It’s been a year now since the curtain opened on the much anticipated $415 million Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The downtown venue designed by Moshie Safdie has quickly garnered both national and international attention.
Many of the center’s shows have earned rave reviews and there have been countless sold out performances. But one year on, is it meeting expectations?
Joining us for a status report is arts leader and philanthropist Julia Irene Kauffman, who chair’s the center’s board, and Symphony Board President Shirley Helzberg.
This week, in conjunction with KC Studio Magazine, our performARTS Series takes a look at the Charlotte Street Foundation. Named after a house near UMKC where poets, painters and music makers would gather to eat, drink and talk shop, Charlotte Street celebrates turning 15 this year. Randy Mason has more about this unique operation, which through cash awards and other forms of assistance helps the region’s artists do more of what they do best.
Named by Time Magazine as “One of the five best theaters for young audiences in the U.S.,” the Coterie Theatre has been delighting audiences, young and old alike, for over 30 years.
This week, Randy Mason goes behind the curtain at the Theatre’s home on the first floor of Hallmark’s Crown Center shops to see how Producing Artistic Director Jeff Church and Company produce a variety of youth-oriented shows and community programming. From their current show Seussical and their New-York bound musical Lucky Duck to the Young Playwrights’ Festival and the free classroom-touring Dramatic Aids Education Project, the Coterie continues to provide important entertaining and educational theater to Kansas City audiences and beyond.
For more information, please check out the latest issue of KC Studio.
Jewish Community Centers sprang up in many American cities around the turn of the 20th century, in part because Jews were excluded from other organizations.
But unlike the YMCA, for example, these centers didn’t focus solely on physical fitness. They also stressed the growth of the whole person, including artistic endeavors. In this installment of our performARTS series, we’ll take you out to Overland Park to see some of the impressive work going on inside the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, a place its own Cultural Arts director calls the “best kept secret around.”
The center’s season will conclude with Hairspray, July 13-28 in the White Theatre, which will then move out to Johnson County’s Theater In the Park, the first time that arrangement has ever been tried.
If you want to learn more about the history of the JCC’s old Resident Theatre, check out Richard Piland’s book, The Illustrated History of the Resident Theatre Kansas City, Missouri 1932-1983, which chronicles this piece of Kansas City and Jewish history. The book features pictures and descriptions of almost all of the major productions the theater offered.
This next story begins about ten years ago when the artistic director of a theater we won’t name decided not to cast local actors in major roles. Not surprisingly, that didn’t go over too well with some very talented people here in town. And it soon led to the birth of the Kansas City Actors Theatre.
Since then, that other organization has changed its policy, but the Actors Theatre goes on, gearing up this summer for its eighth season.
As part of our performARTS series in conjunction with KC Studio Magazine, we take you inside the Kansas City Actors Theatre.
With a concert coming up at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts on May 12th and a new CD on the way this summer, the Kansas City Chorale continues to be a vital part of our city’s cultural life with 30 years of music-making that has been honored with Grammy Awards and international acclaim. This week, in conjunction with KC Studio Magazine, our performARTS series zooms in on the Chorale.
The Kansas City Chorale, with guests from the Phoenix Chorale, will perform masterworks by Russian composers in Helzberg Hall on Saturday, May 12.
Twenty-five years. That’s how long Paul Mesner and his puppets have been a part of the Kansas City arts scene. In fact, old favorites like Anansi the Spider, Rapunzel, and Wiley & The Hairy Man are now playing to a whole new generation of metro youngsters. But Paul’s act also spends a lot of time on the road and on some projects that might surprise you as Randy Mason discovers in this installment of our performARTS series, in conjunction with KC Studio Magazine.
Our performARTS series, in conjunction with Studio Magazine, is an effort to spotlight some of the groups and troupes around town doing outstanding work in music, theatre and the arts. This week, Randy Mason takes you downtown to learn more about the Quality Hill Playhouse.
Quality Hill Playhouse is dedicated to excellence in the live performance of works from musical theatre and the American Songbook, employing the finest local talent, and contributing to Kansas City’s cultural and economic landscape.
Quality Hill Playhouse produces six musicals and cabaret revues each year in a charming 153-seat theatre. J. Kent Barnhart serves as pianist and emcee for the cabaret revues, offering interesting tidbits about the music as well as his unique, humorous anecdotes. Professional singers and the relaxed yet elegant atmosphere make for entertainment you won’t find anywhere else. Discover why The Kansas City Star said it is ”like being invited into someone’s home.”
Joyce DiDonato and Rosanne Cash will grace the stage there, this weekend. But decades ago, Kansas City came perilously close to losing the Folly to the wrecking ball, a fate that befell all of its contemporaries.
But as your about to see, in this edition of our performARTS series, in conjunction with KC Studio Magazine, against all the odds, this 112-year-old theater at 12th & Central is very much alive and well.
As part of our performARTS series in conjunction with KC Studio Magazine, Randy Mason provides viewers with a look at the renowned Kansas City Ballet, which has been leaping and pirouetting across the stage and captivating audiences for over 55 years.
