Midwest Trust Center Welcomes PIFF THE MAGIC DRAGON, PUDDLES PITY PARTY And More For October

The Midwest Trust Center (formerly Carlsen Center), invites audiences to purchase tickets for series shows, featuring a cult classic, unbeatable harmonies and a comedic double bill.

Performances will take place at the Midwest Trust Center on the campus of Johnson County Community College, 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park, KS 66210). High-res photos with IDs can be found here.

Performances include

October 22, 2022, 8:00 p.m. - An Evening with Jon Heder, Jon Gries and Efren Ramirez will include a screening of the cult classic Napoleon Dynamite followed by a Q&A moderated by KCTV 5 film critic, Lonita Cook. The evening promises to be a hilarious celebration of the amazing comedy classic that made Napoleon Dynamite, LaFawnduh and Pedro household names. Heder (Napoleon), Ramirez (Pedro) and Gries (Uncle Rico) have plenty of behind-the-scenes scoop on the film we all love. As the conversation goes from silly to super funny, one thing's for sure - audiences get their money's worth.

October 28, 2022, 8:00 p.m. - Singing with a harmony uniquely their own, The Four Freshmen have enamored listeners world-wide for years, gaining recognition as one of the most influential vocal groups of all time. Their tight-knit sound inspired The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, The Mamas & The Papas, Frankie

Valli and The Manhattan Transfer. Today the quartet features Bob Ferreira, Tommy Boynton, Ryan Howe and Jake Baldwin. For this performance, the quartet will be joined by the JCCC Jazz Band, directed by Ryan Heinlein, as the opening act.

October 30, 2022, 7:00 p.m. - Piff the Magic Dragon and Puddles Pity Party in the Misery Loves Company tour. This fall see Piff, winner of several Best of Las Vegas awards for his long-running show at The Flamingo, a viral sensation on Penn & Teller: Fool Us and the 2020 winner of TBS' Tournament of Laughs alongside Puddles Pity Party, the sad, giant clown with the golden voice. Puddles has performed sold out shows all over including The Kennedy Center in D.C., San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, London's Soho Theatre and a Las Vegas residency at Caesar's Palace. Not bad for two "losers" from America's Got Talent!

Ticket Information

Tickets are on sale now through the Midwest Trust Center Box Office. Purchase online here or call the Box Office Monday-Friday 10am-5pm at (913) 469-4445.

For more information about these shows and the rest of the 2022-2023 Season, visit www.jccc.edu/MidwestTrustCenter.

Midwest Trust Center Series 2022-2023 Season

Oct. 15 Disney's Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Stage Adaptation

Oct. 16 Soweto Gospel Choir Hope - It's Been a Long Time Coming

Oct. 21 Kansas City Jazz Orchestra and the Hanover Big Band (Germany)

Oct. 22 An Evening with Jon, Jon and Efren - Napoleon Dynamite Film Screening and Conversation

Oct. 28 The Four Freshmen

Oct. 30 Piff the Magic Dragon & Puddles Pity Party Misery Loves Company

Nov. 12 Legally Blonde the Musical

Nov. 19 An Evening with Nigella Lawson

Dec. 2 tenThing Brass Ensemble A Feeling of Norwegian Christmas

Dec. 4 Winterlude - Doug Talley Quartet*

Dec. 9-10 Mesner Puppet Theatre Cirque du Wiener Dog*

Jan. 15 Winterlude - Bobby Watson Quartet

Jan. 22 Oran Etkin Open Arms*

Jan. 29 Opus 76 Quartet Amadeus (recital + film)*

Feb. 4 Cenicienta: A Bilingual Cinderella Story*

Feb. 5 The Small Glories*

Feb. 11-12 L.A. Theatre Works - Lucy Loves Desi: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Sitcom*

Feb. 11 Voices of Mississippi

Feb. 18 Emerson Quartet: Farewell Tour

Feb. 19 Winterlude - Trent Austin Quartet*

Feb. 24 DakhaBrakha*

Feb. 26 Opus 76 Quartet Haydn and Schubert

Mar. 2 It's OK to be Different

Mar. 3 Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Orchestra

Mar. 5 Brooklyn Rider Variations on a Theme*

Mar. 10 Danú St. Patrick's Celebration

Mar. 11 John McCutcheon*

Mar. 12 Opus 76 Quartet with Ramona Pansegrau, piano*

Mar. 19 Winterlude - KC Jazz Disciples*

Mar. 26 Curtis on Tour The Nina von Maltzahn Global Touring Initiative of the Curtis Institute of Music

Featuring David Shifrin, clarinet; John de Lancie, narrator; Soovin Kim, violin*

Mar. 31 A Moving Sound*

Apr. 1 Masters of Percussion featuring Zakir Hussain

Apr. 15 George Hinchliffe's Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

May 19 Cirque Kalabanté Afrique en Cirque

* Events held in Polsky Theatre, JCCC

The Midwest Trust Center and JCCC want to protect the safety of our visitors, artists, students, faculty and staff. Please visit us at jccc.edu/MidwestTrustCenter for the latest updates.

The Midwest Trust Center is Johnson County's performing arts center. Early on, the founders of Johnson County Community College (JCCC) dreamed of building a world-class performing arts venue in Johnson County, Kansas. In 1990, that dream was realized, and the center soon became a cultural hub for the rapidly growing county. The Midwest Trust Center's growth parallels that of Johnson County, expanding from 50 events the first season to around 150 annually today. Events include Midwest Trust Center Series, the annual series of around 25 events presented by JCCC that feature professional, internationally known artists in a wide variety of genres; academic branches of JCCC; and community groups who rent the space.

In 2020 Johnson County Community College accepted a $1,000,000 donation intended to provide an ongoing endowment to support the College's Performing Arts Series. These funds will also provide scholarships for students studying creative arts at JCCC. As a feature of the donation, the center now bears the name Midwest Trust Center, a local company founded by Brad Bergman. The donors Brad and Libby Bergman are long-time supporters of the College, having co-chaired the JCCC Foundation's annual Some Enchanted Evening Gala - the largest single fundraising event for student scholarships. Brad has also served as Chair of the JCCC Foundation Board of Directors. The Bergmans have been consistent supporters of dozens of activities at JCCC. They have four children, each of whom has benefited from classes taught at the College.

Since 2000, with the development of the Midwest Trust Center Arts Education program, the Midwest Trust Center also addresses cultural and art-related program needs in K-12 education. The MTC Arts Education programs include school performances at the Midwest Trust Center, and engagement activities with artists performing in schools. Master classes, lecture/demonstrations, workshops and other opportunities for interaction with students happen throughout the year. MTC Arts Education also offers support materials for programs, study guides, concert previews, plus professional development - creative skills workshops and curriculum-building seminars for teachers in arts integration.

The MTC Arts Education had a leadership role in the re-establishment of the Kansas Alliance for Arts Education, and in 2014 was named a Kennedy Center Partners in Education site, teamed with the Shawnee Mission School District. An expansion of the Kennedy Center Partnership occurred in 2018 with the addition of the Liberty Schools, and again in 2019, adding Kansas City Young Audiences, making it one of two cross-state Kennedy Center Partnerships in the US. MTC Arts Ed is the only Kennedy Center Partner in the state of Kansas.

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