For decades now…

North Omaha’s been underserved in myriad ways, including too few public event venues and gathering spots. The old, made-new-again Benson Theatre at 6054 Maple Street may be a game-changer with its multi-use space and inclusive mission of hosting arts and community-building events.

By Leo Adam Biga

“We have created 105 community partnerships with nonprofits, artists and businesses throughout the city in the hope they will be able to utilize our platform to share their message, educational opportunities and outreach through our space,” said director of programming Michal Simpson.

The theater will be home to regular theater productions and film screenings as well as spoken word, live music, dance and various other arts and cultural events. Partners will hold conferences, workshops, seminars, panels there.

Select programming will be tailored for children, families and seniors.

Designed with flexibility in mind, movable seating can hold 140 to 170 people, and the stage, lobby, bar, green room and dressing rooms provide amenities for a wide range of activities.

“We configured it so the main floor right in front of the stage is a wide open space that we can do many different things with,” said Simpson. “It can be utilized as a black box performing space if you don’t want to be up on a proscenium stage. It can be utilized as a dance floor. We can set it up with tables for cabaret-style performances or for workshops. We have all of those options, so it can be pretty much whatever you want it to be.”

After months of forging community partnerships, then bringing stakeholders through on tours, Managing Director Jason Levering said, “People are just really excited about dreaming into what they do with it.”

This former vaudeville house and movie theater, which opened in 1923, has undergone a major renovation that’s brought it back as a public performance and community engagement space after decades of other uses. The Omaha firm of Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture did the redesign and Lund Ross Contractors built it out. While many original facade and interior architectural details disappeared over time due to makeovers and scavengers, some elements were salvaged. Others have been reproduced to match the Art Deco style.

The lobby includes touch screens with digital displays that commemorate the theater’s and Benson’s history in images and words.

North Omaha Gains a New Asset

Restored historic sites are feel-good stories in any urban core setting but particularly significant in North Omaha, where century-old buildings are scarce. The fact that this restoration has brought back an event space in a community long-starved for such facilities is also significant. After generations of Omaha neighborhood venues being shuttered and repurposed, there’s a new trend for preserving and reactivating them. The 40th Street Theatre at 40th and Hamilton is an example of a long inactive North O venue that’s been resurrected. The old Carnation Ballroom on North 24th Street is undergoing a renovation. The Dundee Theatre gained a new lease on life a few years ago when Film Streams acquired it.

Photo credit: former NOISE team member Adam Ortega

Until the Benson Theatre project, The Venue at the Highlander and the Skutt Conference Center and Mule Barn on Metropolitan Community College’s Fort Omaha campus represented the biggest recent facility additions to the North O landscape. But the reimagined Benson Theater adds something new, not only as a community event space geared to nonprofits, but the first dedicated theater east of 72nd Street and north of Dodge since the old Military Theater, Afro Academy of Dramatic Arts, North Hampton Theater and Circle Diner Theatre closed decades ago. Setting Benson Theatre apart is its combo of full stage and film facilities and the fact it’s both a presenting and producing organization. It not only devises its own slate of programming, but invites community partners to program things there.

Executive director Amy Ryan led the $3 million-plus campaign to make the theater viable again. She’s built into the endeavor a strong social capital focus reflective of her human services past. Prior to being a businesswoman, she served as a women’s advocate and director of children’s programs at a domestic violence shelter in Kansas City, Missouri. As an entrepreneur she’s donated a percentage of earnings to support at-risk populations. The theater is her next-level vehicle for supporting people and community.

“For the last decade, I have carried around a post-it note with this one question scribbled on it: ‘How do we best address the needs and well-being of all human beings?’ For me, the answer is to, one, listen and then respond, and two, acknowledge that many people do not have access to resources to improve their well-being, to develop their potential, to have a platform for their creativity,” said Ryan, who owned the Pizza Shoppe and PS Collective just west of the theater.

“I challenge myself every day to practice and work towards creating a space for that inside Benson Theatre. I think we can address these societal problems through creativity, the arts, education and entrepreneurship. That post-it note is worn, tattered, taped, re-taped and smeared with some pizza goo, but I keep it to remind myself that what Benson Theatre stands for is reflected in the way we answer and respond to that one question.”

Ryan also operates the adjacent B Side of Benson Theatre, which has served as a staging, operations and fundraising area during the theater’s construction.

She, her colleagues and partners are aware that the theater is situated near low-income, high-poverty areas whose residents crave resources.

“A lot of what people are going through and needing in this community might be better addressed if they knew all the resources out there that are available to them,” Michal Simpson said. “Our hope is to be able to put those things within their grasp.”

Ryan’s extensive history as a Benson business district stakeholder makes the project especially meaningful to her. She’s seen the area go from struggling to thriving, and the restored theater is her way of helping the community that supported her enterprises by reclaiming a long lost asset and sharing it with the public again.

“It hadn’t really had any care for it in a really long time. It was a terrible mess,” she said of the theater structure, which most recently served as a warehouse.

After her nonprofit Benson Theatre Project acquired the building, she hired The Lund Company to shore up its structural issues.

Then there’s the association with the origins of cinema enjoyed by the late Erastus Benson, for whom the former village, now neighborhood of Benson, takes its name. The entrepreneurial Benson owned several business interests. Among them was a stake in inventor Thomas Alva Edison’s Kinetoscope and Kinteograph – the technologies used in nickelodeons for the earliest mass screenings of moving images.

“For me, it’s very much full-circle,” Ryan said. “Benson’s history is based on entrepreneurship. Erastus Benson was an entrepreneur. Benson began as a small business community of mom-and-pop shops. That’s what it’s always been. People are still able to walk or bike into the community.”

The district’s revival and the theater’s reemergence follow trends, she said, toward sustainability, preservation, practicality and social engagement. “It makes sense to live in a community like Benson and for it to have its own community assembly place.”

A Matter of the Heart

Benson Theatre’s other executive team members share a similar heart for embracing community.

“The primary thing we’re here for is to serve and create, That’s what it’s all about for us,” said Jason Levering, who’s living out a long-held dream to manage a theater. Perhaps best known as the former executive director of the Omaha Film Festival, his regular gig the past two decades has been as an outreach and enrollment specialist with Region 6 Behavioral Healthcare. He’s also a playwright and screenwriter.

Levering didn’t need much persuading to join the Benson Theatre revival or to catch Ryan’s vision. “Amy is a social worker at heart – I think we all know that. I come from that same background and so the mission behind what we’re doing with this theater speaks to me as a person and as a professional. This theater really is like social work for our community and for the city, and it’s a creative way of doing it.”

Before coming on board as Benson Theater programming director, Michal Simpson was the long-tenured artistic director of SNAP Productions, which he founded. (SNAP stands for Support Nebraska AIDS project.) Under him, SNAP became known as a diverse and inclusive space.

“I think if I hadn’t been engaged in theater I probably would have been a social worker,” Simpson said. “I’ve always been about the underdog. I’ve always been about wanting to make sure there’s equality and equity and those are two things I really see shining through in this space. There’s so much passion here. We’re all about collaboration. One of the things that first drew me to the project was the collaborative nature of it and the idea of utilizing the theater as a place to lift people up – not only to inspire and entertain, but to educate.”

Manager of internal systems and operations Echelle Childers brings rich experience having overseen the Omaha Performing Arts box office and managing the Dundee Dinner Theatre. She’s also a veteran, award-winning Omaha stage actress. As a person of color, she has a particular interest in Benson Theatre’s DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) commitment.

“The whole equity part is what really has drawn me to it,” she said. “That’s something I have felt has been missing in Omaha theater and in Omaha. We are creating a safe space open to all people with accessibility on all levels.”

“It's great to see an arts organization take the lead on so many social fronts,” said Scott Working, theater program coordinator at Metropolitan Community College, a Benson Theatre partner.

Having grown up in Benson, Childers is excited to be a part of a project adding value to an area that’s traditionally faced a facilities gap. “It’s a pretty cool feeling to have something like this happening in this area where we just haven’t had it in a long time. It’s been too long.”

Stage-Screen Works and Arts-Business Training

With three team members possessing deep theater resumes, it’s only natural that the organization will offer an annual theater season of its own. Childers is directing the inaugural production, 20th Century Blues, by Susan Miller.

The play opens with shows Oct. 28-31 and concludes Nov. 5-6.

Performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday with a 2 pm matinee on Sunday. There will be two performances on Saturday, Nov. 6 – at 2 and 7:30. The Oct. 31 show will be ASL-interpreted. The Oct. 29 and 30 shows will be followed by a community talkback with panelists from Inclusive Communities, Home Instead, Douglas County Health Department and the Anti-Defamation League.

The piece casts iconic Omaha stage veterans Moira Mangiamelli, Mary Kelly, Denise Chapman, Becky Noble and Sue Mouttet as the main characters. They play contemporary women who meet once a year for a ritual photo shoot, sharing their experiences with love, career and children and coming to terms with changing times. When the private photos threaten to go public, questions of trust, identity and what comes next get raised.

“I thought a great way to open would be to feature some amazing, hard-hitting women who have spent most of their time in the Omaha community working in theater,” said Childers. “The play speaks to some of the things Benson Theatre is about, and it’s a piece that hasn’t been seen here.”

Benson Theatre is commissioning original works by local playwrights and will be putting out an open call for script submissions.

“We are seeking out scripts that deal with social justice concerns,” said Simpson. “We want to celebrate the work of local artists whenever possible.”

The organization may also occasionally partner with area theater companies.

Childers said there’s a commitment to having diverse casts and crews and to compensating stage participants for their work. As representation in theater continues to be an issue, she said Benson Theatre intends working with area schools to expose students of color, for example, to opportunities for studying theater and pursuing careers both on the stage and behind the stage. Students may be part of casts and crews there.
“Metropolitan Community College is looking forward to collaborating with the Benson Theatre. We don't have a theater space of our own and must create opportunities for our students to perform at existing venues in partnership with different organizations,” said Working. “Working with a facility and organization like the Benson Theater – in a bona fide, state-of-the-art theater – will be a tremendous experience for our students.”

“In Omaha the arts as a career is not always an option,” Simpson said, “and that is something we are trying to change here. We’re trying to stop the drain” of talent that leaves Omaha for other cities.

Mirroring programs the theater will offer, the B Side of Benson Theatre partnered with Dundee Bank and SCORE over the summer for a remote Art Biz workshop for artists and arts-based nonprofits. As the gig economy grows and more creatives turn entrepreneurial, there’s a need for basic business do’s and don’ts.

“We helped people learn a little bit about writing a business plan and how their personal finances affect their ability to get a loan, understanding the ins-and-outs and importance of record-keeping,” said Simpson. “Bringing everybody along into a new age and a new way of doing things is a big part of what we want to do,”

Film will be a recurring attraction courtesy of the touring national Asbury Shorts program, augmented by special screenings of feature films. Select visiting filmmakers are expected to come discuss their work. Talkback sessions will occur. A Saturday children’s matinee may be on the docket.

A goal is to bring students interested in screen careers to the theater to meet visiting film-TV artists and to showcase student-made works.

An Inside the Actor’s Studio-style series called Be Our Guest will feature conversations with native Nebraskans who’ve made a name for themselves in film, television, theater, media and other creative pursuits. The idea is to celebrate and inspire home grown talent.

A Home for All

Accessibility is a key facet of the theater. Sponsorships will enable the theater to cover the cost of community members who can’t afford the price of admission or registration.

Integrated technologies and design elements enable anyone, regardless of their disability, to participate. “The theater is wired with a hearing loop system for the hearing impaired,” Simpson said. “We have the capability through our live streaming for somebody to bring up a program or performance on their iPad or smart phone. We can close-caption for the deaf. We can do audio descriptions through headphones for people who are blind or visually impaired. From the front to the stage we have a ramp. It’s street level, there are no steps. There’s an elevator and wheelchair to take folks down to the green room or to the lower level of the auditorium. We have an adult changing table in our family restroom for folks who might need that. And we’ve outfitted our catering room to where we can dim the lights with no outside noise. If someone has sensitive sensory issues they can go in that room to have a minute to regroup.”

Accessibility extends to programs that will address everything from mental health resources to transgender topics to financial literacy issues. The aim, Simpson said, “is to foster more understanding, acceptance and equity.”

“We can’t know everything, so we work closely with the people who do know those areas very well,” Simpson said. “We talk with them about what they see as unaddressed concerns in the community and try to find sponsorship or support or ways to bring that into our house. They’re the experts and we let them tell us what those needs are. It’s all about partnership, and letting partners use our space to do outreach and education.”

Ryan first conceived the idea for rescuing the theater more than a decade ago. It’s been a long journey from conception to realization and one she finally determined she could not do alone.

“I feel like I first caught on to this project’s potential when I finally understood it’s all about having the courage to ask for help. From doing that the organization became surrounded by mentors and experts in their fields,” Ryan said.

For her, the project will succeed or fail on the strength of its partnerships. She identifies four community pillars as keys to its sustainability.

“I think the four pillars are executives-entrepreneurs, educators, artists and philanthropists. From my perspective, we can only sustain any urban community space if we have everyone show up. Sustainability for Benson Theatre is going to require continuous corporate sponsorships, grants, gifts to support programming, accessibility to tools and resources within academia, creative expression of artists, and charitable services for those who need them.”

The fact that this former commercial space has been transformed into a nonprofit engagement, arts and cultural center could, Simpson said, “serve as a template for other abandoned spaces.” He added, “Every community has a space that was a theater that could be used to educate for social justice and for performance. I think it’s a great example for other communities to take matters into their own hands and make some change.”

“We want to leave the community better than how we found it.”

— Michal Simpson, Director of Programming.

Ryan said she’s enjoyed “watching the theater come back-to-life through all the phases of renovation,” adding, “I’m grateful to the brilliance and ingenuity of the people who built it for us.”

A crowning moment came in August when the original neon blade sign went up. “The marquee is alive and up again after 60 years. Cheers to that.”

Now the real work and adventure begins. “The next phase,” she said, “is to operate a safe and inclusive space that shares the stage for education and the arts – a place that enriches people’s lives and hopefully is home to some fun along the way.”

Simpson echoed a rallying principle that drives the Benson Theatre team:

“We want to leave the community better than how we found it.”

A soft opening is scheduled for October 28 with the kickoff event 20th Century Blues.

Visit https://bensontheatre.org/ for event updates