Quality Hill Playhouse to stage benefit for popular local performer Cary Mock

Quality Hill Playhouse will stage a benefit Sunday for one of its own — actor Cary Mock, who has been diagnosed with leukemia.

Mock is a tall, personable performer who has been seen often at Quality Hill. His resume includes performances at the Chestnut Fine Arts Center in Olathe and the White Theatre at the Jewish Community Center.

In 2011 he played Professor Harold Hill in a concert version of “The Music Man” with the Kansas City Symphony at the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood. The following year he appeared in the Kansas City Actors Theatre production of “Billy Bishop Goes to War” at the National World War I Museum.

In addition to performing, Mock teaches piano and voice.

J. Kent Barnhart, executive director of Quality Hill Playhouse, said its current production, “What They Did for Love,” was to have closed after the Sunday matinee. But Barnhart and the cast decided to add a show at 7:30 p.m. as a benefit for Mock. Barnhart said the theater has already received donations from people unable to attend the performance.

Mock and his wife, Alicia Mock, have five kids. Alicia said Cary is undergoing chemotherapy at the University of Kansas Hospital and would eventually have a bone-marrow transplant.

Alicia Mock said her husband hadn’t felt well for two years, but he attributed it to a variety of possible causes and tried to address it through self-diagnosis. Then in early April he threw his back out and ended up at a hospital emergency room.

Alicia said Cary’s sister had set up a gofundme account, which so far has raised more than $21,000. There is also a special Facebook group, “Healing for Cary Mock — Updates and Prayers,” where friends and fans can monitor his progress.

For ticket information, call the Quality Hill box office at 816-421-1700.

This story was originally published May 12, 2015 at 11:39 AM with the headline "Quality Hill Playhouse to stage benefit for popular local performer Cary Mock."