“A Man of No Importance” isn’t the first play about the ennobling effect of making theater and it certainly won’t be the last.
I know what you want to know. How good is the road company of “Wicked,” the cash-cow musical whose worldwide gross will hit $1 billion while it’s in Kansas City?
Beth Byrd knows mimes have a bad name. But she wants to change that. Byrd, an Indiana native who has lived in the Kansas City area since 1985, is a skilled clown, mime, artists’ model, living statue and instructor. But it’s as founder of Beth Byrd Productions that she has nurtured what she calls movement theater to the point where it’s the focus of an annual showcase.
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Jessalyn Kincaid drew a blank. Somebody asked her what she does to relax. She had to think for a minute.
Two rooms. Four doors. A panic-stricken groom. A suspicious bride. A busybody chambermaid. Put those elements into a shaker with a storyline about a sexual liaison that leads to true love and you have the ingredients of a good farce. And so we have Robin Hawdon’s “Perfect Wedding,” a silly romp depicting chaos in the honeymoon suite of a seaside hotel.
Two rooms. Four doors. A panic-stricken groom. A suspicious bride. A busy-body chamber maid.
“Wicked” is a Broadway musical that just keeps making history. And it’s about to make some more.
Denton Yockey, a producer with 27 years of professional theater experience, will become Starlight Theatre’s new president and executive producer Sept. 1.
The Charlotte Street Foundation, which for 11 years has awarded cash grants to visual artists, will begin handing out money to performing artists as well.
The bad news shouldn’t come as a big surprise: All performances during the 19-day run of “Wicked” at the Music Hall are virtually sold out.
For complete listings, go to Preview Extra on KansasCity.com. ANNUAL BACHATHON — MUSIC OF JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: American Guild of Organists, GKC Chapter. Drop-in event, 2-7:30 p.m. May 4. Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral. Free. Donations accepted at the door. (816-474-8260, 816-753-1844)
Seldom will you see a play more haunting than Brian Friel’s “Faith Healer.” The premier Irish dramatist captures what we so often find in the theater of his homeland – an innate darkness in the human spirit coexisting with the world’s astonishing beauty.
Welcome to Ron Megee’s one-hour sprint. It’s about 11:40 a.m., and Megee is in the dressing room of the Coterie Theatre, where he sits at his table and applies makeup. He’s already wearing his prosthetic nose with warts and his prosthetic chin. He’s got his Spock-like ears on. He’s wearing an orange pullover blouse with prominent fake breasts. And he’s wearing a skirt.
John Davidson sat at a brown table in a production office with brown walls, eating his salad from a plastic container and talking about himself.
The stage can be a lonely place when it’s just you and the audience. You, the actor, face the same questions at every performance: Will I have the power to hold them, to focus their minds and affect their emotions? Or will I stumble and lose them? Will I have the magic or not?
Marsha Norman’s “The Secret Garden” will be the last presentation of the 2007-08 Script-in-Hand series of the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre. It will also be the first musical version the group has done in the series. “The Secret Garden” is based on the 1909 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It’s about a girl in mourning who moves to her
For complete listings, go to Preview Extra on KansasCity.com. JANE CARL: Clarinet; faculty recital. 5:30 p.m. April 27. UMKC Performing Arts Center, White Hall. Free. www.umkc.edu/conservatory (816-235-2799)
Herman Johansen waited a long time to make his professional stage debut, but it finally came five years ago when he played a small part in “The Front Page” at Missouri Repertory Theatre.
Drama, musicals and comedies all figure into the mix of the 2008-2009 season recently announced by the Unicorn Theatre.
