Lifting Unheard Voices
through community-engaged theatre
We co-create theatre with community members, then invite audiences into dialogue and action. See what’s next, explore our work, or support it.
What’s Happening Now
What’s Happening Next
Circle of Healing Arts
Sept - Oct 2026
With support from the Woman’s Fund of Omaha, we are hosting
Circle of Healing Arts: An 8-Week Somatic Healing & Creative Restoration Curriculum. This trauma-informed restorative circle is designed for women and femmes who have experienced gender based violence. These sessions will support emotional restoration, nervous system regulation, embodiment, self-expression, and healing relationship building. We will host sessions in Omaha and Lincoln in September and October. More details soon.
Open Circle
Monthly Restorative Drop-Ins
We will be hosting monthly drop in restorative circles in Omaha and Lincoln starting in September. These sessions are open to all and will combine restorative practice and healing arts activities. If you are looking for a place to connect with others and find more joy, this is for you. Omaha Circle will take place at 4:00 on the second Sunday of each month. The Lincoln circles will be at 4:00 on the third Sunday of each month. More details soon.
Circle Up
(in-facility)
Circle up is our programming inside Nebraska correctional facilities. This program is a mix of restorative justice circles and performing arts workshops. We design each workshop series to fit the needs and goals of participants. When possible the residents share what they have created with community members at their facilities. We are currently planning workshops at NE State Penitentiary and Tecumseh State Correctional Institution.
Recent Productions
Anastasis Theatre Co. creates theatre with our neighbors—not just for them. We begin with listening in story circles and community spaces, then shape what we learn into performances that hold complexity with dignity. After the show, we stay in the room: bringing artists, community members, and audiences together in facilitated conversation about what the story reveals—and what we can do next.
Ways to Win the Woods
February 2026
Ways to Win the Woods reimagines Hansel and Gretel through the lived experiences of women navigating homelessness. Developed through story-sharing workshops in collaboration with MICAH House and partners across our region, the production uses theatre and music as a springboard for community conversation about what homelessness means—and how we can work toward meaningful change together.
By a Thread
March 2025
More than 75 women participated in story circles and interviews to help create the play.
By a Thread explores the heartbreaking challenges the women faced inside and the incredible sisterhood that keeps hope alive. We toured the play in Omaha and Lincoln with a cast of five justice-impacted women and two professional actors. After each performance we had community conversations led by our formally incarcerated cast members.
Disability is Not a Dirty Word
November 2023
Disability is Not a Dirty Word, is an original online play that explores the multi-faceted experience of living with a disability. This production was created and is performed by a diverse group of disabled people and explores the broad experiences of the disabled identity. The play was written using story circles, allowing disabled participants to express their frustrations in a society designed primarily for non-disabled people.
How Anastasis makes theatre
Community-engaged theatre is not a single “format”—it’s a practice of relationship. Each Anastasis project adapts to the community we’re working with, but the arc is consistent: listen deeply, create collaboratively, share the work publicly, and keep the conversation going.
Story circles are where the work begins: people gather, speak without interruption, and share as much or as little as they choose. Across our history, story circles have taken place in community settings throughout Omaha and beyond, creating space for truth-telling, connection, and the kind of insight you can’t get from headlines or assumptions.
From interviews and workshops to script development and rehearsal, community members are not “subjects” of the work—they are collaborators. Sometimes that means shaping a script through repeated feedback; sometimes it means building a mosaic of many voices into one theatrical event. The method is flexible, but the ethic is firm: collaboration and respect first.
Video courtesy of
thinkMotion.
Why this work matters
We believe story shapes culture—what we remember, what we normalize, and what we think is possible. When the same groups hold the microphone, the community’s understanding of itself becomes incomplete. Anastasis exists to shift that narrative by giving new voices a platform and inviting our wider community into shared space, shared attention, and shared responsibility.
Live theatre can do something rare: connect people face-to-face in a single room, in a single moment, long enough for empathy to become more than a concept. That is why our work prioritizes human connection and dialogue—not as “extras,” but as part of the art itself.
Build With Our Valued Funding Partners
Anastasis projects are built alongside organizations and community leaders who are already doing the work—shelters, service providers, artists, educators, advocates, and civic partners. These collaborations shape not only what stories are told, but how they’re told: where story circles are hosted, what care is needed for participation, and how audiences can connect to concrete next steps through local expertise.
