Stuart Carden, artistic director, KCRep (KC Rep)
KCRep plans its post-UMKC future while embarking on an ambitious season
Stuart Carden talks fast and thinks fast. And these days he has much to think about and a lot to say.
In a recent interview, the artistic director of Kansas City Repertory Theatre spoke with the genuine excitement of a little kid on his way to his first circus as he described planning the 2025-26 season. He struck a more reflective, but no less animated, note when he talked about Kansas City Rep’s future, which for now is a huge fluorescent question mark. Where the Rep will physically be after the summer of 2029 is the question hanging over every creative and institutional decision.
Carden, without going into details, said this about planning for a possible future home for the theater company:
“We’re having some really dynamic conversations about several locations and development partners.”
The University of Missouri-Kansas City announced last year that UMKC and the theater company would part ways officially in 2029. That will conclude a partnership between the Rep and the university that began in 1964, when Dr. Patricia McIlrath, who chaired the theater department, founded what was originally called Missouri Repertory Theatre. Ever since, the Rep has maintained a symbiotic relationship with the school’s theater program.
But, if you’ll forgive a quote lifted from “A Chorus Line,” nothing runs forever.
The university has major plans to expand and refurbish the James C. Olson Performing Arts Center, which currently houses the UMKC Conservatory in addition to the Spencer Theatre, which is the Rep’s main stage. Rep resources housed in the Olson Center include some, though not all, of the Rep’s administrative offices as well as rehearsal rooms, dance studios, a scene shop, a costume shop, costume storage and equipment to record music and sound effects for individual productions as well as lighting equipment and computers.
So common sense suggests that the Rep will have to find comparable facilities to continue presenting theater at a high technical level. More will be revealed.
But Carden’s focus at present is the 2025-26 season.
Carden had this to say: “The upcoming season is really the most ambitious we’ve done in my time here and really indicates the degree to which our audiences, as well as the organization, have rebounded.”
In other words, the Rep has rebounded from COVID.
Carden’s tenure at the Rep began with an extraordinary challenge. He reported for work in September 2019 and began laying the groundwork for his ambitious plans. By December news was emerging from China about a new deadly virus in the city of Wuhan. The virus began spreading around the globe and by 2020 its deadly effects led to a series of U.S. government actions restricting public gatherings.
One of Carden’s most painful decisions in the spring of 2020 was informing director/actor/playwright Kyle Hatley that his one-man adaptation of “Frankenstein” would close in previews — meaning it never had an official opening night. Theaters closed their doors and in Kansas City some theater companies, including the Rep, turned to producing video productions of plays and musicals made available to subscribers and the public. But President Joe Biden, complying with the wishes of Congress, declared the COVID emergency over in April 2023.
COVID hasn’t really gone away but nonetheless, Carden seems fueled by the belief that its impact has been greatly diminished.
“The story of this season is a story of resilience and of KCRep rebounding from the pandemic,” Carden said.
Three of the productions on the schedule are big-cast shows — not including “A Christmas Carol,” which is not part of the regular season but lands between the Rep’s fall and spring schedule. Traditionally the show has an enormous cast.
“The Color Purple.” (KC Rep)
The season opens with “The Color Purple,” Sept. 2-21 at the Spencer Theatre, 4949 Cherry St. The show is based on the prize-winning Alice Walker novel that was adapted for the screen by Steven Spielberg. The Broadway show, which opened in 2005, was written by playwright Marsha Norman and featured music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Brady. A Broadway revival, which opened in 2015, was a box-office hit. The director of the Rep production is Chicago-based Daniel J. Bryant. KC native Angela Wildflower stars as Celie.
“‘The Color Purple’ is one of the most compelling musicals out there,” Carden said.
The season continues with “Dracula,” adapted by Vanessa Severo in collaboration with director Joanie Schultz. Severo and Schultz will co-direct the show. And, Cardin said, Severo will perform in it. Previously, Schultz directed Severo in her one-actor play, “Frida … A Self Portrait” in 2019. This adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel will focus on the female characters in a way that brings them to the forefront, Carden said.
“They continue to develop the text and I’m so excited about this monumental work being interpreted by these two artists,” Cardin said. “And it will be satisfying for people who like the novel.”
On the Rep’s website “Dracula” is described as a “visceral, sensual and utterly unexpected journey into the heart of darkness (that) illuminates the resilience of the feminine spirit.”
The show will be performed Oct. 14-Nov. 2 at Copaken Stage, the Rep’s downtown venue. Because the script requires nine actors, Cardin said, “Dracula” will be the largest show at Copaken in years.
“One of the Good Ones” by veteran TV writer Gloria Calderón Kellett, is a “farce with heart,” Carden said. “In some ways it owes inspiration to ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.’ It investigates what it means to be an American.”
The characters include Yoli, a young influencer who invites her boyfriend to dinner to meet her parents. Her father is a proud Cuban American and her mother is Cuban-Puerto Rican but never learned Spanish. Yoli’s boyfriend, meanwhile, is an Anglo who happened to have been born in Mexico.
“The questions raised by ‘One of the Good Ones’ have open-ended answers, since the play acknowledges that identities can morph as life becomes more complicated,” one critic wrote.
Carden, who saw the play at the Old Globe in San Diego, said it is “laugh out loud funny but has a warm heart.”
The show runs Feb. 17-March 8, 2026, at Copaken Stage.
The season will conclude with Carden’s new vision for “The Wizard of Oz,” adapted from a version first staged in 1987 by the Royal Shakespeare Company based directly on the 1939 MGM movie. It includes the classic songs by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg.
Carden will direct and he has invited his frequent collaborators, musician-actors from the PigPen Theatre Company, to be involved. The PigPen artists will adapt the musical score for traditional folk and small-ensemble instruments and — reminiscent of the musical “Once” — will remain onstage throughout.
“All of those performers will be making music, so there will be 25 performers — 15 adults and 10 young musicians,” Carden said.
“There will be a live band onstage throughout,” Carden added. He said that the show will offer “all the spectacle you would expect, but also the spectacle and joy of a live band onstage.”
“The Wizard of Oz” runs May 5-24 at the Spencer Theatre. Call 816-235-2700 or visit www.kcrep.org.
(Although not part of the season, the Rep’s annual production of “A Christmas Carol” will run Nov. 22-Dec. 27 at the Spencer Theatre. See our interview with actor Gary Neal Johnson, who will deliver his final performance as Scrooge, page 84.)
Read the best of the rest for the 2025-2026 KC Theater Season
