Provocative KC theater from small theater companies

Kansas City theatergoers find themselves in a little golden age of startup theater companies producing interesting material.

Case in point: “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea,” which begins performances Oct. 9 at the Buffalo Room, the funky performance space in the back room of the Westport Flea Market, 817 Westport Road. The show is from Different Choices Productions, founded by actor/director Bob Linebarger. The endeavor came into being with a show at this year’s KC Fringe.

John Patrick Shanley’s intense, two-character, one-act show played off-Broadway at Circle in the Square in 1984 after an initial production at the Actors Theatre of Louisville in Kentucky. The New York production earned an Obie Award for a young John Turturro.

Shanley depicts two young outsiders who qualify as walking wounded: Danny, a trucker with a short fuse and a deep reservoir of rage, and Roberta, a divorced mom who carries a victim’s burden that started in childhood. The two hit it off in a seedy bar, connect and spend the night together.

The production at the Buffalo Room features Kyle Dyck, most recently seen as Horatio in the Kansas City Actors Theatre productions of “Hamlet” and “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” and Stefanie Stevens, who appeared in the Coterie production of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” the alternative-theater satire “Flowers in the Wardrobe” and the Egads Theatre production of “Godspell.”

The limited run continues through Oct. 20. Tickets are available from Brown Paper Tickets at brownpapertickets.com. Check out the show’s Facebook page.

Meanwhile, Heidi Van, curator of the Fishtank Performance Studio, continues the tiny Crossroads venue’s reputation as an incubator of original works with “Death by Shakespeare,” which depicts the Bard’s most famous female characters. Van conceived the piece and directs.

The cast includes Cydia S. White, Ra’Chell Rocky Richards, Anne Haines, Sydney Normile, Zyan Ward and Megan Elizabeth Barratt.

The show opened this weekend and runs through Oct. 12. Call 816-809-7110 or go to Brown Paper Tickets at brownpapertickets.com. The show also has a Facebook page. The Fishtank is at 1715 Wyandotte St.

Relevance Productions is staging Larry Kramer’s classic drama “The Normal Heart” through Oct. 18 at the Off Center Theatre at Crown Center. Kramer’s 1985 largely autobiographical play depicts the HIV-AIDS crisis as it exploded in New York in the early ’80s.

Kramer’s writing is tough, angry and articulate. “The Normal Heart” was among the earliest AIDS plays and remains one of the best.

The production at Off Center is directed by Trevor Belt and features a large cast: Tom Lancaster, Devin Burns, Zachary J. Parker, Adam Henry, Vanessa Davis, Andy Penn, Matt Sweeten and Bob Wearing.

The show opened this weekend. Call 816-545-6000 or go to offcentertheatre.com.

This story was originally published October 4, 2014 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Provocative KC theater from small theater companies."