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Stepping into the spotlight: Star Magazine’s emerging artists for 2008; meet 11 young Kansas City talents
BY ROBERT TRUSSELL
Classical music critics often categorize musical theater as one of the lower species, while theater critics who enjoy a nice melody don’t have much use for opera.
But one local singer/actor, 28-year-old Lauren Braton, keeps a foot firmly entrenched in both worlds. She moves between opera and musical theater with ease, thanks to her ability to handle diverse musical styles.
She just wrapped up “I Love You Because” with a pop/jazz score at the American Heartland Theatre and in early May will be seen in the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre production of “A Man of No Importance” at the Off Center Theatre at Crown Center.
In 2007 she appeared in two shows at Quality Hill Playhouse (one dedicated to music from the 1950s, the other to the songs of Johnny Mercer); three summer musicals at the Lyceum Theatre in Arrow Rock, Mo.; and John Mueter’s original opera “Everlasting Universe” at the Folly Theater.
The year before, she appeared in “Songs for a New World” at the City Stage in Union Station, and in 2005 she performed in the Civic Opera production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Passion,” which is musical theater with a vocal score as demanding as many operas.
Braton was born in Kansas City and grew up with three siblings on 40 acres in Greenwood in Jackson County, where the kids entertained themselves by putting on shows in the basement. But there were also plenty of outdoor activities, including horseback riding and softball.
“I was a huge tomboy when I was younger,” she says. “I’d climb trees and was always cut up and had bruises.”
Braton said she still stays with her parents in Greenwood when she does a show in Kansas City.
“I live in Sedalia now, which is kind of strange because I always thought I’d be downtown, but I married my husband, and his work territory is in Sedalia, so I moved there.”
Her husband, Ron Fenton, has adjusted to her life in the theater. “He’s so unlike me,” she says. “We are complete opposites, but I don’t think I’d have it any other way. He balances me out. I don’t think he’d ever been to a play or a musical or an opera before he met me. He keeps all of my programs and keeps my head shots in a little drawer and saves all the tickets. It’s very charming.”
Braton, a Lee’s Summit High School graduate, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in voice performance at UMKC and considered teaching. But she wanted to try a performing career first.
“I came to a crossroads, and it was: Should I go for it or do I teach and just settle? Musical theater was all I knew from the time I was 11 years old … and I got to the point where I thought if I let it go completely, I would be absolutely miserable.”
BY TIMOTHY FINN
The men of Red Line Chemistry have experienced their ultimate dream. They’d like to make it part of their everyday lives.
In June 2007, the band from Kansas City played the opening set at Rockfest, the annual hard-rock orgy at Penn Valley Park. When RLC took the second stage at 11 a.m., a crowd of about 15,000 was waiting.
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