Common Senses Festival

The New Works Development for Disabled Artists (NWD(2)A) program is a partnership between Common Senses and Great Plains Theatre Commons. This program is designed to support Omaha-Metro and surrounding artists who identify as having a disability in the next step of developing a new theatrical work in progress. The experience is formatted to be fully accessible, beginning with the GPTC New Play Festival and ending with a showcase at the Common Senses Festival. It is a celebration of artistic expression that supports unique visionaries and their stories, which make our community, and the world, stronger.

The showcase will feature the works of Abz Cameron and Karma LiLoLa. Abz will share the process of creating Oh, to Be a Kid Again - an immersive, play-based installation centered on discovery and exploration as a means of regulation and reconnection. The installation invites participants into a tactile, low-pressure environment designed to encourage curiosity and interaction without expectation.

Karma LiLoLa will perform Magna Karma, a 30 minute interactive sensory theatre experience centered on a ritualized world built around transformation, participation, movement, and temporary visual landscapes.

The showcase will culminate in an audience Q&A with the artists.

Schedule:

6:00pm - 8:00pm: Doors open at 6:00pm; show beings at 6:30pm followed by a brief Q & A

Participants Include:

A Latinx person with curly brown hair, wearing black eyeliner, an orange lip, long dangling earrings, and a red-orange dress with a graphic print. They are standing in front of a gray wall, chin resting on their fingertips.

Abz Cameron

Abz Cameron (they/them) is a neurodivergent multidisciplinary artist & self-proclaimed weirdo based in Omaha. A sensory-seeking creator, their work is hands-on and tactile - rooted in play, accessibility, and genuine human connection. With two decades of acting experience, Abz stumbled into visual during Covid-19 and fell in LOVE with yet another language of expression. As a Holland Community Opera Fellow with Opera Omaha and former Artistic Specialist with the Ollie Webb Center, Inc., Abz designs neuro-inclusive programming encouraging ALL to express their own truth, depth, chaos, silliness, and joy!

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Amy Reiner

BLUEBARN

Amy Reiner joined the BLUEBARN in 2012 as Production Manager and Properties Master. She previously worked for 12 years as Properties Master at The Omaha Community Playhouse. Prior to that, she freelanced in Los Angeles in the fields of film and television.

Amy holds a BFA in technical theatre with an emphasis on Scenic and Lighting Design from The University of Nebraska Lincoln.

A woman standing outside by a DJ setup, her hair up, wearing an unbuttoned sports jersey of sorts, a white crop, and black bottoms, as well as a set of headphones. She is holding up two peace sign hand gestures.

Chalis Bristol

DJ Crabrangucci

The master of transitions, blends, and reading the dance floor", Chalis Bristol aka dj crabrangucci is one of the most booked DJ's in the area and certainly the go-to for events that want a fresh take on musical curation. With a versatile knowledge of music and an ear for hits, she plays everything: disco, indie dance, Top 40, house/techno, baile funk, Korean pop, and more! As the '21, '22, '24, and '25 Omaha Entertainment & Arts "Outstanding DJ" award-winner, Chalis has played over 500 events in the last five years, everywhere from fundraisers to the College World Series to fashion weeks to Steelhouse to raves and festivals like MAHA. She's also been featured on regional and national radio and podcasts, and even the occasional political rally. If the party is poppin', or the vibe is right, more than likely it's crabrangucci on the decks.

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Ellen Struve

Ellen Struve is a playwright, community artist and educator. She is a Nebraska Arts Council Individual Artist Fellow, Great Plains Theatre Festival and PlayPenn alum, and five-time Omaha Entertainment Award-winner for best original script. Her play Recommended Reading for Girls is published with Playscripts, Inc. Her work has been supported by an EST/Sloan award and the Mid-America Arts Alliance. She has degrees from University of Iowa and School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

‍www.ellenstruve.com

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Karma LiLoLa

Karma LiLoLa is an Omaha-based performance artist, storyteller, deviser, and community builder. A first-generation Mexican-American trans woman and wheelchair user, she creates immersive experiences that blend ritual, theatrical spectacle, movement, audience participation, and emerging technology.

Karma earned degrees from Yale University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where she studied theatre, performance, dramaturgy, and cultural storytelling. Her work draws inspiration from ancestry, nightlife, disability culture, spirituality, and the transformative power of gathering in shared space.

Following a spinal cord injury in 2023, her artistic practice expanded in unexpected directions. Through wheelchair choreography, interactive installations, sand mandalas, and autobiographical performance, she explores how memory becomes connection and how communities imagine futures together.

*Magna Karma is a vogue ball for the soul, taking audiences through a rocket launch, a funeral march, and a community disco party.*

https://bit.ly/KarmasLinks

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Kevin Lawler

Kevin is a poet, playwright, director, designer, actor and producer. He is the Artistic Director of The Great Plains Theatre Commons, a co-founder of the award winning Blue Barn Theatre, the founder/director of the National Institute For The Lost and a Dad.

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Makenzie Gomez

Makenzie (she/they) is a Mexican-American, queer, dynamically disabled theatre professional and small business owner. Several news outlets covered her video concept piece, Music and the Mirror (& Mobility Aids), in which she adapted the original Broadway choreography from A Chorus Line to her mobility aids. Lavender Magazine put Makenzie on the cover along with a full spread interview.

Creative Adaptations LLC selected credits: adapting movement workshops (NYU; Queens Theatre); Accessibility Coordinator (Butch Wicked); 1:1 client consulting. She hopes that through her work both on and off stage, she can help normalize integrating disabled performers into musicals.

Socials:
@makenziemorgangomez
@creativeadaptations

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Rachel Adams

Chief Curator + Director of Programs

Rachel Adams is the Chief Curator + Director of Programs at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. Previously, she held curatorial positions at the University at Buffalo Art Galleries, Oregon Contemporary, and The Contemporary Austin. Her practice centers on building long-term relationships with artists and developing interdisciplinary projects spanning photography, installation, sound, performance, video, new media, and architecture. At Bemis, she curates exhibitions, directs the international residency program, and oversees LOW END, the organization's experimental sound venue.

Her exhibitions include From the Great Lakes to the Great Plains: The Visible Current of Climate Change; Ezra Masch: VOLUMES; Synchronicities; Carmen Winant: The last safe abortion; Jennifer Ling Datchuk: Eat Bitterness; Raven Halfmoon: Flags of Our Mothers (co-curated); Paul Stephen Benjamin: Black of Night; Maya Dunietz: Root of Two; All Together, Amongst Many: Reflections on Empathy; Paul Mpagi Sepuya: Drop Scene; and Claudia Wieser: Generations (co-curated).

Accessibility Features