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.
A new season of live theater is about to get underway at Starlight Theatre. The Swope Park theater with its iconic towers has been entertaining Kansas Citians under the stars for more than 60 years.
Starlight is one of only three outdoor theatres of its size and type still operational in the United States. The Muny in St. Louis and Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia are the others. With the curtain about to rise on another season of top Broadway shows and big name concert performers, we caught up with Starlight’s man in charge, Denton Yockey.
The 2012 Concert Season is also filling up with artists such as Barry Manilow, James Taylor, Crosby, Stills & Nash, My Morning Jacket, Band of Horses, Phish, B.B. King, Il Divo and many, many more.
“Ferment,” the 56-foot tall stainless steel dendroid towering over the lawn at the Nelson-Atkins Museum, evokes many different reactions from those who pass by. Its creator, sculptor Roxy Paine, hopes it might spur us to think about nature, and the ways our culture tames and subverts it. If that happens, he believes he’s done his job.
Watch Monday, May 7 at 9pm and Thursday, May 10 at 8pm.
Putting Down Roots: Roxy Paine’s Ferment
A KCPT Production
Airs on KCPT May 7, 2012 at 9pm and May 10, 2012 at 8pm
“Putting Down Roots: Roxy Paine’s Ferment” shows public television viewers the amazing
process which brought Kansas City its first dendroid. That’s the term Paine uses to describe his monumental metal tree‐like sculptures, which now populate the grounds of top tier museums and galleries around the world. “Ferment,” which he’s described as his most challenging piece to date, was installed on the front lawn of the Nelson‐Atkins Museum of Art in April, 2011. The 18,000 pound, 56 foot tall behemoth was chosen to honor Martin Friedman, the Kansas City Sculpture Park’s advisor, upon his retirement after more than twenty years of service.
KCPT’s Randy Mason followed Paine’s progress, first at his snowy upstate New York studio, and a few months later, onto the Nelson’s front yard—to witness what Friedman calls an exciting piece of “outdoor theatre.” In just six days, Roxy and his crew rolled in with trucks, cranes, lifts, and torches and left behind “a chunk” of the artist’s soul.
“Putting Down Roots” blends art and engineering, as well as the bond that’s developed
between Paine and Friedman. In doing so, it also reveals a city whose commitment to great art is visible to all who pass by.
Join KCPT and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art May 4 at 6pm for a special premiere of the new KCPT documentary “Putting Down Roots: Roxy Paine’s Ferment,” about the creation of the brilliant sculpture. After the film, curators and the film’s producer Randy Mason will host a discussion about the newest addition to the Kansas City Sculpture Park.
The event is FREE. but tickets are required for admission. Reserve your seat on the Nelson-Atkins’ events page.
Mary Harris Francis collected toys. Barbara Hall Marshall fancied fine miniatures. These two women’s distinctly different collections are the backbone of Kansas City’s Toy & Miniature Museum at 52nd & Oak. All year round, its 33,000 square feet of displays lure the young and young at heart. Sometimes the museum, as it will this weekend with its Nettie Wells dollhouse, finds special ways to celebrate a child’s imagination and the spirit of play.
Nettie Wells, as portrayed by Maycee Steele, will share stories of her dollhouse at the Toy & Miniature Museum this Saturday with another performance later this summer.
Pictured: Nettie Wells' daughter Jane and actress Maycee Steele
Production in Kansas City begins on the upcoming PBS Arts special “Homecoming: The Kansas City Symphony Presents Joyce DiDonato,” which airs July 20, 2012 as part of PBS Arts Summer Festival. Pictured: Mezzo-Soprano Joyce DiDonato with Frank Byrne, Exec. Director of the Kansas City Symphony.
Homecoming: Day 1
On a misty Wednesday morning, KCPT’s crew kicked off a week of production as Kansas City Symphony’s Executive Director Frank Byrne officially welcomed home, Mezzo Soprano and Prairie Village native, Joyce DiDonato. With umbrella in hand, Joyce exited her car to a welcoming entourage of cameras as she got her first official tour of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts - her “home” for the next several days.
Joyce, Maestro Michael Stern and the symphony’s new concert master Noah Geller led an afternoon of rehearsals in Helzberg Hall. These were just a tiny glimpse of what audiences have to look forward to this weekend when Joyce performs with the Kansas City Symphony (March 23 – 25) and KCPT captures it all for the upcoming PBS Arts special.
Although this weekend will be Joyce’s first performance at the Kauffman Center, she took the stage on Wednesday night (March 21) as part of the Symphony’s Master Class series. Students from UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, University of Kansas and Wichita State University got the rare opportunity to learn vocal technique from the recent Grammy winner.
But it wasn’t just the students who walked off stage in awe of the vocalist; she had the audience of over 900 people equally inspired. Joyce spoke to the crowd about the importance of the arts saying, “I’m so happy to see a resurgence and a focus on the arts [on Public Television] because I think there is a real hunger in this country and other place for this kind of experience. Something that is deep and real and something that shows us what we can be: bigger than ourselves. An opera, a symphonic work takes so many people and so much effort to bring it together.”
Homecoming: Day 2
On day two of KCPT’s filming of “Homecoming: The Kansas City Symphony Presents Joyce DiDonato”, the documentary team on the production crew filmed rehearsals and behind the scenes interviews. At the same time, a production crew devoted entirely to capturing the concerts worked on coordinating the taping of Saturday and Sunday’s performances. Coordinating the duties and shot lists of eleven different cameras is no easy task!
Homecoming: Day 3
On day three of the production of Homecoming: The Kansas City Symphony Presents Joyce DiDonato, the crew put the pedal to the metal, literally. In the morning, the 63 foot long HD production truck arrived at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and a crew of engineers worked all day to pull about 7000 feet of cable from the truck, through the belly of the Kauffman to Helzberg Hall, where eleven cameras will capture the KC Symphony and DiDonato’s performance. About mid-day the Symphony and DiDonato did their final rehearsal before Friday evening’s performance. Adjustments to lighting design, camera placement and audio were also refined.
Homecoming: Day 4 and 5
During the final two days 0f taping, the major focus was capturing the Saturday evening and Sunday matinee performances. After the Saturday evening concert, producers worked into the early hours of the morning analyzing the shots captured by all eleven cameras and then updating the shot list and plan of attack for Sunday, which was the final opportunity to capture any missing shots.
The Homecoming camera crew sits around a table watching the previous evening's performance.
In addition, during Sunday’s concert there was a short “patch performance”, where the KC Symphony and DiDonato re-did a few measures to ensure that not so much a cough from the audience would detract from the taping. After Sunday’s performance, KCPT’s engineering and production worked feverishly to load out all the cameras, the 7000 feet of cable and get the HD truck ready to go in just few hours. During pack-up part of the documentary crew followed Joyce DiDonato back to her loft to capture a special family celebration of the monumental weekend. The family shared Jack Stack BBQ and Joyce showed us the amazing view of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts from her window.
After a monumental homecoming, Joyce DiDonato looks at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts from the window of her loft.
We are excited to announce that PBS has chosen Kansas City’s own Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Conductor Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony, and Joyce DiDonato for their Summer Arts Series. This nationally distributed arts series will profile our award-winning symphony and DiDonato’s return to her hometown for a thrilling Kauffman Center debut. Our team has been working behind the scenes with PBS, national producers and the Kansas City Symphony since the summer to help make this happen. KCPT hosted a special dinner and tour of the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts with PBS CEO Paula Kerger in October. I think that seeing the stunning, state of the art Kauffman Center in person helped in PBS’s decision to bring the Summer Arts series to Kansas City.
I think viewers will be amazed at what Kansas City has to offer. The fact that, in this economy, our city has such a thriving arts scene is a real testament to the community and the creative and entrepreneurial spirit here. This project brings a well-deserved national spotlight to Kansas City, the Symphony, and the new Kauffman Center. It is a privilege to help tell our community’s arts stories and keep Kansas City “top of mind” as an arts destination and as a city on the move.
KCPT has another national program on the horizon – a horizon with a not so typical tree, “Ferment.” Executive Producer, Randy Mason is working on a national documentary following the story of Roxy Paine and his craft. As noted by Randy, “It’s been almost a year since “Ferment” arrived to take root on the Nelson’s front lawn. Thanks to the Hall Family Foundation and The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, our documentary about the sculptor, Roxy Paine, and the process of installing his 56 foot “dendroid” is almost complete.” You may remember watching a segment about the artist on The Local Show in June. If you missed it, you can watch it online at http://cove.kcpt.org (episode 6/16/11).
You may have noticed a little special attention being given to local arts organizations. KCPT has teamed up with Townsend Communications to feature six arts organizations on both The Local Show and KC Studio magazine. Featured organizations are: The Coterie Theatre, Kansas City Chorale, Quality Hill Playhouse, Kansas City Actors Theatre, Paul Messner’s Puppet Company, and The Charlotte Street Foundation. The Coterie Theatre, the first of our features, has reported great success with the coverage given to them. They were happy to report that, due to this special attention, they were able to break all box office records with their performance of Seussical. This mixed-media campaign was made possible with the support of the Richard J. Stern Foundation, Commerce Bank, Trustee and the John W. and Effie E. Speas Memorial Trust, Bank of America, Trustee.
In addition, we are working with major stations across the country to help build a regular national arts program that will curate content from stations across the USA, including our arts content. KCPT is committed to ongoing local arts coverage. We are grateful for the tremendous financial support to continue telling the stories of the people and organizations who make Kansas City a great arts and culture community. As you can see, we’re not just sharing these stories to fellow Kansas Citians, we’re sharing them with the world!
“We are honored to help shine a national PBS spotlight on these KC treasures, Joyce DiDonato, The Kansas City Symphony and the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. This effort is part of our strategy to leverage KCPT’s position in the PBS network to help showcase the many world-class assets Kansas City has to offer,“ said President and CEO of KCPT Kliff Kuehl.
Kansas City Symphony Executive Director Frank Byrne added “We are thrilled and honored that the Kansas City Symphony will be featured in the acclaimed PBS Arts Festival, and even more pleased that our concert features our good friend and Kansas City native Joyce DiDonato. Music Director Michael Stern and I, along with all our talented musicians, look forward to sharing with the world the excellence of our orchestra and our superb new Helzberg Hall.”
Homecoming: The Kansas City Symphony Presents Joyce DiDonato
PBS ArtsArchitect Moshe Safdie’s extraordinary new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts provides the stunning backdrop for a performance-documentary profiling the Grammy Award-winning musicians of the Kansas City Symphony, their vibrant artistic director and conductor Michael Stern, and the radiant, internationally celebrated mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. A concert wrapped by documentary narratives, this Arts Festival special tracks Ms. DiDonato’s nostalgic return to her hometown, and her thrilling Kauffman Center debut, after a triumphant appearance with Placido Domingo at The Metropolitan Opera in New York. Together, Joyce DiDonato, Maestro Stern and the Kansas City Symphony create a musical program as grand and ambitious as the Kauffman Center itself. Produced by Kansas City Public Television (KCPT) in association with veteran PBS music producers James Arntz & John Paulson.
Sculptor John Salvest used 105 cargo containers to send a message. The temporary installation rests directly across from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The red, white and blue containers spell “IOU” on one side and “USA” on the other. The piece is supposed to provoke commentary about our monetary policy and current debt crisis and spark discussion about both our economy and the role the Federal Reserve plays in it. As you can imagine the Fed was none too pleased with the project and initially fought its installation. See it for yourself…now through October 16th.
What sort of message do you think the artist is trying to send?
