Here are this week’s weekend calendar picks from KC Studio editor, Alice Thorson. For more events this weekend, visit Kansas City’s most comprehensive arts calendar at kcstudio.org/events.
The Cat Came Back
February 22 – March 12 | $10 – $13
Mesner Puppet Theater
Based on the folk song made popular by Fred Penner, this performance tells the tale of Mister Johnson and a mysterious cat who keeps returning to his doorstep. Mister Johnson tries everything he can to get the cat to go away, from giving her to a pilot to sending her into outer space. The cat, however, keeps coming back!
Film Screening and Q&A: The Gospel According to Glenn North
February 23 @ 5:00 am – 7:30 pm | Free
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
5:00 p.m. cash bar, 6:00 p.m. film screening
Director Harold Smith’s documentary The Gospel According to Glenn North explores 18th & Vine Poet Laureate Glenn North’s unique poetic blend of jazz, blues, religion, black history, and social commentary. Join us for this debut screening, followed by a Q&A and special presentation by Kansas City–native Glenn North.
Vintage Board Game Night for Grown-Ups
February 24 @ 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm | $5
The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures
Don’t have a Clue what to do for your next Mystery Date night? Scrabble over to the museum where we have a Monopoly on classic board games, including some from the Land of Oz. At $5 per person for all-you-can-play games, snacks, and hot cocoa, there’s little Risk involved. Please bring friends that are 18+ for this grown-ups only night.
Park University International Center for Music — ICM Orchestra Concert
February 25 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm | Free
Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel-Park University
This concert will highlight 17 ICM students performing the following selections:
“Concerto Grosso in B-Flat Major, Op. 6, No. 7,” by George Handel
“Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins (BWV 1043),” by Johann Sebastian Bach. The piece will feature violinists Laurel Gagnon, senior applied music/strings major, Hooksett, N.H., and Hanna Zhdan, junior applied music/strings major, Minsk, Belarus
“Concerto in G Minor for Two Cellos (RV 531),” by Antonio Vivaldi. The piece will feature cellists Mansur Kadirov, 2014 graduate and currently pursuing graduate certificate in music performance, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and Dilshod Narzillaev, freshman applied music/strings major, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
“Concerto in G Major for Viola,” by George Philipp Telemann. The piece will feature Anna Sorokina, pursuing Master of Music degree in violin performance, Moscow, Russia
“Concerto in F Minor for Keyboard (BWV 1056),” by Bach. The piece will feature Evangeliya Delizonas, pursuing graduate certificate in piano performance, Moscow, Russia
The ICM Orchestra is led by Steven McDonald, director of orchestral activities. The next performance in the ICM’s 2016-17 season will be held Saturday, March 4, for the “ICM Side-by-Side” concert, featuring ICM faculty and students performing together.
The Beard of Avon
February 26 @ 2:00 pm
H & R Block-City Stage
Kansas City Actors Theatre, in collaboration with the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, is presenting a free staged reading of The Beard of Avon
ALATURKA
February 26 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm | $20
Polsky Theatre, JCCC
Part of Winterlude, a series of concerts featuring local and international jazz and world music performers in the Polsky Theatre at JCCC.
Alaturka was formed in 2009 with the vision of creating an equal “auditory handshake” between two musical cultures, American jazz and Turkish classical music.
Founder and director Beau Bledsoe joined with three of Kansas City’s most acclaimed jazz musicians, Rich Wheeler, Brandon Draper and Jeff Harshbarger, to form a quartet in which both cultures are treated with equal respect.
The collaboration has resulted in an intriguing new sound that has garnered the ensemble multiple invitations to perform throughout the U.S. and abroad. In 2013, Alaturka’s second recording, “Yalniz” (Tzigane Music) received 4.5 stars in Downbeat Magazine. Violinist Zsolt Eder will join the group for this performance.
