Omaha Community Playhouse hosting its first show with an all-Hispanic cast

For the first time in 100 years, the Omaha Community Playhouse will have an all-Hispanic cast. The play, American Mariachi, starts on Friday and continues for a month through June 1.

Alex Rodriguez, the playhouse’s co-artistic director and the stage and vocal director for American Mariachi, said this play helps to open up theater arts to more members of the Omaha community.

“Hopefully other theaters in town and ourselves, here go, ‘Oh, we can do this work, and it shouldn't just be this play. We should tell stories by Latino playwrights with Latino characters, more than just once,’” he said.

Rodriguez described American Mariachi as a play with music. He added that it’s also the first time a community playhouse has put on the show. The playwright, José Cruz González, will be flying in to see it on opening night.

Rodriguez recently watched a dress rehearsal before the play opens.

“And I just thought, my God, that is the whole point of all of it,” he said. “Because there will be a 10-year-old, there will be a 15-year-old, there will be a 40-year-old in the audience who will watch that and go, ‘I am so proud that my story, that our story, is up on that stage.’”

Rodriguez said the show would not have been possible 100 years ago when the Omaha Community Playhouse first opened.

American Mariachi will play Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and on Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets for the all-volunteer play can be found at the website for Omaha Community Playhouse.