Here’s a selection of weekend calendar picks from KC Studio editor Alice Thorson to round out April. Tonight through Sunday, see Urinetown at Avila University‘s Goppert Theatre. City in Motion Dance Theater presents their professional company concert Friday, Saturday and Sunday at City Stage inside Union Station. This weekend, the Kansas City Repertory Theatre‘s OriginKC Festival highlights two new plays at Copaken Stage. And on Sunday, stop by the Kauffman to see the Youth Symphony of Kansas City perform, or hear pianist Behzod Abduraimov at Park University. For more ideas this weekend, visit Kansas City’s most comprehensive arts calendar at kcstudio.org/events.
Urinetown
April 27 – April 30
Goppert Theatre at Avila University
Urinetown is a satirical look at power and capitalism. In a Gotham-like city, a terrible water shortage has led to a government-enforced ban on private toilets. The citizens must use public amenities, regulated by a single malevolent company that profits by charging admission for one of humanity’s most basic needs. Amid the people, a hero decides he’s had enough and plans a revolution to lead them to freedom. Drawing from West Side Story, Chicago, and Les Misérables, the show irreverently pays witty homage to the great American musical theatre tradition.
Converging Textures: City in Motion Professional Company Concert
April 28th & 29th @ 8:00 pm
April 30th @ 2:00 pm
H & R Block-City Stage
Converging Textures refers to the gradual weaving or merging of choreographic forms into a creative whole. The various dance pieces exist beautifully on their own yet contribute to the rich tapestry of the concert.
What Would Crazy Horse Do?
April 28 – May 28
Kansas City Repertory Theatre-Copaken Stage
KCRep proudly presents the world premiere of a new play by preeminent Native American writer Larissa FastHorse. Twin siblings, the last members of their tribe, have just lost their grandfather when the KKK comes knocking with hopes of forming an alliance. A chilling look at the notion of racial purity, this story reveals the challenges contemporary Native Americans face when fighting extinction in a world that seems to have already forgotten they exist. The siblings attempt to find their voices in the outside world, while preserving the heritage that is now theirs alone to carry forward.
Man in Love
April 29 – May 28
Kansas City Repertory Theatre-Copaken Stage
In a segregated Depression-era city, rent parties rage above, while men hungry for work and love roam the streets. A string of murders occurs but no one suspects the killer is the quiet, charming librarian, Paul Pare Jr. Reactions vary across the city, and as we watch the word spread from person to person, we wonder if the killer’s violence will extend to those closest to him. Written by Kansas City native Christina Anderson the story examines a world where a criminal and his victims can get lost in the crowd.
Youth Symphony Spring Concert Sponsored by Country Club Bank
April 30 @ 3:00 pm | $16.50 – $21.50
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
Youth Symphony of Kansas City concludes its 2016-17 season at the Kauffman Center featuring its advanced ensembles, the Symphony and Academy Orchestras.
-PROGRAM-
Symphony Orchestra
Steven D. Davis, Conductor
Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture, Op. 9
Franck: Symphony in D minor
Academy Orchestra
Russell E. Berlin, Jr., Conductor
Kirt Mosier: Prophet’s Dance
Rimksy-Korsakov: Procession of the Nobles from “Mlada”
Dvorák: Symphony No.9 in E minor, Op. 95 “From the New World” IV. Finale
Park University International Center for Music ICM Orchestra Concert with Special Guests Behzod Abduraimov and Keith Benjamin
April 30 @ 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm | Free
Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel-Park University
The Park University International Center for Music’s 2016-17 concert season will conclude on Sunday, April 30, as the ICM Orchestra takes the stage for a concert starting at 4 p.m. in Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel on the University’s Parkville Campus. Admission to the concert is free and open to the public.
The performance will provide Kansas City area classical music aficionados a rare opportunity to hear one of the top young pianists of this generation — Behzod Abduraimov — who won the 2009 London International Piano Competition and currently serves as the ICM artist-in-residence. In addition to Abduraimov, Keith Benjamin, professor of trumpet in the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and Dance, will be a special guest.
The ICM Orchestra, led by Steven McDonald, director of orchestral activities, consists of 17 students in the International Center for Music. Violinist Laurel Gagnon, senior applied music/strings, Hookset, N.H., is the concertmaster. The following selections are scheduled to be performed:
“Sinfonia No. 2 for Strings in D Major,” composed by Felix Mendelssohn
“Adagio and Fugue in C Minor, K. 546,” composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
“Five Pieces for String Orchestra, Op.44, No. 4,” composed by Paul Hindemith
“Piano Concerto No.1, Op. 35,” composed by Dmitri Shostakovich (featuring Abduraimov and Benjamin)
For ICM Orchestra cellists Mansur Kadirov, 2014 graduate and currently pursuing graduate certificate in music performance, and Dilshod Narzillaev, freshman applied music/strings major, both from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, the concert will be their final performance before embarking on a trip to Brussels, Belgium, to participate in the cello division of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, beginning Monday, May 8. Both are students of Daniel Veis, assistant professor of music/cello in the ICM.
