Wichita Theatre Newsroom Page 15

SISTER ACT is playing at Wichita Theatre in Kansas from April 5 to 20, 2019.

On Wednesday, March 22nd, I sat down to watch my first production of EVITA, ever, at the Century II Concert Hall. Grimly aware of my myriad prejudices, chief among them being the fact that I had listened to the original Broadway cast recording with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin ad infinitum ad nauseum since its eagerly awaited release back in 1979. It was the second rock musical concept piece written by Webber and Rice, and was directed by Harold Prince, and garnered 11 Tony nominations. The show has lived in my head all these years, every minute choreographed and staged. Since I was a poor working actor back in Buffalo, NY, I knew I was never going to get to NYC to see this show unless some fairy godmother intervened. Which was sadly not the case. Since I was a working class girl in a working class town, cutting my musical theatre teeth in the Meatloaf era (late 70s, early 80s), I liked my musicals with a certain amount of grit and truth, and have bemoaned the sanitization of my favorites, including Grease. It was with these heavy expectations and much trepidation that I sat down to watch Evita.

Twenty-four outstanding playwrights, representing 14 states, will converge in the small town of Independence, Kansas for a public staged reading of their new scripts during the New Play Lab at the 38th Annual William Inge Theater Festival, May 22-25, at Independence Community College, Independence, Kansas.

Music Theatre Wichita, entering its 48th summer season, today announced the roster of artistic teams who will be guiding the five large-scale summer productions.

Tickets are now on sale for the 38th annual William Inge Theater Festival, which will honor playwright Octavio Solis with the William Inge Distinguished Achievement in the American Theater Award.  The Inge Festival has been the official theater festival of Kansas since 2010. It runs May 22-25, 2019 and is produced by the William Inge Center for the Arts at Independence Community College, in the lovely town of Independence, in southeast Kansas.

Under exciting new ownership of Monte Wheeler and Brandon Hathaway, Mosley Street Melodrama enters its 2019 season with a brand new and innovative farce, The Gold Miner's Daughter or Who Got the Shaft? Though the standard audience participation of "Oos and Ahs" haven't stirred from the original concept, it's quite apparent that fresh blood has been shed into the theatre with appropriately painted Kansas murals, an updated proscenium, twists of different comedy and script material, but overall with that same, downright homey entertainment.

Becoming the first college in the state of Kansas to get the rights to perform Mamma Mia!, Cowley College's Visual and Performing Arts Department will offer audiences four opportunities to catch the musical March 28-30 at the Robert Brown Theatre in Arkansas City, Kansas.

Wichita State University's School of Performing Arts presents the musical THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY Thursday through Saturday, March 21st-23rd at 7:30 pm and Sunday, March 24th at 2:00 pm in Wilner Auditorium.  

Playwright Kara Lee Corthron is the recipient of the 2019 William Inge Theatre Festival's Otis Guernsey New Voices in the American Theatre Award, which recognizes substantial early contributions to the contemporary American stage.

On a cold, snowy night in Wichita, Jersey Boys played to a packed house at Century II on Tuesday February 19, 2019. The jukebox musical tells the biographical story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, one of the most best-selling groups of all time. Presented through NetWorks Presentations, the cast was spearheaded by Jonathan Cable, Eric Chambliss, Corey Greenan and Jonny Wexler as the fabulous core of that famous quartet.

Now in its second year, The Wichita Fringe Festival is a one-day event that celebrates the work of local high school playwrights. Working with professional mentors from the Wichita theatre community, playwrights from schools throughout the city take their scripts through the process from stage to page, culminating in a performance of their works by area high school actors. This year, the festival is hosted by Wichita Center for Performing Arts (9112 E Central Ave.) on Saturday, March 2nd, with two shows on the mainstage, one beginning at 10 a.m., and the second at 1 p.m. A Q &A with the playwrights follows the first performance.

The often-debated relationship between faith and science is at the very heart of the riveting drama, INHERIT THE WIND, which opens Saturday evening, March 16, at The Lewis and Shirley White Theatre of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City. Raising issues as relevant today as they were when it was written in 1925, INHERIT THE WIND uses the Scopes Monkey Trial to explore this complex - and sometimes adversarial -- relationship. The drama has engagement of six performances at The White Theatre: Saturday evenings, March 16 & 23 at 7:30 p.m., Sundays March 17 & 24 @ 2 p.m. and Thursday, March 21 at 7:30 p.m. A Schools-Only performance will take place on Wednesday, March 20 a 9 a.m. More information on the school performance, please contact the White Theatre Box Office, (913) 327-8054.

Original artwork by high school students in the metro area will be on display as part of the first SevenDays Kindness Art Show, opening Tuesday, Feb. 19 and hosted by the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library. The various pieces of student art were originally submitted for the SevenDays button design competition. The exhibit will be on display at the Plaza Branch, 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, Missouri through Feb. 28 during regular library hours. A special recognition program will take place on Tuesday evening, Feb. 26, from 6:30-8 p.m.; the public is invited to attend the program.

Wichita Center for Performing Arts will be presenting Hamlet as its first fully-staged production. The show will be held Feb. 21-24 at 9112 E. Central and features a student talk-back on the last day of the show.

Spinning Tree Theatre proudly announces the 2019-20 season of four mainstage productions. The company will also inaugurate their Youth Theatre Project, a two-week musical theatre intensive for teenagers to be held June 10-23, 2019. Additionally, they will continue the Spinning Tree Sings! cabaret series featuring Kansas City-based musical theatre and jazz vocalists. Spinning Tree will produce its ninth season at Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center.

Original artwork by high school students in the metro area will be on display as part of the first SevenDays® Kindness Art Show, opening Tuesday, Feb. 19 and hosted by the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library. The various pieces of student art were originally submitted for the SevenDays® button design competition. The exhibit will be on display at the Plaza Branch, 4801 Main Street, Kansas City, Missouri through Feb. 28 during regular library hours. A special recognition program will take place on Tuesday evening, Feb. 26, from 6:30-8 p.m.; the public is invited to attend the program.

Opening disclosure: I love this script! I think it's one of American theater's great treasures. It's remarkably timely despite being written in the 1940s. Penned by Thornton Wilder after OUR TOWN, it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1943. It's hugely inventive, theatrically bold rather than narrowly realistic, meta before meta was a thing, about truly big issues (e.g., the survival of the human race) and wickedly funny to boot. It should be noted that not everyone agrees, and there were some folks in the opening night audience in Saint Paul who left in the second intermission.

At the Jabara Flexible Theatre on the Newman University Campus, The Odd Couplewas presented by a new Wichita Theatre company called MADCAP Comedy and Improv Troupe. Spear-headed and founded by local actor Cameron Carlson, this was the first production for the troupe specially arranged by Samuel French, Incorporated.

Located at 258 N. Fountain in College Hill, you'll discover the city's oldest running theatre, Wichita Community Theatre. For nearly seventy years, this jewel of a space has seen many local actors. From Wichita State Alums, to broadcast journalists, most actors in town have graced the stage here. If walls could truly talk, we would all be blessed with the history from this former, charming, and neighborly church turned theatre venue.

BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL is playing at Century II Concert Hall in Wichita, Kansas from May 15th to 19th, 2019.

'Just listen. That's what I want,' thoughtfully states actor Max Wilson playing CB inDog Sees God, a progressive, contemporary play taking major forward-thinking steps at Roxy's Downtown in the Wichita theatre dramaturgy. This simple request for the audience is a difficult one to adhere to in spite of the heavy topics that are presented in the production. Themes of bullying, drugs, partying, sexuality, gun violence in schools, teen pregnancy and overall teenage carnage are some of the harsh realities these famed Charlie Brown characters face and must figure out how to endure.

Sherlock Holmes comes alive in HOLMES AND WATSON at Theatre Lawrence, running from Jan. 18 to Jan. 27. 

The city of Lawrence, Kansas has been the home of many notable women of incredible strength and will. After the town burned down and most of the men were killed in the mid-1800s, it was the women of Lawrence who brought it back. Since then, many women from Lawrence have gone onto becoming fighters and survivors. Erin Brockovich the activist, and Lynette Woodward the first female Harlem Globetrotter come to mind.

The Overland Park Convention Center is pleased to announce the appointment of Tim Freeman as the venue's new executive chef. An award winning chef, he brings a dynamic, innovative energy to the dining experience at the convention center.

Roxy's Downtown is set to open their upcoming production Dog Sees God this weekend. For those unfamiliar with the title, simply imagine what it would be like if Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang grew up from sweet, innocent childhood adolescence to fully-fledged, juvenile teenagers. Not to be confused with the hit Broadway musical, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, this play definitely sparks a more mature conversation worth having. In an exclusive interview for BroadwayWorld.com, I sat down with the cast of Dog Sees Godat Roxy's Downtown to find out why this show is important to attend.