KCMETROPOLIS.org
Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

For complete Theatre listings through 2011, click here to visit the KC Events calendar.

Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre
Rules for Widows
Runs September 8 through October 2 at MET Space
For tickets call 816-569-3226 or online at www.metkc.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times

Following her husband's death, Iris uncovers secrets about the man she built her life and family with. As the family gathers, Iris is in an emotional standoff with her overbearing sister Liddie, deals with nagging questions of her thirty year old, unemployed son Chuck and her daughter Erika, who has returned for the funeral with her new irlfriend, Nif. Comedic and poignant by turns, more secrets are unearthed, this family repeatedly faces the question: "How much do you really want to know?" Featuring Jan Rogge, Marilyn Lynch, Coleman Crenshaw, Katie Ligon and Jennifer Coville. Directed by Karen Paisley.

Read the KCMetropolis review here.

American Heartland Theatre
Nobody Lonesome for Me
Runs September 9 through October 23
For tickets call  816-842-9999 or online at www.ahtkc.com
Call or visit the website for performance days and times

It's New Year's Eve 1952, and country music legend Hank Williams is stranded in a gas station. During this fateful night Hank shares his wit, his stories and his music. Hank Williams created one of the most enduring musical legacies with classics like "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", "Cold,Cold Heart", "Jambalaya", and "Your Cheatin' Heart." This revealing look at America's greatest troubadour celebrates his musical genius and exposes his darkest demons. Starring Matthew Brumlow, reprising his much-lauded role as Hank Williams.

The Coterie Theatre
The Outsiders
Runs September 13 through October 14
For tickets call 816-474-6552 or online at www.coterietheatre.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times

 It's 1965 and Ponyboy Curtis belongs to a lower class group of Oklahoma youths who call themselves greasers. Walking home from a movie, Ponyboy is attacked by a group of Socs, short for Socials, and a rival ganga that threaten to cut him. So begins an impactful tale by S.E. Hinton, who wrote this landmark work as a teen in Tulsa.

Unicorn Theatre
Red
Runs September 14 through October 2
For tickets call 816-531-7529 x10 or online at www.unicorntheatre.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times

A startling snapshot of a brilliant artist at the height of his fame, this 2010 Tony Award winner takes you into the mind of master abstract expressionist Mark Rothko for whom paintings are "pulsating" life forces and intended to "rip your guts out and expose your soul."  The play captures the eccentric painter's two-year struggle to complete a lucrative set of murals for Manhattan's exclusive Four Seasons restaurant.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre
August: Osage County
Spencer Theatre
Runs September 16 through October 9
For tickets call 816-235-2700 or online at www.kcrep.org
Call or visit the website for performance days and times

The Rep's Eric Rosen directs this 2008 Pulitzer and Tony Award winner, which The New York Times hailed as "the most exciting new American play Broadway has seen in years." A raucous, dark comedy that enjoyed celebrated runs on Broadway and London's West End, August: Osage County will have you sitting on the edge of your seat, enthralled by a dysfunctional family reunited by tragedy. Contains strong language and adult situations.

Quality Hill Playhouse
Noël and Gertie
Runs September 23 through October 23
For tickets call 816-421-1700 or online at www.qualityhillplayhouse.com
Call or visit the website for performance days and times

Today’s reality TV stars have become celebrities thanks to their ability to wear inappropriate clothes, make inappropriate comments and act … well … inappropriately. In the roaring 20s, celebrities were stars of the stage, gifted with style, comic timing and musical skill. Turn off the TV and turn back the clock to an era of style and elegance as we present Noël and Gertie, a witty and moving portrait of two of the early 20th Century’s greatest stage personalities.

 

For complete Theatre listings through 2011, click here to visit the KC Events calendar.

By Victor Wishna

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.