Time for weekend calendar picks from KC Studio editor Alice Thorson. Three plays premiere this weekend: Vietgone at Unicorn Theatre; Anna in the Tropics, presented by Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre at their new home in Warwick Theatre; and Once on This Island, presented by Spinning Tree Theatre at Just Off Broadway Theatre. Saturday night, Bach Aria Soloists perform a Night of Tango at the Folly. And Sunday afternoon, The Friends of Chamber Music present pianist Nelson Freire. For more events this weekend, visit Kansas City’s most comprehensive arts calendar at kcstudio.org/events.
Vietgone
April 18, 2018 – May 13, 2018
Unicorn Theatre
In Vietgone, award-winning pioneer of “geek theater” Qui Nguyen brilliantly chronicles the love story of his parents’ meeting in an Arkansas refugee center after fleeing Vietnam. It’s a buddy story, an all-American romance, and a motorcycle road-trip adventure that revisits how we think about the heroes and victims of the Vietnam War. Vietgone skips through time and roams the globe with snarky humor, hip-hop, and lots of sex. It’s one ironic, foul-mouthed, bad-ass new play.
Anna in the Tropics
April 19, 2018 – May 6, 2018
Warwick Theatre
Anna in the Tropics is a poignant and poetic play set in Florida in 1929 in a Cuban–American cigar factory, where cigars are still rolled by hand and “lectors” are employed to educate and entertain the workers. The arrival of a new lector is a cause for celebration, but when he begins to read aloud from Anna Karenina, he unwittingly becomes a catalyst in the lives of his avid listeners, for whom Tolstoy, the tropics and the American dream prove a volatile combination.
Once on This Island
April 20, 2018 – May 6, 2018
Just Off Broadway Theatre
The Caribbean-influenced musical folktale tells the store of Ti Moune, a peasant girl who falls in love with the well-born Daniel and is aided by the gods and goddesses of earth, water and love in her quest to be with him. A rousing song-and-dance celebration of the human heart.
NIGHT OF TANGO
April 21, 2018 @ 7:30 pm
Folly Theater
One night only! Explore Tango with the masters!
Bach Aria Soloists brings Tango masters – legendary bandoneónist Héctor Del Curto and Grammy nominee-pianist Gustavo Casenave – back to Kansas City for their celebrated show Night of Tango, voted Best Concert of 2014 by KCMETROPOLIS. Double bassist Jeff Harshbarger rounds out the excellent quintet that will feature Piazzolla’s classic Tango music along with Old Tango.
Similar to jazz, Tango was born as dance music in lower-class districts in Buenos Aires but has evolved to its rightful place as concert music, loved by millions worldwide. Experience the fiery passion of Piazzolla and Tango!
NELSON FREIRE, PIANO
April 22, 2018 @ 2:30 pm
Folly Theater
PROGRAM:
Mozart, 10 Variations on “Unser dummer Pöbel meint”, K. 455
Schumann, Fantaisie in C Major, Op.17
Chopin, Impromptu No. 2, Op.36 in F-sharp Major
Chopin, Ballade No. 3, Op.47 in A-flat Major
Villa-lobos, Prelude from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4, W. 264
Villa-lobos, A prole do bebê No.1
Albéniz, “Evocacion” from Iberia
Albéniz, Navarra
