Time for weekend calendar picks from KC Studio editor Alice Thorson… Tonight, the Center for Arts and Letters at Rockhurst presents a reading from award-winning poet Patricia Smith. The Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City will present a production of the award-winning play Wiesenthal, with another performance on Saturday. Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Kauffman, see the Kansas City Ballet perform a tribute to Johnny Cash or see the Kansas City Symphony perform works by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Bernstein. Saturday night, Ensemble Ibérica performs a program of indigenuous and European music with Bolivian musician Amado Espinoza. And Sunday night, see violinist and Park University ICM alum David Radzynski perform at the 1900 Building. For more ideas this weekend, visit Kansas City’s most comprehensive arts calendar at kcstudio.org/events.
Patricia Smith Closes Midwest Poets Series 35th Season
April 12, 2018 @ 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm | $3
Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Hall Auditorium at Rockhurst University
The Rockhurst Midwest Poets Series concludes its 35th season with a reading from Patricia Smith, winner of the 2017 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 12, in the auditorium of Arrupe Hall.
Smith has authored eight books of poetry throughout her career, including Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets; Blood Dazzler, a National Book Award finalist; and Gotta Go, Gotta Flow, a collaboration with award-winning Chicago photographer Michael Abramson.
An energetic and powerful reader of poems, Smith is a four-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam, the most successful poet in the competition’s history. She is also a Guggenheim fellow, a Civitellian, a National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient, and two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize.
Wiesenthal
April 12 & 14, 2018 @ 7:30 pm
The White Theatre at the Jewish Community Campus
Filled with hope, humanity and humor, Wiesenthal is the riveting true story of Simon Wiesenthal, an ordinary man who did extraordinary things. Nicknamed the “Jewish James Bond,” he devoted his life to bringing more than 1,100 Nazi war criminals to justice. Intelligent, funny, flawed and noble, Wiesenthal was a universal hero. His unbelievable dedication and tenacity over decades is honored in this play, which gives equal weight to his wisdom and wit during his long, purposeful life.
Tony Award winner Daryl Roth and Karyl Lynn Burns present the New York premiere of Wiesenthal, the award-winning play written by and starring Tom Dugan.
Kansas City Ballet Presents “The Man in Black”
April 13 & 14, 2018 @ 7:30 pm
April 15, 2018 @ 2:00 pm
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
In the second weekend of Kansas City Ballet’s Celebration of Dance, you’ll enjoy three ballets including a world premiere by Andrea Schermoly. Flannel shirts, cowboy boots and jeans never looked so good in this tribute to rockabilly, Johnny Cash. James Kudelka’s hit ballet, The Man In Black, is an ode to the human spirit and a unique blend of country-western dance. The music of techno master Moby is the backdrop for Stanton Welch’s Play which depicts the daily routines of our lives.
BEETHOVEN, TCHAIKOVSKY and BERNSTEIN
April 13& 14, 2018 @ 8:00 pm
April 15 @ 2:00 pm
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
Kansas City Symphony continues the centennial celebration of extraordinary American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. Typical of Bernstein’s original and eclectic style, the Chichester Psalms combine various influences, including music initially intended for the Broadway stage. A hidden gem, Tchaikovsky’s Concert Fantasy parallels the melodic inspiration, virtuoso fireworks, and sumptuous orchestration found in the composer’s famous First Concerto. Choral Fantasy, for solo piano, chorus and orchestra, clearly hints at Beethoven’s immortal “Ode to Joy” from his Ninth Symphony.
Ahayu (Spirit)
April 14, 2018 @ 8:00 pm | $20 – $25
Musical Theater Heritage
Ahayu means “spirit” in Quechua, an indigenous language spoken by the Quechua peoples, primarily living in the Andes and highlands of South America. Ahayu features pre and post-Columbian music from the Americas curated by Bolivian musician Amado Espinoza. This innovative program explores the complex mixture of indigenous and European music, instruments and dance from Bolivia, Mexico, Paraguay, Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, Ecuador and Cuba.
Park ICM Distinguished Alumni Series – David Radzynski and Lolita Lisovskaya-Sayevich
April 15, 2018 @ 4:00 pm | $10 – $20
1900 Building
One of the youngest violinists to lead a major orchestra today, Radzynski is the Concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic. A graduate of the Park International Center for Music under the tutelage of Professor Ben Sayevich, David took the helm of the internationally renowned orchestra in 2015. David will be in concert with Lolita Lisovskaya-Sayevich, Park University Collaborative Artist, at the intimate marvel concert hall in Kansas City, the 1900 Building.
