Rebecca Smith, Author at KC STUDIO

Rebecca Smith

Rebecca Smith is an impassioned supporter of local performances of all types, who welcomes the opportunity to promote them to KC Studio readers.

Students and Audiences Alike Reap Benefits of UMKC Graduate Theatre Program

Area theatergoers who haven’t experienced productions by UMKC’s graduate theatre program are missing out on some great shows, such as the funny but shocking “Oh, Beautiful,” by Theresa Rebeck, and William Congreve’s “The Way of the World.” As theatre professor Ted Swetz announced in the planning for Congreve’s Restoration-era comedy, “Get ready, for the shackles have been hilariously thrown off.”

June 19, 2017
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The Job: Gary Mosby, Scenic Designer, Unicorn Theatre

Gary Mosby, whose career as a designer and technical builder/director spans more than three decades, is known for his innovations. For UMKC’s “Five Scenes From Life” (1990), he had the audience watch through prison bars. For Coterie’s 1990-91 production of “Most Valuable Player,” the Jackie Robinson story, he created a baseball diamond and installed bleachers […]

March 22, 2017
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Artist to Watch: Rasheedat “Ras” Badejo

That Rasheedat “Ras” Badejo would become an actress in demand — a hit at KC’s 2016 Fringe Festival who has played standout roles at the Coterie and the Unicorn — was far from expected.

March 3, 2017
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Artist to Watch: Calvin Arsenia

Following a Kauffman Center performance and the release of a new album, the KC-based singer, musician and composer is gaining recognition for his memorable sound. A standing ovation in Helzerg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts doesn’t happen every day. It did for local musician/singer Calvin Arsenia at the Center’s fifth anniversary […]

January 10, 2017
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The Pluses and Pitfalls of Premieres

KC’s theater companies embrace the risks and challenges of first-time productions. In “Ten Things Theaters Need to Do Right Now to Save Themselves,” Brendan Kiley of Seattle’s entertainment newspaper, “The Stranger,” urges theater companies to produce premieres — frequently. Directors must seek them out, he says, playwrights must hasten their submissions, critics must review them […]

January 5, 2017
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Art News: Melting Pot on the Boil

Some of our most honored institutions started humbly. Melting Pot Theater is one. Harvey Williams, a playwright and actor who has appeared in KC productions of Driving Miss Daisy, The Piano Lesson, Fences and Othello, wanted to stage his own play, Old School, in 2013. Learning of his plan, the management of Just Off Broadway […]

November 1, 2016
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