Enough
Is
Enough

The Crisis

While hard-working Americans struggle to put food on the table, the actors of the Omaha Playhouse continue to rake in applause, costume changes, and complimentary intermission cookies — night after night after night.

This has gone on long enough. We will not be silent. We will not be distracted by a well-staged musical number. We will not applaud on cue.

Our Grievances

• ✦Actors receive free water backstage. Bottled. Still. Possibly chilled. At whose expense?
• ✦Up to three (3) curtain calls per performance — an open display of ego that this community has enabled for far too long.
• ✦Complimentary program booklets distributed freely at the door, listing everyone's headshot and their "favorite roles." Unbridled.
• ✦Stage lighting is adjusted specifically for their comfort. What about our comfort? We're the ones sitting in the dark.
• ✦These people get to pretend to be other people — on a real stage, with a real audience — and they call it a hobby. A hobby.
• ✦Cast parties. Cast parties. We don't have parties when we finish our work. We just go home.

Our Demands

1. Standing ovations must be earned, not reflexive. Show some spine.
2. The intermission cookie budget must be disclosed publicly.
3. Curtain calls shall not exceed one (1) per production, per run.
4. At least once per show, an actor must acknowledge, unprompted, that this is a community theater.
5. The word "phenomenal" in the program notes must be retired immediately. "Adequate" is available and more honest.

Founding Statement

"These actors have gone too far. I don't know exactly how, but I feel it in my bones. Hollywood has come to Omaha, and I will not stand for it — which is ironic, because I'll be standing outside all weekend."

— Jason

Founder & Chief Grievance Officer, C.A.T.E.