UMKC Theatre 2012-13 Season Closes With BURNT BY THE SUN, Opening 5/3

UMKC Theatre completes its 2012-2013 season with a Chekhov masterpiece, "Burnt by the Sun." Directed by Tom Mardikes, "Burnt by the Sun" will preview May 3 - 7, open May 8, and run selected dates through May 12 at Studio 116, James C. Olson Performing Arts Center, on the UMKC campus.

This production opens like the familiar work of Chekhov and then turns into a stunning production hit by violence so sudden and so shocking it echoes the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. The Russian/French movie, which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film, is brilliantly adapted for the stage by Peter Flannery.

Director Tom Mardikes stated, "The 1994 Academy Award-winning film set in the USSR in 1936 plays like a Russian version of Fellini's wonderful film Amacord, a mid-1930's reflection upon life in an Italian coastal town under Mussolini's fascist regime." Mardikes continued, "Burnt by the Sun', however, goes worse than medieval--- it goes totally Stalinist at the end. The whole effect is intensified in Peter Flannery's stage adaptation of the film."

Cast and Artistic Team
The main roles in "Burnt by the Sun" are played by:
Jessica Biernacki Jensen (Maroussia) is a 2rd-year graduate acting student. Most recently she appeared as Letta in the Kansas City Repertory Theatre's production of Death of a Salesman. Jessica was also a part of the Unicorn Theatre's production of Inspecting Carol as Mary Jane. At UMKC, she appeared as Gloria in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Time in The Winter's Tale, and Bolette in The Lady from the Sea.

Logan Black (Kotov) is a 2nd-year grad student at the University of Missouri Kansas City. UMKC productions include The Lady from the Sea, Eat This, A Winter's Tale, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot & Cymbeline. Regional credits include To Kill A Mockingbird, Much Ado About Nothing, at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Dial "M" for Murder and Romeo & Juliet at Pioneer Memorial Theater. The Heart of America's productions of A Midsummer's Night Dream and Anthony & Cleopatra. This summer he can be seen at Riverside Theatre in Hamlet and School for Scandal, directed by UMKC's very own Ted Swetz.

Vincent Wagner (Mitia) is a 2nd-year M.F.A. actor. At UMKC he has been seen in Eat This! KC Chews on the Politics of Food, The Lady from the Sea (Hans Lyngstrand), The Winter's Tale (Clown), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Jesus), and Cymbeline (Cloten/Belarius). Most recently he played Kevin Emory in the Unicorn Theatre/Kansas City Actors Theatre holiday hit, Inspecting Carol. This past summer he co-wrote, co-produced, and performed in DADA is Dead/Long Live DADA! at the Kansas City Fringe Festival. Vincent earned his B.A. from Fordham University at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Tom Mardikes directed the 2008 KCAT production of Taking Sides featuring Gary Holcombe and Mark Robbins, and he co-directed the 2008 UMKC Theatre undergraduate production of Nadya with Johnnie Wolfe. He has worked as a sound designer since 1981on over 250 professional productions nation-wide. He has been head of graduate sound design training at the University of Missouri-Kansas City since 1986, and the chair of the UMKC Theatre since 2001. Mardikes co-founded Kansas City Actors Theatre in 2005 as an artist-led, artist-driven small professional theatre company with the novel idea of artists choosing what they do and with whom. He envisioned a 'virtual theatre' that wants to own nothing and lives in abject fear of any kind of regular overhead. Mardikes has long worked with fellow sound compatriots for the formal recognition of sound designers in the professional world, including a longstanding commitment to the USITT Sound Commission and being one of five sound designers who incorporated Sound Design into the United Scenic Artists Local 829. In 2011 he led a of group of 8 prominent theatre design programs in the creation of the National Design Portfolio Review, the professional debut of graduating MFA theatre designers, soon to hold the 3rd annual event in New York over the Memorial Day weekend.

Ticket Information
Single ticket prices are: Adult, $15; Senior (60+), $10; Non-UMKC Student, $10; UMKC Faculty/Staff, $10; UMKC Student, $6. Industry Night is Monday, May 6; tickets are $10. For tickets, call the Central Ticket Office at (816) 235-6222 or purchase online at www.umkctheatre.org (additional fees apply with online ticket purchase).

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