Omaha Community Playhouse
The
Omaha Community Playhouse, located at 69th and Underwood Streets in
Omaha, Nebraska, 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 Foleyin April 1925, was
The Enchanted Cottage, which starred
Dodie Brando, mother of
Marlon Brando, and
Jane Fonda. 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. 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 Baldridge,
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, and had the largest financial endowment of any community theater in the nation due to the generosity of
Margre Durham.
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Official website
