Category: Performing
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Family Bliss
Opening the Lyric Opera’s 2019-2020 season is Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio. This risqué rom-com is an exciting start to the season, with a production set in the glamour of 1940s Hollywood. What makes it even more exciting is that Prairie Village native Ben Bliss will grace his home stage for the very first time, alongside his mother, Judy Bliss, a longtime member of the Lyric Opera Chorus.
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Arts News: Charlotte Street Announces Capsule Performance Space Events
Charlotte Street Foundation never rests. The organization has begun construction on its new headquarters at 3333 Wyoming St. in the Roanoke neighborhood and announced the 32 artists for its 2019-20 Studio Residency Program in the Town Pavilion building downtown.
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Honors: David Wayne Reed
David Wayne Reed might best be described as a genre-busting conceptual artist whose work defies easy classification. Playwright, actor, filmmaker, storyteller — he wears these hats and others. But in the beginning, he was a man of the stage — a founding member of Late Night Theatre who performed, directed and contributed scripts to the gender-bending, genre-hybridizing theater company.
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Fall Season Lookahead: Jazz
Jazz recordings have their merits, but the music is arguably best appreciated in live performance. And atmosphere — influenced by the size and nature of the venue — plays a significant role in that experience. There’s no shortage of places to hear jazz in the Kansas City area, but the following venues are particularly worth seeking out.
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Fall Season Lookahead: Dance
The dance community starts out strong this season with five straight weekends of stunning contemporary dance. New Dance Partners at Johnson County Community College’s Carlsen Center, which has facilitated some thrilling performances during its tenure, once again brings together the Kansas City Ballet, Owen/Cox Dance Company, Störling Dance Theater and Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company with national-level choreographers.
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Fall Season Lookahead: Music
Sure, nearly every classical music fan is drooling over the Beethoven Bicenquinquagenary (250th anniversary) in 2020, but there’s a fair bit of action in the last quarter of 2019 to keep us busy. Park University’s International Center for Music hosts a special benefit concert evening with Stanislav & Friends in Helzberg Hall, with the audience seated onstage (Sept. 20).