theatre
for Children and Young People, published my article "Queer Youth Theatre: Challenges, Strategies, and Mission" where
I interviewed leaders of 4 other queer youth theater groups
to compare our approaches to the work and its role in theater
for young audiences.
NATIONAL AWARD WINNER
Last July, my friend and colleague Tracy Iwersen and I went to Orlando for
an awards ceremony of the National Education Association. Our Pride Players
teen theater group was awarded a Human and Civil Rights award for youth advocacy.
The ceremony was really fancy (thank goodness our costume rental had a nice
tuxedo I could use) and inspiring. There are a lot of amazing educators doing
inspiring work in the public schools here in the United States. It was a huge
honor to be on stage with these great educators and advocates.
| UPCOMING
PRODUCTIONS :
Summer 2009 Update
(past productions)
Summer 2009: Many Disguises of Robin Hood: Omaha,
NE
This summer the Rose is producing my Robin Hood script for a large
youth cast
Summer 2009: Brave Little Tailor: Omaha,
NE
This summer my annual summer camp production in Papillion is going
to produce a huge youth cast version of the Brave Little Tailor with several
songs.
September 2009 through October, 2009
The Super
Adventures of Pyramid Man and Dr. Nutrition: Omaha,
NE
We just opened this new Theater In Education piece to tour to
elementary schools exploring healthy eating and exercise. This is part of a grant from ConAgra
foods. We are performing 60 times
for 3rd through 5th graders
May 2010: If
You Give a Cat a Cupcake: Omaha,
NE
Our mainstage season at the Rose Theater
closes with my three person adaptation of one of the
popular sequels to If You Give a Mouse a
Cookie book.
Recent Productions:
September 2008 through May 2009 Brave Little Tailor Philadelphia
Walnut
Street Theater toured my adaptation of The
Brave Little Tailor. I’m
excited about working with this great company for the first time.
February-April 2009 Miss Bindergarten Omaha,
NE
I
have adapted these popular picture books for the Omaha Theater Company and it went
on National Tour this January with only 5 actors.
March 2009 The
Bully Show: Lexington
KY
The
Lexington Children’s Theater commissioned me to add a cyber bullying update to
my published play The Bully Sho
.October 2008 The Giver: Omaha, NE
The Omaha Theater Company produced my new adaptation of the Newberrry Award winning book on its mainstage season.
October 31-November 15 Brave Little Tailor Hall Theater, Dayton OH
I’m
excited to work with this company for two years in a row now. This show had 8 performances on their
stage and then tours into the schools.
January-April 2008 Old
Yeller Touring
around the Country
The Omaha Theater Company toured Old Yeller for its
winter/spring national tour.
Janaury 2008-March 2008 Where the Red Fern Grows Virginia and SE
The Barter
Players in Abingdon, VA produced my adaptation in the fall in their home
theater and are now touring the production around the Southeastern United
States. This was the first
production to use actors for the dog characters and not puppets.
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