Time for weekend calendar picks from KC Studio editor Alice Thorson. This week we feature two plays premiering Friday night from Kansas City Actors Theatre and Kansas City Repertory Theatre. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the Kansas City Ballet performs Romeo & Juliet. Friday and Saturday night, see Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company at White Recital Hall. Friday night, the Kansas City Chorale performs a selection of spooky chorale music. And Saturday, Carlsen Center at Johnson County Community College presents all-star jazz ensemble Hudson. For more events this weekend, visit Kansas City’s most comprehensive arts calendar at kcstudio.org/events.
King Lear
October 13, 2017 – October 22, 2017
Spencer Theatre, Olson PAC, UMKC Campus
October delivers a new take on Shakespeare’s King Lear, directed by two-time Tony Award winner Ed Stern. Starring Theodore Swetz with a cast that includes Mark Robbins, Peggy Friesen and Logan Black, this classic tale of tragic hubris, sibling rivalry, and heated passions will be produced in a renewed partnership between KCAT and UMKC Theatre. We’re excited to introduce bright new talents alongside some of the city’s finest veteran actors, all of it in service to one of the Bard’s finest works.
Fences
October 13-16, 2017 @ 8:00 – 10:30 pm
Ticket prices vary. Visit kcrep.org for more details
Kansas City Repertory Theatre-Copaken Stage
The winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play that same year, Fences is set in 1950s Pittsburgh against the backdrop of a rapidly changing America. Perhaps the most highly-regarded of Wilson’s soaring ten-play cycle, it tells the gripping story of an African American father and son and the hopes and dreams to which they desperately cling. Powerful and poetic, Fences is a true American classic.
Kansas City Ballet Presents “Romeo & Juliet”
October 13 & 14, 2017 @ 7:30 pm
October 15, 2017 @ 2:00 pm
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
William Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy ranks among the world’s most enduring stories. The refreshing interpretation of this classic masterpiece, brought by Artistic Director Devon Carney, illustrates soaring choreography and sweeping characters. Don’t miss one of the most popular ballets in the world, the fateful embrace of star-crossed lovers.
Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance presents One, Two, Three, Four…Dance Again!
October 14 & 15, 2017 @ 7:30 pm | $18 – $24
White Recital Hall
One, Two, Three, Four Dance…Again! will be presented October 13 and 14 at White Recital Hall on the UMKC campus (see information below). Hailed as an intimate evening of works that highlight the extraordinary talent of individual dancers, the repertory will feature these works:
- Jennifer Archibald’s an artist is an energetic and risk-taking work for five dancers that hurls them through space with breath taking lifts and partnering. Ms. Archibald is Director for Arch Dance Company in New York City.
- Shadows of Fate and Eden by DeeAnna Hiett, Co-Artistic Director, WHCDC. Eden is a sensual duet of attraction and love.
- A new work She and I, by emerging artist Gavin Stewart, is a duet for two women which touches on friendship and life.
- A Kansas City favorite, Sweet Otis Suite, by Mary Pat Henry is a fun and poignant journey through the moving music of Otis Redding.
A Haunted Concert
October 14, 2017 @ 7:30 pm | $10 – $30
1900 Building
A concert celebrating the spookiest and scariest choral music ever written! Dies irae chant; Pizzetti: Requiem, Dies irae; Orban: Daemon irrepit calidus; Tavener: Tyger; Dmitry Smirnov: A Casket Made of Cypress Wood; Mantyarvi: Double Double Toil and Trouble.
Hudson: Jack DeJohnette, Larry Grenadier, John Medeski and John Scofield Winterlude Series
October 15, 2017 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm | $25 – $40
Carlsen Center – Yardley Hall
This all-star group has joined forces to record and tour in 2017. The ensemble takes its name from the Hudson Valley area of New York State, where each of these musicians resides.
Hudson originally came together in the fall of 2014 to perform at the Woodstock Jazz Festival. In 2016, Jack DeJohnette began looking for a project to commemorate his 75th birthday the following year. Fond memories of that performance had him seeking a reunion. In celebration of his milestone year, they’ll kick off their North American tour in June, followed by several large festival dates and the entire month of October.
With a magical recording in the can slated for release in 2017, all four are keen to share this inspired ensemble with the world. Encouraged by a fiery dynamic chemistry, the album features original compositions as well as collected repertoire of Hudson Valley materials, from Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay” and “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” to The Band’s “Up On Cripple Creek,” the Woodstock Festival’s Joni Mitchell anthem and Jimi Hendrix’s “Wait Until Tomorrow.”
This collective known as Hudson demonstrates qualities and virtues that are consistent with the place from which it takes its name — creatively rich, highly interactive and loaded with possibility. Hudson equally demonstrates the qualities and virtues consistent with each musician. Defying precise musical definition yet honoring the traditions by which each member developed, they are bonded as one unique and individual voice — coming to a town near you.
