We’ve got some more calendar picks from KC Studio Magazine editor, Alice Thorson, for this Father’s Day weekend. Tonight, listen to modern pop songs reimagined as Shakespearean sonnets at the Kansas City Public Library – Central Library. All this weekend, you can see the musical Parade performed by the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre or listen to the Kansas City Symphony perform Beethoven’s Ninth. On Sunday, take your dad to hear Taps at the Tower at the National WWI Museum and Memorial, then stop by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art for some BBQ and art. For more Father’s Day ideas, visit Kansas City’s most comprehensive arts calendar at kcstudio.org/events.
Pop Sonnets – Eric Didriksen
June 16 @ 6:30 pm
Kansas City Public Library-Central Library
Cross David Bowie with William Shakespeare, as Erik Didriksen did after the influential rocker died earlier this year, and you get this throwback take on Bowie’s hit “Heroes”:
We, with our time borne ceaselessly away
Can heroes be, if just for one brief day.
Didriksen, a New York musician and Tumblr poet featured in Vanity Fair, BuzzFeed, and the A.V. Club, has cleverly reimagined more than 100 classic pop songs as 14-line iambic pentameter Shakespearean sonnets. He started with an adaptation of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” in 2014, and since has tweaked the works of artists such as 50 Cent, Adele, Justin Bieber, Green Day, and Drake.
He discusses and performs some of his best works, pulled from his Tumblr and his book Pop Sonnets: Shakespearean Spins on Your Favorite Songs.
Parade
June 16 -18 @ 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm
June 19 @ 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
$30 – $49
Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre
Parade tells the heart-wrenching, true story of Leo Frank: a Brooklyn-raised Jewish man living in Atlanta who was wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of his thirteen-year-old employee, Mary Phagan, in 1913. Because Frank’s trial was replete with faulty testimony and lacked any clear evidence, Georgia’s governor eventually commuted his sentence from death to life imprisonment. Despite this ruling, a lynch mob hanged Frank in Mary Phagan’s hometown of Marietta, Georgia. The momentous case drew national attention to Anti-Semitism, and was pivotal to the founding of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as well as the reviving of the Ku Klux Klan in the South. With a characteristically rich, intricate, and wide-ranging score penned by Jason Robert Brown, and a bold willingness to dive into the complexities of early 20th century social relationships in the South, Parade is a sophisticated, dark tale with endless depths for a highly skilled company of actors and musicians to plumb.
Kansas City Symphony Classical Series Season Finale: Beethoven’s Ninth
June 16 @ 7:00 pm
June 17 & 18 @ 8:00 pm
June 19 @ 2:00 pm
Kansas City Symphony’s season finale features three majestic works for chorus and orchestra. Beethoven maintained a lifelong admiration for the great German poet, Goethe. Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage is a setting of two Goethe poems that journey from hushed mystery to triumph. Shostakovich wrote his youthful Symphony No. 2, “To October,” to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Beethoven’s epic final Symphony, culminating in the composer’s revolutionary and inspirational setting of Schiller’s “Ode to Joy,” caps the season in glorious, heavenly sounds. Note: G. Kenneth & Ann Baum Concert Comments will not be presented in Helzberg Hall prior to these performances. Tickets start at $35.
Taps at the Tower
June 19 @ 8:45 pm | Free
National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial
Linking the beauty and simplicity of the Taps bugle call with the symbolism of the Liberty Memorial Tower, Taps at the Tower is presented each evening at sunset. People are invited to come and use the grounds each evening, have a picnic, play games and enjoy the outdoors. At sunset (8:45 p.m.), people gather to experience Taps being played during a brief, moving ceremony.
Father’s Day BBQ
June 19 @ 11:00 am
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Rozzelle Court Restaurant, no reservations required. Celebrate dad’s day KC style! Picnic food and jammin’ musicians! BBQ meats, picnic-style sides, house-made desserts. Enjoy the Donald J. Hall Sculpture Park or find dad’s favorite art in one of the galleries.
