RSS 2.0 FeedJanuary 4, 2012, Featured Articles, Theatre
Spring 2011 preview: Theatre
And as January and February temperatures dip, the stages of area theatres—many in mid-season—are warming up. What follows are some highlights to look for this winter and spring from Kansas City’s adult professional companies and presenters—but come back often to KCMetropolis for more listings, previews, and reviews of the musical, family, community, and off-beat theatre our area has to offer.
Kansas City Repertory Theatre
UMKC’s Spencer Theatre
4949 Cherry Street, Kansas City, MO
Copaken Stage
13th and Walnut Streets, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-2700 or online at www.kcrep.org
KC Rep starts off the new year with a new adaptation of a classic— playwright Laura Eason’s version of Mark Twain’s American literary narrative, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Jan. 20–Feb. 12 at the Spencer Theatre), has been hailed as “sassy, ingeniously staged and deeply affecting” by the New York Times. Innovative theatre company The Civilians will present the world premiere of The Great Immensity (Feb. 17–Mar. 18 on the Copaken Stage), an original musical that is “part mystery and part morality tale” on the reality of climate change our planet’s endangered ecosystems. From a fragile future to a difficult past, The Whipping Man (Mar. 16–Apr. 8 at the Spencer Theatre) is “an extraordinary new work” that is rooted in the largely unknown but true history of Jewish slaveholders in the South. The black-comedy classic Little Shop of Horrors (Apr. 20–May 20 on the Copaken Stage) is a love story about what happens when botany goes horribly wrong, set to Motown-style music—and “promises to become a Kansas City cult favorite.”
Unicorn Theatre
3828 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-531-PLAY or online at www.unicorntheatre.org
The Unicorn continues its parade of Tony favorites into the new year with recent Best Play nominee Next Fall (Jan. 28–Feb. 12 on the Mainstage), a “witty and provocative look at faith and commitment” by playwright Geoffrey Nauffts. Up next comes Lia Romeo’s Hungry (Mar. 3–18 on the Jerome Stage), a “mouthwatering comedy” about a young woman, her mother, and her minotaur (uh huh). Another 2010 Tony Award nominee, Time Stands Still (Apr. 14–29 on the Mainstage) is Donald Margulies’ tale that follows two journalists as they return from Iraq, and try to return to normal. · The Unicorn wraps up the season with Sherie Renee Scott’s semi-autobiographical stage memoir Everyday Rapture (May 19–June 3 on the Mainstage), the story of a woman’s psycho-sexual-spiritual journey from Topeka, Kansas to New York City—this will be the show’s first U.S. production since it premiered on Broadway in 2010.
Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre
3614 Main Street, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-569-3226 or online at www.metkc.org
The MET’s early 2012 stretch offers a string of classics, from Chekhov to Sondheim. First up is The Seagull (Jan. 11–29), the “international masterwork” that “elegantly displays the poetry of everyday life.” An “airy mental institution” is the setting for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Feb. 29–Mar. 18), Dale Wasserman’s tour de force—funny and moving, horrifying and tragic. John Jory’s take on Jane Austen’s literary classic Pride and Prejudice (Apr. 18–May 6) is a “refreshingly fast-paced and engaging new adaptation.”
American Heartland Theatre
Crown Center
2450 Grand Boulevard, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-842-9999 or online at www.ahtkc.com
A world premiere leads the year off: Beer for Breakfast (Jan. 6–Feb. 19) is the story of “three men in a cabin, two days at the lake, and one jilted wife;” what could go wrong? AHT winds up the 2011–12 season with something tried and true—The Importance of Being Earnest (Mar. 2–Apr. 15), Oscar Wilde’s “comic masterpiece about class and name-dropping.”
Kansas City Actors Theatre
P.O. Box 22510, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.kcactors.org/
Following on the success of last year’s collaboration with UMKC Theatre and the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial on Oh What A Lovely War, KCAT and partners will return to Liberty Memorial with the contemporary classic Billy Bishop Goes to War (Feb. 10–26).
The White Theater at the Jewish Community Center of Kansas City
5801 West 115th Street, Overland Park, Kansas
For tickets call 913-327-8054 or online at www.jcckc.org
The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later (Apr. 21–May 6), shown in repertory, recount the horror and aftermath of the kidnapping and fatal beating of Matthew Shepard in 1998, based on more than 200 interviews with Laramie townspeople conducted by Moises Kaufman and fellow members of the Tectonic Theater Project—as well as what they found upon their return to Laramie in 2008.
UMKC Theatre
4949 Cherry Street, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.umkctheatre.org.
Stephen Adly Guirgis’s sensational, daring, and wildly comic The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Feb. 3–19) gets a creative spin as a courtroom drama: God and The Kingdom of Heaven and Earth vs. J. Iscariot. With rich action and “bloody swordfights,” A Yorkshire Tragedy (Mar. 9–18) is based on a true story, one of the most notorious examples of domestic violence in English history. UMKC Theatre rounds out the season with Shakespeare’s masterpiece about personal tragedy and redemption, A Winter’s Tale (Apr. 20–29).
University of Central Missouri Theatre
Highlander Theatre
S. College Street
Warrensburg, MO
Narrated through a series of bittersweet flashbacks, Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning How I Learned to Drive (Feb. 15–19) is an honest, coming-of-age account of forgiveness, healing, and growth- and how one can find light even from the unhealthiest of relationships. One of Shakespeare’s most endearing comedies, The Tempest (Apr. 11–15) is part Castaway, part Survivor.
Jewell Theatre Company
William Jewell College
Peters Theater, Brown Hall
500 College Hill, Liberty, MO
The Senior Theatre Performance of the Student Series is The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) (Feb. 3–4), in which three actors present 38 plays in one evening. Jewell Theatre presents the U.S. premiere of Living Creation (Apr. 12–14), Oxford playwright Francis Warner’s examination of Lorenzo de’ Medici, caught between art, religion, and politics. The season wraps up with the semi-annual Jewell Theatre Showcase (May 2), featuring students performing and displaying their work from class.
Equity Actors Readers Theatre (EARTh)
St. Teresa Academy Auditorium
5600 Main, Kansas City, MO
For information visit http://earthkc.com/
Meet the eccentric Bliss family in Noel Coward’s Hay Fever (Jan. 9), a cross between high farce and comedy of manners set in the English countryside in the 1920s. George Bernard Shaw’s Misalliance (Apr. 30) is a delightful examination of art, literature, family, relationships, and the zest for life.
Top Photo: Unicorn Theatre's Next Fall
Senior Editor, Theatre; Theatre and Features Contributor
Victor Wishna is a writer, editor, and author, among other things. A graduate of Stanford University and the New School's creative writing MFA program, he has written for the Wall Street Journal, the Baltimore Sun, the Miami Herald, the Kansas City Star, Humanities, and other major magazines and newspapers. He contributes a weekly real estate feature to the New York Post and his column “Letter from New York” is syndicated nationally.
With photographer Ken Collins, he published In Their Company: Portraits of American Playwrights (Umbrage Editions, 2006), for which he conducted and edited interviews with 61 prominent stage writers including Edward Albee, August Wilson, Tony Kushner, Wendy Wasserstein, and many others. The book won a 2007 Independent Publisher Book Awards Silver Medal (www.intheircompany.com).
He has always maintained a love for theatre, as a writer, an audience member, and even an actor, appearing in several community and semi-professional productions. As an undergraduate, he studied acting and playwriting with Anna Deavere Smith, in addition to journalism and psychology (and not engineering or medicine).
After nearly 12 years in New York City, Victor recently returned to his hometown with his wife, Annie, also a K.C. native. When not writing for publication or pleasure, Victor is honing his stand-up routine, which he has performed at numerous clubs and special events around New York, the Midwest, and elsewhere. In June 2010, he was named New York’s second-funniest amateur Jewish comedian by The Jewish Week. Seriously.
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KC Events this week and beyond
Looking for something to do this weekend? Click here for the KC Events calendar of theatre, classical music, dance and jazz events through 2011. Highlights of this week's classical music and dance offerings are in Don Dagenais' "City Classics." For current Theatre listings visit Victor Wishna's "City Stage." Enjoy!
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