Omaha Mobile Stage

FACT 25

Omaha Mobile Stage is a creative placemaking project designed and built by the team as a portable stage serving as a cultural and economic catalyst in public spaces and main streets throughout the Omaha metropolitan area. A converted box truck serves as a fully functional mobile small-capacity venue bringing all forms of performing arts to communities and schools.

During the long pandemic, cities saw a collapse in the cultural and commercial activities that make urban life exciting. The pandemic created a vacuum in cultural districts and severely im-pacted employment in the live entertainment industries, which retreated online. While physical distancing saved lives, social isolation and loneliness have emerged as serious public health concerns. Now that a vaccine circulates and the pandemic wanes, the creative and public realms have a unique opportunity to work together to breathe life back into cities. In response, Omaha Mobile Stage is a prototype for a new model of outdoor venue providing a fun and flexi-ble, but safe and serene, place for people to re-engage with each other, reactivate public spac-es, and reanimate social, creative, and economic life in the city. The project is inspired by the long history of pageant wagons and the original Omaha Show Wagon, built in 1952 and used for many years thereafter.

The team transformed a used 18’ diesel box truck into an all-inclusive mobile, expandable stage with multi-functional curtain, built-in storage, sound and lighting equipment, battery pow-er, and acoustic treatments. All elements of a versatile small venue are integrated with an overriding, unique aesthetic capable of being set up by 2 stagehands in less than 30 minutes.

See the project website: www.omahamobilestage.org for information about events and support. A printed book about the OMS published by Actual FACT Books is now available.