John Beasley got tired of being tired.

You’ve likely learned the John Beasley Theater & Workshop’s urgent appeal for funds to relieve its financial distress has been answered, and the once-endangered 2011-2012 season saved.

But you probably don’t know the back story, or why founding namesake and president John Beasley is willing to share the details, the better to make a case for the theater’s continued existence.

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There were moments that made me hold my breath. That turned a light on to deeper understanding. That made me laugh out loud at a shared experience. That filled me with sadness and frustration.

As with all of August Wilson's titles in his 10-play cycle, "Radio Golf" is fat with substance and contemporary relevance — from life wisdom to moral insight to human relations to race relations.

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It won't be curtains for the John Beasley Theater this year after all. Beasley, who founded the theater 11 years ago, said he has received about $7,000 in cash and $30,000 in pledges of support since he told The World-Herald last week that a lack of funds might close the theater for good.

The John Beasley Theater, which performs at the LaFern Williams Center in the YMCA near 30th and Q Streets, is the only metro-area theater that focuses on plays by black playwrights and casts of mostly African-American actors.

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The John Beasley Theater has announced that unless it raises $10,000 by Sept. 23, the opening night of its next production, there will be no opening night.

Instead, after 11 years of staging plays by black playwrights or with mostly black casts, the Beasley will close its doors for good. "I can't afford to subsidize this theater any longer," said founder John Beasley, a native Omahan and nationally known actor.

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Review: Top talent ensures ‘Jitney’ is great show

By Bob Fischbach WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Published Thursday February 18, 2010

It’s one of the most unforgettable dramatic moments of the year on local stages.

John and Tyrone Beasley, a father and son in real life, play an estranged father and son to electric, lacerating, heartbreaking results in August Wilson’s “Jitney.” The show is quite simply the best drama yet seen this season.

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Review: August Wilson Cycle Continues to Shine at JBT

by Warren Francke of The Reader

The magic of August Wilson’s writing as performed in the John Beasley Theater finds me struggling to convey the power of Jitney, the 1970s part of his 10-play cycle on the African-American experience.

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 Review: Beasley’s ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ a powerful play

By Bob Fischbach WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Published Thursday September 24, 2009

The John Beasley Theater has distinguished itself again with stellar ensemble work, only this time the playwright isn’t Beasley’s favorite, August Wilson.

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Theater: Shock Corridor

‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ at the JBT

By: David Williams

Omaha City Weekly Issue: September 23, 2009

“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” Through Oct. 11 Thurs.-Sat. at 7:30 p.m. Sundays at 3 p.m. $25 Adults, $20 seniors and students, $15 Thursdays Tickets: 502-5767, johnbeasleytheater.org 30th and Q streets

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Theater Review: ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ superb drama at Beasley

By Loyal Fairman

The Daily Nonpareil

Published: Thursday, September 24, 2009 9:20 AM CDT

OMAHA – “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” by Dale Wasserman and based on Ken Kesey’s novel opened a four-weekend run at The John Beasley Theater & Workshop in South Omaha. Tyrone Beasley, the director, has a good cast in this famous story of one man’s defiant battle in a mental institution.

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*Blame Adam. Not the original man for original sin, but Leo Adam Biga, The Reader’s prolific reporter, for my rather ordinary crime of skipping August Wilson plays at the John Beasley Theater.

Biga was quick to cover earlier offerings in Wilson’s 10-play Pittsburgh cycle, so I didn’t head south in time to catch them. I saw a moving excerpt performed by John and son Tyrone Beasley at the Great Plains Theater Conference, but finally lost my Wilson-Beasley virginity last weekend with their Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.

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