Meet Our 22/23 Season NOW Lab Playwrights!

The New Omaha Works Lab (NOW Lab) exists to support local playwrights in the Omaha metro area who are developing new work for the stage. 

For the inaugural 2023 NOW Lab, the OCP has selected two playwrights to provide an extended development process over the course of 8 months for their selected scripts. The goal of this process is to provide compensation, extended conversations, table reads, and workshop opportunities to help playwrights deepen their learning about their scripts.

Kim Louise | NOW Lab Playwright

Kim Louise’s love of writing started in elementary school and by the time she was in junior high school, the first of her many poems was published as part of a Black History exhibit at the Great Plains Black History Museum. A native Omahan, Kim has penned over eleven novels and five novellas, writing for Kensington Press (BET Books), Genesis Press, and Harlequin Enterprises and earned a spot on Amazon’s bestseller’s list for mass market fiction. Her poetry has been published by the Cathartic Literary Journal and Third World Press.

Ben Beck | NOW Lab Playwright

Ben is a performer and playwright based in Omaha. Last fall, his co-adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was produced by the Blue Barn Theater. Ben wrote and directed Crash! Boom Pow! (OEA Award-Best Premier of a New Script) for the Shelterbelt Theater. The Shelterbelt also produced his one-act play, Chekhov’s Gun (TAG Award-Best One Act), which was later performed by Encompass Productions in London. Ben has also written for the Witching Hour project and the Douglas County Historical Society. As performer, he most recently played Nicodemus and others in The Mystery of Irma Vep at the Omaha Community Playhouse. Previous roles at the Playhouse include Andrew in I Hate Hamlet, Actor 2 in Around the World in 80 Days and Jules in boom. Other favorite roles include Hannay in The 39 Steps at the Blue Barn Theater, Max in Bent for SNAP Productions and Booth in Assassins at the University of NE-Omaha. Ben has a BA in Theatre from the University of Nebraska Omaha.

Learn about the NOW Lab here: https://omahaplayhouse.com/education/now-lab/.