KC Stage blog

KC Repertory "Tom Sawyer" review by Alexia Lang

2012-01-29T16:00:00.000-06:00

When we are young, every single day appears to be bursting at the seams with potential for adventure. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” at The Kansas City Repertory Theatre ignites that desire to get a little messy and have a lot of fun.

more at the Vignette

KC Symphony "Sci-Fi Spectacular" review by Andrea Fowler

2012-01-29T14:00:00.000-06:00

As the orchestra began the main title theme from “Star Wars,” it was obvious that this concert, the first of two weekend concerts, was unlike any yet in Helzberg Hall. The stage on Friday night was filled to near capacity with members of the Kansas City Symphony, including expanded brass and percussion sections, and singers from the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and Dance and Blue Valley North, Olathe North and Olathe Northwest high schools.

more at kansascity.com

ArtsKC awards luncheon for ArtsKC Fund campaign

2012-01-29T12:00:00.000-06:00

Kansas City will live long and prosper if it continues to support its vibrant arts community. The Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City borrowed that message Friday for its Star Trek-themed annual ArtsKC Awards luncheon, kicking off its 2012 ArtsKC Fund campaign. The effort aims to raise $420,000 in workplace contributions.

more at kansascity.com

Coterie "Wrestling Season" review by Robert Trussell

2012-01-29T10:00:00.004-06:00

The Coterie Theatre and the UMKC Theatre Department have joined forces to produce a remarkably well-acted revival of "The Wrestling Season," a taut one-act play by Laurie Brooks about intense social pressures and sexual identity among a group of teens.

more at kansascity.com

Yo-Yo Ma talks about Helzberg Hall

2012-01-29T08:00:00.000-06:00

The world's most celebrated cellist, Yo-Yo Ma, recently performed with the Kansas City Symphony in their new home, Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Here is what he had to say about his experience in the new hall.

Will Combs, American Jazz Museum interview

2012-01-28T22:00:00.000-06:00

Meet the AJM Staff Video Series by Melaney Mitchell. Our IT Manager and Technical Director talks about what its like working at the American Jazz Museum and points out some helpful tips for those also interested in an technical audio career.

Trails West Barbershop Chorus interview by Lisa Allen

2012-01-28T20:00:00.000-06:00

Everyday miracles are often overlooked. Take, for instance, the ability to turn a mishmash group of men, ranging from high school age to 80 with no formal musical training, into a chorus of voices that spreads entertainment and happiness throughout the Kansas City area.

more at Johnson County Lifestyle

Starlight "Aladdin" preview by Robert Trussell

2012-01-28T18:00:00.000-06:00

When Denton Yockey, president and executive producer at Starlight Theatre, approached Jerry Jay Cranford about directing the Disney musical “Aladdin” at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, he thought he was making a simple, common-sense decision.

more at kansascity.com

KC Ballet 2012-2013 Season

2012-01-28T16:00:00.000-06:00

Following a season of perennial favorites and premieres in a brand new performance hall is not an easy feat. Yet the Kansas City Ballet’s artistic director, William Whitener, has programmed a season of performances for 2012-13 that aims to meet the high standards Kansas City dance fans have come to expect as the company settled into its new performance home, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, and its new headquarters, the Bolender Center.

more at kansascity.com

KC Symphony "Sci-Fi Spectacular" review by DSM

2012-01-28T14:00:00.003-06:00

It takes real guts and musicianship to pull off pieces like the ones we heard last night at Kansas City’s Kauffman Center!

more at Chamber Music Today

Quality Hill "My Romance" review by Robert Trussell

2012-01-28T12:00:00.002-06:00

Kudos to J. Kent Barnhart and Quality Hill Playhouse for creating a show that transported a seen-it-all theater critic to a different time and place.

more at kansascity.com

Call for donations to Robert Altman Emerging Filmmakers Fund

2012-01-27T20:00:00.000-06:00

The Film Commission of Greater Kansas City has created The Robert Altman Emerging Filmmakers Fund, which is a sustainable fund designed to help filmmakers get their short film productions off the ground. This new fund will leverage individual, institutional, charitable and corporate support to reach critical mass. All donations go the the Commission.

more at the Kansas Film Commission

Guitarist Slash to shoot movie about cemetary in Lawrance

2012-01-27T18:00:00.000-06:00

In one corner, there is Slash — the heavy-metal rock icon and former lead guitarist for the band Guns N’ Roses. In the other corner, there is Iona, an 86-year-old rural Douglas County resident intent on keeping riffraff out of her neighborhood’s historic cemetery. It sure appears a clash is coming.

more at lawrence.com

James Wright on bringing "Nixon in China" to KC

2012-01-27T16:00:00.000-06:00

Richard Nixon, Mao, First Lady Pat Nixon, et. al. are travelling by semi truck to Kansas City, Missouri from Vancouver.

more at the Vancouver Opera Blog

Washburn University "Year of Magical Thinking" preview by Bill Blankenship

2012-01-27T14:00:00.001-06:00

"The Year of Magical Thinking" explores, in the words of its author, Joan Didion, explores "a place none of know until we reach it": grief.

more at the Topeka Capital Journal

High school students get lessons from Yo-Yo Ma

2012-01-27T10:00:00.003-06:00

Anyone lucky enough to have a ticket can see one of the world's greatest cellists, Yo-Yo Ma, perform this weekend with the Kansas City Symphony.
Blue Springs high school sophomore Alyssa Aubuchon will get a much closer encounter on Saturday: she will have the chance to learn from him.

more at NBC Action News

Amphion interview by Teresa Sheffield

2012-01-27T08:00:00.001-06:00

“There is an element of camaraderie that you can only get from a group of singing guys; we’re a brotherhood,” Amphion president Samuel Green said. “It’s nice to know that after we’re done singing, we’re just a bunch of dudes. We goof off, have inside jokes, and that makes our bond that much stronger.”

more at the University News

Kansas City Academy Grassroots Concert Series introduction

2012-01-26T22:00:00.000-06:00

Kansas City Academy Grassroots Concert Series

[Thanks, Plastic Sax]

Mandy Patinkin interview by Steve Walker

2012-01-26T20:00:00.000-06:00

"An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin" reunites two Tony Award-winning performers for the first time since they performed together in the original Broadway cast of "Evita."

more at KCUR
and more here

Hamburg Symphony review by John Heuertz

2012-01-26T18:00:00.000-06:00

Violinist Guy Braunstein joined the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jeffrey Tate in their Kansas City debuts Wednesday night at Helzberg Hall in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The concert was part of this season’s Harriman-Jewell Series.

more at kansascity.com

KC Rep "Tom Sawyer" review by Robert Trussell

2012-01-26T16:00:00.000-06:00

The Kansas City Repertory Theatre, in collaboration with three other regional theaters, gives us an inventive, high-spirited and somewhat endearing stage version of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.”

more at kansascity.com

Ladysmith Black Mambazo review by Timothy Finn

2012-01-26T14:00:00.000-06:00

A cliché may be a worn-out truth but it’s a truth nonetheless, and one well-known truth came forth boldly Tuesday night inside the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts: Music is a language the whole world speaks.

more at kansascity.com

Geoffrey Nauffts "Next Fall" interview by Robert Trussell

2012-01-26T12:00:00.000-06:00

Geoffrey Nauffts wants to sucker punch you. At the moment, the playwright is keeping an eye on regional productions of his “Next Fall,” a 2010 hit on and off-Broadway, especially those in theaters down south. The reason, Nauffts said in an interview from Los Angeles, is that his dramedy, which opens this week at the Unicorn Theatre, is a play about a gay relationship unlike others theatergoers have encountered.

more at kansascity.com

West Platte High School Performing Arts Center ribbon cutting

2012-01-26T10:00:00.000-06:00

The new Performing Arts Center and the entire building program carried out the past four years were celebrated at West Platte Schools Sunday afternoon. Looking around the new theatre space, and extolling the value of the new elementary gym and other school improvements, speaker Darrell Willson stopped and looked at the audience. “Can we praise the Lord for the Iatan Power Plant money?!”

more at the Platte Chronicle

Downtown art campus plans in motion

2012-01-26T08:00:00.005-06:00

“The idea of a Downtown Campus for the Arts has really captured the public imagination,” said Anne Hartung Spenner, Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications.

more at the University News