Tim Scott inside the Grand Theater in Crown Center (photo by Jim Barcus)
The actor/singer and now chief executive and artistic director of Music Theater Heritage is celebrating 20 years with the organization
By the time Tim Scott set foot in Kansas City, he had worked as a professional actor in California, Arizona and New York — and toured briefly with the national company of “Beauty and the Beast.”
He didn’t know much about KC. And although he may not have known it at the time, he was looking for a place to call home.
When he looks back on his New York experience, he shakes his head in amazement at his own naivete.
“I didn’t even have a cell phone when I moved out there,” he said. “It seems so dangerous now to leave your house without your cell phone. And to think I drove to New York City with a (paper) map. When I think about those times, it’s almost unfathomable to me.”
Once in New York, he began booking acting jobs. But none were in New York. He began to question the logic of being based in the Big Apple. He didn’t realize it at the time, but he was looking for a stable environment. New York wasn’t that.
“In California everything is so spread out and so clean, but in New York City everything seemed so claustrophobic and dirty,” he said. “It just wasn’t for me. All I wanted was a house with a backyard and a dog and a family.”
It was in 2005 that Scott rolled into town. He quickly landed acting jobs. And he signed up for an acting class taught by the late Gary Holcombe, an actor/singer who was known for speaking his mind. On the first day of class, Holcombe saw that Scott was already an experienced actor.
“He said, ‘Get the hell out of here,’” and gave me a list of names,” Scott recalled. One of the names was Paul Hough, the artistic director of the old American Heartland Theater. That led to his first job at the Heartland — as the Surf Ballroom emcee in “The Buddy Holly Story.” It was a brief but vivid comic performance.
And now the Heartland’s 399-seat theater on the fourth floor of Crown Center is an MTH venue called the Grand Theatre. That’s in addition to the Main Stage, which seats 240 on the third floor, and the Ruby Room, a remodeled old movie theater auditorium left over from the days when Crown Center had a third-floor multiplex. It seats 130.
This year marks Scott’s 20th anniversary with Music Theater Heritage. He literally worked his way up from freelance actor/singer to what he is now: chief executive and artistic director.
MTH founder and former radio host of “On the Town,” George Harter, said Scott was a unique mix of theatrical talent and business savvy.
“Tim brings so many different kinds of skill,” Harter said. “He’s a very rare individual. You never find someone who has the business sense and also the artistic imagination. I’ve seen him grow over the last four or five years. Now that he’s in (his current) role, he realizes he has to be a little more diplomatic. But he’s good at glad-handing.”
When COVID-19 brought things to a screeching halt, Scott was uniquely positioned to keep the theater in the public eye. While other theaters were shut down, Scott came up with a couple of novel ideas: Stage live shows on the roof of Crown Center and shoot videos of local artists performing tunes from classic or contemporary musicals. One virtual show was dedicated to Motown classics.
Scott was an experienced videographer. (He once shot promotional fan-interview videos for the Kansas City Royals.) He teamed with sound designer Jon Robertson and production designer Mark Exline to shoot some 11 virtual shows. Everything about those videos was top-flight — the performances, the visuals, the sound and a unique stage environment for each production. It was a way to offer something to a loyal fan base.
As artistic director, Scott has brought something else to the table — audacity.
Early this year, MTH presented a unique staging of Tennessee Williams’ classic drama “The Glass Menagerie.” The play was presented exactly as Williams wrote it, with action accented by an improvisational jazz score performed live. Scott said it fit with the play’s specification that music from a nearby dance hall wafts into the apartment where the play is set can be heard in the distance.
Other innovative ideas included a production of the musical “Titanic” with a score performed on the same instruments the musicians on the doomed ship would have played. And then there was “The Man of La Mancha” with a score filtered through a flamenco sensibility. The idea, Scott told the opening night audience, was to capture a sound closer to the 16th century than 1960s Broadway.
The idea for each of these conceptual productions, Scott said, was to filter familiar musicals through unique sensibilities to make them seem new again.
So Scott, like so many other creatives in the history of this town, came here with nothing but talent and determination. And he built a life — including a family. All the things in life that somehow didn’t seem possible in LA or New York were waiting for him in Kansas City. And that includes a family with actor/director Jessalyn Kincaid, his life partner, their 6-year-old, Bella Maria, and his teen daughter from an earlier marriage, Sophia Napoli.
And he’s prepared to support his kids should they choose to follow their parents into the unpredictable world of professional theater.
“Sophia loves theater, but she seems more interested in mental health,” he said. “Bella is only 6 years old but she’s seen more theater than most people.”
