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Our Mission:

The Omaha Fringe strives to bring the different members of the Omaha theatre community together for one open access and inclusive festival where theatre artists can experiment with new works and audiences can experience new theatrical movements. 

Meet The Team

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Lara Marsh
Artistic Director

Lara is a very active Omaha/Metro area director and theatre practitioner with her master of arts in Theatre Direction from UNO. She has directed for multiple theatres in the Omaha/Metro area. Favorite credits include "The Clearing", "Brilliant Traces", "Operation Crucible", "Mary Stuart", and "Lost Boy Found at Whole Foods". In her continued education, she fulfilled a graduate assistantship in stage management. Lara has stage-managed plays, musicals, festivals, and events. Some of her favorite stage management credits include: Richard III, Othello, Mister Roberts, and The Sound of Music. Over the years, Lara coordinated the national tours of "A Christmas Carol" for the Nebraska Theatre Caravan, while also coordinating the apprenticeship program for the Playhouse. Currently, Lara works at Opera Omaha as the Director of Production. Lara’s hobbies include traveling, obsessing over the Tudors, loving all animals, and rooting for the Green Bay Packers. Lara is thrilled to be a part of the Omaha Fringe. Bringing new theatre to life and ensuring new voices, new stories are heard are what make the world go round. We must never forget the very essence of theatrical movement in all its forms – humanity and storytelling.

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Nic Jansen
Board President

Nic Jansen is an Omaha local stage manager, actor, and playwright. Nic holds a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. They are the resident stage manager and patron services manager at the BLUEBARN Theatre and also serve on the board of directors for The Circle Theatre. Nic is passionate about the healing power of art and making all art and art spaces accessible to everyone. As president of the board, Nic strives to lead Omaha Fringe towards becoming a more widely cherished and impactful part of the community, knowing that some of the best art comes from those on the fringe.

Board of Directors

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Naomi Bates
Vice-President

Naomi Bates is a Multidisciplinary Artist and Arts Administrator from Northwest Arkansas and Pennsylvania with BA degrees in Dance and Theatre Arts Management from Slippery Rock University. She is proud to serve on the Omaha Fringe Festival board as Vice-President and Co-Social Media/Marketing Coordinator, and is excited to see the Fringe continue to grow in the years to come! In addition to serving on the board, Naomi recently produced an audiovisual movement piece, alongside Luvenia Kalia, titled "Voice notes only, please" at the 2023 Omaha Fringe Festival. In the area of Arts Management, Naomi has worked in Stage Management, Marketing, Production Management, and various production team roles. Naomi has had the privilege to work for Nebraska Shakespeare (Marketing and Social Media Specialist; Merchandise Manager), Florida Repertory Theatre (Stage Management Intern; Equity Stage Manager; Assistant Production Manager), and Center for the Arts at Bonita Springs (Stage Manager; Choreographer). From 2022-2023 Naomi served as the Assistant Production Manager at Florida Repertory Theatre and is currently serving as Fine Arts Administrator at Ouachita Baptist University and as a Dance Instructor for Natural State Dance Company. Through all artistic and administrative roles, Naomi hopes that all her work is shaped by listening, empathy, and resilience which are the most vibrant human qualities that art can and should reflect.

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Dwayne Brown
Treasurer

Dwayne Brown was born and raised in Omaha and is a registered architect, co-owns Slate Architecture w/offices in Omaha and Helena, MT. Dwayne is a comedian and board member of Big Canvas Comedy, a local not-for-profit organization that believes in comedy for everyone. Dwayne owns the Blackstone Theater, a small intimate venue for comedy, story telling, and many other performance art shows. Located in Omaha’s newest Blackstone neighborhood. Happily Married to Amy Brown with two grown daughters ages 28 and 33. Dwayne currently lives just north of Council Bluffs in the Loess Hills of Iowa.

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Katie Cameron
Secretary

Katie Cameron has been involved in all aspects of theatre since she was a young girl. A seasoned stage directions reader, she wears the actor hat as well from time to time, having performed in stage readings at the Omaha Community Playhouse, BlueBarn Theatre, Shelterbelt Theatre and Great Plains Theatre Commons. She serves as secretary for the Shelterbelt Theatre board and Omaha Fringe Festival board. Katie lives in LaVista, NE with her family and furry beasts, and works as a school counselor for Benson High School in Omaha.

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Carrie Nath
Board Member

Carrie A Nath has worked as a movement director, choreographer, and director for multiple theaters across the nation throughout her career as well as an art administrator and educator. She is currently the Director of Equitable Access at BLUEBARN Theatre and has served as Managing Director of Ollie Webb Center, Inc.; Director of Education, Kentucky Arts Council; Associate Director of Education, Seattle Opera; and Education Consultant, Ford's Theater, D.C. Artistic credits include Actor’s Theatre of Louisville; Manhattan School of Music; multiple Shakespeare companies; and Washington National Opera. Carrie is an access consultant for Omaha Performing Arts and serves on their Voices Amplified Committee; is an Opera Omaha Community Panel member; is a WhyArts, Inc. guest artist; and is working with the Risky Disco team of the Common Senses Festival 2025 creating sensory spaces for adults experiencing impairment – disability. Ms. Nath is a Nebraska Arts Council (NAC) roster artist and serves on their inclusion committee, and is a panelist for NAC and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Carrie is ‘over the moon’ about joining The Omaha Fringe Board.

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Erica Lohman
Board Member

Erica Lohman is a dancer and choreographer from Indianapolis, Indiana. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.F.A. in Dance Performance and Choreography from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory. She is currently in her third season with American Midwest Ballet (AMB) in Omaha, Nebraska, where she has danced multiple roles in their ballet productions and was featured in works by guest choreographers Frank Chaves, Monique Haley, and Ray Mercer. She also serves as the Assistant Director of the Ensemble and the Regional Solo Program Director for the AMB School. Erica has previously performed with De La Dance Company, Kansas City Ballet, Wylliams Henry Contemporary Dance Company, and Albany Berkshire Ballet, and she has danced at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the American College Dance Festival, and the Kansas Dance Festival. As a choreographer, she has set works for the AMB School, Seiche Dance Collective, Ballet INitiative, the inaugural Indy Dance Festival, and Omaha's early music ensemble Cantare!. Recently, she both choreographed and performed in a touring show with pianist Mia Vassilev and produced an original, full-length production for the 2024 Omaha Fringe Festival. As a Certified Yoga Instructor, she also enjoys sharing the joy of movement and dance throughout the Omaha Metro Area in conjunction with AMB’s Outreach programs.

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Kenzie Jensen
Board Member

Kenzie Jensen is excited to be working with Omaha Fringe in this new capacity! Kenzie has been working with the Fringe for the past two years, and loves to bring new and unique works to Omaha. Some of Kenzie’s other recent shows/work include stage managing "LIZZIE" at Shelterbelt, "Wizard of Oz" at Nebraska Community Playhouse, "5 Lesbians Eat a Quiche" at SNAP! Productions, and currently working on "Waitress" at OCP.

THE FRINGE

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Theatre fringe festivals have a long tradition, starting in 1947 in Edinburgh when eight artists, not invited to perform at an arts festival showed up anyway and performed on the fringes. From that beginning artists all over the world have gravitated towards festivals that celebrate the arts in a similar way. A Fringe festival derives its name from those performers who began on the fringes of a recognized festival and is simply a place where artists of all types can come together and perform or show their art. The works are generally performance based, self produced and self funded. The roots of Fringe are located in open access festivals, where all performers are given an opportunity free of adjudication. The heart of Fringe Festivals is performance and sharing new works of art in the community. They are often unique experiences where the variety and organic nature of the festival creates an atmosphere of discovery and adventure. For audiences it allows them to experience a wide variety of shows; for artists it gives them a low stakes platform to try new things.

After Edinburgh, Fringe festivals began to show up all over there world. Currently, the World Fringe website states there are over 250 Fringe festivals in countries from Europe to Africa to Asia to America. They estimate that, “19 million people see approximately 170 thousand performers in 60,000 free and ticketed events. Over 8 million Fringe tickets are sold in over 6 thousand venues across the globe.” That’s a lot of brand new theatre being created and performed for audiences to enjoy. 

The Omaha Fringe was created based on this long tradition of Fringe festivals. We felt that that there was a need in Omaha for this type of festival. In the true spirit of Fringe festivals, our festival allows anyone to apply and our applicants are chosen by lottery, so everyone has an equal shot at getting a performance slot. Our first year festival produced ten different performances in two different spaces at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. We had over seven hundred audience members from all around the Omaha community come and celebrate the different productions our artists created. Since then we have continued to grow and are so excited for the future of Omaha Fringe!

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News & Reviews

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