Here are this week’s calendar picks from our editor, Alice Thorson. Tonight, stop by the Paragraph Gallery for the opening reception of The One Thing That Can Save America, or learn about the Dutch Golden Age at the Nelson. This is also the last weekend to see Kansas City Repertory Theatre‘s Roof of the World on Copaken Stage and Kansas City Actors Theatre‘s The Island (both close March 27). Finally, the Kansas City Chorale performs their Springsong in the Rozzelle Court at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Looking for more ideas this weekend? Visit Kansas City’s most comprehensive arts calendar at kcstudio.org/events.
The One Thing That Can Save America
March 24 – April 30
Paragraph Gallery + Project Space
The One Thing That Can Save America explores the creative capacity of hyperspecificity of place—meaning how matters of location(s) or place impact creative ideals and work. The exhibition takes its title from the eponymous 1972 John Ashbury poem, which opens with the question “What is central?” This exhibition similarly attempts to sort notions of centrality and place, suggesting that one must first move through specifics—personal feelings, precise place-names—in order to arrive at any true sense of something larger —such as the regional, national, or cultural.
The exhibition includes new works by visual artists Max Adrian, Hannah Carr, Molly Garrett, Paige Hinshaw and Lara Shipley. The Archive Collective and Paris of the Plains Podcast will occupy Project Space with new media installations made specifically for this exhibition. Writers Jason Preu, Danny Volin, and Lucas Wetzel have poetic and fictional work written during their residency periods collected in the publication “The One Thing That Can Save America,” which was also compiled and designed specifically for this exhibition.
Presentation: Rank and Status in the Dutch Golden Age
March 24 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm | Free
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Though not snapshots of daily life, the 17th-century Dutch masterpieces in Reflecting Class in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer indicate, in a variety of ways, the culture’s social structure, its successes and aspirations, its vitality and tenuousness of life.
Join exhibition curator Ronni Baer, William and Ann Eflers Senior Curator of Paintings, Art of Europe, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for a lecture that, following the exhibition’s organization, encourages close looking at portraits, genre scenes, landscapes and seascapes to discover clues to the social standing of the people depicted and the workings of the Dutch Republic.
Roof of the World
March 24 @ 7:00 pm
March 25 @ 8:00 pm
March 26 @ 3:00 pm & 8:00 pm
Written by D. Tucker Smith
Directed by Eric Rosen
This pulse-pounding work by one of America’s hottest young playwrights tells the true story of two world powers who sought to claim a new frontier — The Roof of the World. Part spy thriller and part Downton Abbey, filled with suspense and romance, this brilliant new drama is a thrilling and imaginative journey.
Appropriate for ages 11 and up.
The Island
March 24-26 @ 7:30 pm
Featuring Damron Russel Armstrong (read our coverage of his black repertory theatre here) & Teddy Trice
The Island is Robben Island, South Africa’s notorious prison, where John and Winston are political prisoners and cellmates. After absurdly grueling days laboring under the sun, they return to their dark cell to rehearse a makeshift performance of Sophocles’ play Antigone. Rehearsals in the cramped cell will test their friendship and strain their resilience in this gripping, vivid portrait of apartheid-era struggle.
Springsong in Rozzelle Court
March 26 @ 5:30 pm
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Celebrate spring, the season of love, with the choir you love. Our traditional one-hour Easter Saturday concert at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Get your tickets early – these concerts always sell out! Call the UMKC Central Ticket Office at 816-235-6222 or click the button below to reserve your spot today.
