Kevin Ehrhart is one of the Rose’s full-time Teaching Artists and Chief Information Officer. As such, Kevin finds himself doing myriad things throughout the theater at any given time. Sometimes he is teaching classes, other times he is acting or directing one of the Rose’s Mainstage productions.
Though the theater keeps him busy, he took the time to answer some questions about his first theatrical experience for us!
First of all, we asked him how he is affiliated with The Rose. Though it has already been mentioned that he is a full time Teaching Artist at The Rose, that doesn’t mean we know everything! Specifically, Kevin started working with the theater when it was still called The Emmy Gifford Children’s Theater! The theater was renamed after Rose Blumkin and staged it’s first production as the Omaha Theater Company in 1995–22 years ago! It’s amazing that Kevin has been able to be a part of such a great company for as long as he has.
Now time for the Throwback! We asked Kevin when and what his very first theater experience was. His response:
“In grade school, I was in a production of The Wizard of Oz. I remember that the flying monkeys were papier-mâché and flown onto the stage with a cable. I thought that was a pretty cool effect.”
It’s often cool to hear about the different experiences people have had. For instance, a papier-mâché flying monkey seems really interesting compared to many of the live flying monkey portrayals seen nowadays.
One thing people don’t always see is how much of an impact theater has on the young and young at heart, alike. We asked Kevin how theater has impacted and changed his life. He told us:
“When I started at the Theater I was interested in acting and directing, however, when I experienced how the experience of theater was able to improve young people’s self-esteem, I was completely connected to the mission of the Theater and haven’t looked back since.”
And there’s no doubt that Kevin believes in the amazing things that Theater can do for young people–especially after dedicating so much of his time to this organization.
Thanks for all you do and for sharing your throwback, Kevin!