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This Olathe Calendar of Events is presented by the Kansas City Real Estate Network.
January 2012 - Posts
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It’s that time of year…preschool enrollment time! It’s hard to believe that it’s time to register your little ones for Fall 2012 preschool classes. Many area preschools have already started the enrollment process for current families and… more 
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The past few months have been rough for local jazz. Two promising newer venues, 1911 Main and Café Augusta in Lenexa, have shut down. And at Jardine's Restaurant and Jazz Club, one of the city’s most celebrated venues, a dispute between the owner and employees led to a boycott by musicians. The restaurant then closed its doors, and its future remains up in the air.
more at KCUR
and at KC Confidential
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Bring the lawn chair for a free concert in the park. Concert begins at 7 p.m, presented by Olathe Parks & Recreation and Farmers at Frontier Park, 15501 Indian Creek Parkway, Olathe KS. Artist to be announced. Visit www.olatheks.org/ParksRec/Events/SummerConcerts for updated information.
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Bring the lawn chair for a free concert in the park. Concert begins at 7 p.m, presented by Olathe Parks & Recreation and Farmers at Frontier Park, 15501 Indian Creek Parkway, Olathe KS. Artist to be announced. Visit www.olatheks.org/ParksRec/Events/SummerConcerts for updated information.
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Bring the lawn chair for a free concert in the park. Concert begins at 7 p.m, presented by Olathe Parks & Recreation and Farmers at Frontier Park, 15501 Indian Creek Parkway, Olathe KS. Visit http://www.olatheks.org/parksrec/RoyalSouthernBrotherhood for more information.
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Bring the lawn chair for a free concert in the park. Concert begins at 7 p.m, presented by Olathe Parks & Recreation and Farmers at Frontier Park, 15501 Indian Creek Parkway, Olathe KS. Visit http://www.olatheks.org/parksrec/RoyalSouthernBrotherhood for more information.
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Learn how to rope, brand, leather stamp, and cook chuckwagon style. Watch out for stagecoach robbers! At Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm, 1200 Kansas City Rd. Open late Thursdays in June and July and admission is free! Visit www.olatheks.org/Mahaffie/Events or www.mahaffie.org for more information.
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Open late Thursdays in June and July and admission is free! Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm Historic Site 1200 Kansas City Road Olathe, KS 66061 www.olatheks.org/Mahaffie/Events; 913-971-5111, visit www.mahaffie.org
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Open late Thursdays in June and July and admission is free! Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm Historic Site 1200 Kansas City Road Olathe, KS 66061 www.olatheks.org/Mahaffie/Events; 913-971-5111, visit www.mahaffie.org
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View a century-old dairy farm home of two generations of the Ensor family and learn about the life they led. What was it like to be an early pioneer of Johnson County, Kansas and to build a farm from bare materials and hard work? Enjoy the hour plus tour of the 1890's memory-packed two story house and the older peg barn full of special Ensor archives. Other buildings can also be seen. Whether you see the farm implements, and tools, or the handcrafts of the women, who had strong aptitudes in artistic accomplishments, or the early woodworking projects and radio wizardry of Marshall Ensor, you will long consider what their lives were like. 0pen Saturdays and Sundays in May, June, September and October 1-5 p.m. Touring price: Donation of $2 per person. Groups of 10 or more, please call 971-6263 for scheduling tours or picnics. 18995 W. 183rd Street, Olathe, KS 66062 913-592-4141
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View a century-old dairy farm home of two generations of the Ensor family and learn about the life they led. What was it like to be an early pioneer of Johnson County, Kansas and to build a farm from bare materials and hard work? Enjoy the hour plus tour of the 1890's memory-packed two story house and the older peg barn full of special Ensor archives. Other buildings can also be seen. Whether you see the farm implements, and tools, or the handcrafts of the women, who had strong aptitudes in artistic accomplishments, or the early woodworking projects and radio wizardry of Marshall Ensor, you will long consider what their lives were like. 0pen Saturdays and Sundays in May, June, September and October 1-5 p.m. Touring price: Donation of $2 per person. Groups of 10 or more, please call 971-6263 for scheduling tours or picnics. 18995 W. 183rd Street, Olathe, KS 66062 913-592-4141
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View a century-old dairy farm home of two generations of the Ensor family and learn about the life they led. What was it like to be an early pioneer of Johnson County, Kansas and to build a farm from bare materials and hard work? Enjoy the hour plus tour of the 1890's memory-packed two story house and the older peg barn full of special Ensor archives. Other buildings can also be seen. Whether you see the farm implements, and tools, or the handcrafts of the women, who had strong aptitudes in artistic accomplishments, or the early woodworking projects and radio wizardry of Marshall Ensor, you will long consider what their lives were like. 0pen Saturdays and Sundays in May, June, September and October 1-5 p.m. Touring price: Donation of $2 per person. Groups of 10 or more, please call 971-6263 for scheduling tours or picnics. 18995 W. 183rd Street, Olathe, KS 66062 913-592-4141
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Held on Thursdays at 9 a.m. at different Chamber member businesses, our coffees are the largest weekly networking event in the Kansas City area. Expect to meet 150 to 250 people each time! Please note our inclement weather policy states that if the Olathe School District is Closed the Coffee that day will be cancelled.
Groundbreaking for new Wellness Center
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Celebrates the silver screen and Hollywood. Since the invention of the motion picture, movies and music have been intertwined … so take your seat and enjoy your favorite Oscar-winning songs – Lullaby of Broadway, When You Wish upon a Star, Buttons and Bows, Thanks for the Memory and many more! ((Rated G) Adults - $23; Seniors - $20 Directed by Brad Zimmerman. This soothing form of music will be presented by the Chestnut Fine Arts Center, 234 N. Chestnut St. Olathe, KS 66061 913-764-2121 Visit www.chestnutfinearts.com
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Held on Thursdays at 9 a.m. at different Chamber member businesses, our coffees are the largest weekly networking event in the Kansas City area. Expect to meet 150 to 250 people each time! Please note our inclement weather policy states that if the Olathe School District is Closed the Coffee that day will be cancelled.
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Held on Thursdays at 9 a.m. at different Chamber member businesses, our coffees are the largest weekly networking event in the Kansas City area. Expect to meet 150 to 250 people each time! Please note our inclement weather policy states that if the Olathe School District is Closed the Coffee that day will be cancelled.
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In cooperation with the Olathe Junior Service League, help prepare the site’s spring crops and enjoy other spring programming and stagecoach rides (weather permitting). Activities may include horses and mules plowing the wheat field to prepare for planting the spring wheat. Plus, come see what's cooking on Mrs. Mahaffie's stove. 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm Historic Site 1200 Kansas City Road Olathe, KS 66061 www.olatheks.org/Mahaffie/Events; 913-971-5111, visit www.mahaffie.org
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Held on Thursdays at 9 a.m. at different Chamber member businesses, our coffees are the largest weekly networking event in the Kansas City area. Expect to meet 150 to 250 people each time! Please note our inclement weather policy states that if the Olathe School District is Closed the Coffee that day will be cancelled.
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Over 300 local, state, and regional runners participate in the Fun run, Tot Trot, 5K run/walk, and 10K run. At Johnson County Square, the corner of Park and Cherry Streets, Historic Downtown Olathe KS. 8:00 a.m. Certified course. Sponsored by the Olathe Running Club. Call 913-492-8360 or visit www.OlatheRunningClub.com to register.
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Learn about the history of Olathe through a guided cemetery tour. The tour will explore the symbols, historical figures and landscape of the cemetery. The tour requires a lot of walking. Refreshments willl be provided. Advanced tickets required. Call 913-971-5111 for reservations. Olathe Memorial Cemetery 738 N. Chestnut Street, please meet at Northview Elementary School, 905 N Walker Olathe, KS. Cost: $3/adults, $2/children ages 5-11
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If you have not seen Timber Ridge Adventure Center or the Climbing Tower yet, this is your chance! During the annual Open House, choose from activities: canoeing, kayaking, pedal boating, hiking, BB-gun shooting, and archery (participants must age 16 and older for BB gun and archery). Catch and release fishing also available, however participants age 16 and older are required to have Kansas fishing license. Licenses will not be sold on site. Cops n’ Bobbers will be on site with poles and bait available for use or you may bring your own. Guided tours of the challenge course will be available. Visit all the programs and amenities that Timber Ridge has to offer and experience the Hawk’s Nest Climbing Tower! An open climbing event for those ages 12 and older will be held. Climbers will need to pre-register. Children under the age of 18 must have parent or guardian’s signature. Both events are FREE but climbing enrollment is limited to 40 people so register early! 09:00 AM To 03:00 PM at Timber Ridge Adventure Center, 12300 S. Homestead Lane, Olathe, Kansas, 66061; (913) 856-8849.
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Saturdays (April to October): 8am until sold
Wednesdays (June 2 to September 29): 3pm until sold
200 W. Santa Fe; Poplar and Kansas in downtown Olathe. Call City of Olathe for more information at 913-971-8563.
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The day’s events will include: USATF Certified Garmin Marathon in the Land of Oz, Wickedly Fast Half Marathon, Dorothy Dash 5K and Munchkin Run Kids’ Marathon through the beautiful city streets and paved trails in eastern Kansas. Food and drink will be available. Visit OzMarathon.com to register. Garmin World Headquarters, 1200 E. 151st Street Olathe, KS 66062
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The day’s events will include: USATF Certified Garmin Marathon in the Land of Oz, Wickedly Fast Half Marathon, Dorothy Dash 5K and Munchkin Run Kids’ Marathon through the beautiful city streets and paved trails in eastern Kansas. Food and drink will be available. Visit OzMarathon.com to register. Garmin World Headquarters, 1200 E. 151st Street Olathe, KS 66062
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The Chestnut will be ALIVE with the sound of music, as we present A Spoonful of Sugar – A Tribute to the Music of Julie Andrews! The air will be filled with her best-loved songs from My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, Victor / Victoria, The Sound of Music and more! (Rated G) Adults - $23; Seniors - $20 Directed by Brad Zimmerman. This soothing form of music will be presented by the Chestnut Fine Arts Center, 234 N. Chestnut St. Olathe, KS 66061 913-764-2121 Visit www.chestnutfinearts.com
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The Chestnut will be ALIVE with the sound of music, as we present A Spoonful of Sugar – A Tribute to the Music of Julie Andrews! The air will be filled with her best-loved songs from My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins, Victor / Victoria, The Sound of Music and more! (Rated G) Adults - $23; Seniors - $20 Directed by Brad Zimmerman. This soothing form of music will be presented by the Chestnut Fine Arts Center, 234 N. Chestnut St. Olathe, KS 66061 913-764-2121 Visit www.chestnutfinearts.com
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Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm is expecting the birth of several new animals this spring. Help us celebrate with a baby shower! Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm Historic Site 1200 Kansas City Road Olathe, KS 66061 www.olatheks.org/Mahaffie/Events; 913-971-5111, visit www.mahaffie.org
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Ribbon Cutting for Walter Chiropractic
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The Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship heads back to Kansas City in 2012, with Sprint Center hosting the league championship for the fourth time. Sprint Center, 1407 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64106; 816-949-7000.
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The Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship heads back to Kansas City in 2012, with Sprint Center hosting the league championship for the fourth time. Sprint Center, 1407 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64106; 816-949-7000.
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Dress in your best and bring your favorite doll or stuffed animal to enjoy tea, refreshments and activities at the cozy Heritage Center. Register by Feb. 10; $5 per person. Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm Historic Site 1200 Kansas City Road Olathe, KS 66061 www.olatheks.org/Mahaffie/Events; 913-971-5111, visit www.mahaffie.org
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Activities on the farm go on year-round. Help with winter farm activities such as soap and sausage making, smoking meat, see what is cooking on the cookstove and ride the stagecoach (weather permitting). No registration required; 913-971-5111, visit www.mahaffie.org
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Daddy’s Dyin’, Who’s Got the Will? will make you laugh out loud at the Buford family’s hysterical antics! When Daddy Buford suffers a series of strokes, his adult children come home. There’s caregiver Sara Lee and her “holier than thou” sister Lurleen, sexpot Evalita and the boorish son, Orville. LOTS of laughs (Rated PG). Adults - $23; Seniors - $20 Visit www.chestnutfinearts.com for more information.
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Daddy’s Dyin’, Who’s Got the Will? will make you laugh out loud at the Buford family’s hysterical antics! When Daddy Buford suffers a series of strokes, his adult children come home. There’s caregiver Sara Lee and her “holier than thou” sister Lurleen, sexpot Evalita and the boorish son, Orville. LOTS of laughs (Rated PG). Adults - $23; Seniors - $20 Visit www.chestnutfinearts.com for more information.
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Opening Night, audience members express how they feel about The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at KC Rep. Do you have your tickets yet? 816.235.2700 kcrep.org 
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Blues & Barbeque at Olathe Northwest High School, proceeds to ONWHS Band for its trip to Walt Disney World during spring break. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Dinner catered by The Rub at 6:15 p.m. Live and silent auctions. Entertainment by ONWHS Jazz Ensemble and Prairie Trail Middle School Jazz Band. $20 per person. Contact Deb Campbell for tickets, cdcampbell88@sbcglobal.net or (913) 791-0189.
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Blues & Barbeque at Olathe Northwest High School, proceeds to ONWHS Band for its trip to Walt Disney World during spring break. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Dinner catered by The Rub at 6:15 p.m. Live and silent auctions. Entertainment by ONWHS Jazz Ensemble and Prairie Trail Middle School Jazz Band. $20 per person. Contact Deb Campbell for tickets, cdcampbell88@sbcglobal.net or (913) 791-0189.
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A proposal that would allow a tax checkoff program for the arts drew no interest before a legislative committee on Monday as lawmakers continued to wrestle with Gov. Sam Brownback's veto of arts funding. No one testified in favor or against the measure before the House Taxation Committee.
more at the Lawrence Journal World
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On Friday, Dec. 2, the UMKC Theatre Department opened an exhibit at the Box Gallery in the Commerce Bank building at 1000 Walnut St. The exhibit is called “Form Follows Function,” and its primary goal is to highlight the hard work the costume, lighting and scenic design graduate students contribute to UMKC performances behind the scenes.
more at the University News
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The Chiara String Quartet has a reputation for taking contemporary classical repertoire beyond conventional venues while maintaining the traditions of the genre.
more at kansascity.com
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This article is from the December 2011 issue of KC Stage
"I still get nervous before every rehearsal. I still get nervous before every performance. And I think that's important. You've got to keep that anticipation and excitement. And I look for not young people, but youth. I look for people who are still young at heart, if not actually young. I am, I think. And I think that's what keeps you going. Hopefully it'll keep you alive. I always say that theatre keeps you young and keeps you alive. That's what I do."
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Sarah Wilkerson has been studying ballet for the past 10 years, and she’s only 13. But that’s not so unusual for young people burning for a professional dancing career, as are Sarah and the dozens of other teenagers who came Sunday to audition at the Kansas City Ballet’s Todd Bolender Center for Dance & Creativity.
more at kansascity.com
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Kansas City music fans remembered singer Etta James, who died Friday at 73. The R&B icon, who was best known for the song, "At Last," won six Grammy awards over the course of her long career.
more at KMBC
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Come Enjoy the Arts of the Downtown area in Olathe.
Inside City Hall - 100 E Santa Fe
Universe: Front of City Hall - 100 E Santa Fe
Deer: NE corner of Santa Fe & Kansas
Evolution of Flight: Santa Fe - Between Kansas and Walnut
Conventional Apparatus: NE corner of Chestnut & Poplar
Conscious of Her Shores: NE corner of Park & Cherry
Slightly Off Center Again: Pedestrian walkway between Johnson County Municipal Building & City of Olathe Parking Garage. View a map of the exhibit pieces and other information online at http://www.olatheks.org/GIS/SculptureMap
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It’s not the J word. Last week, our friend Plastic Sax identified the reason Nnenna Freelon’s Folly Theater show failed to draw more than some 400 people. “To a large extent, the barrier was antipathy to the j-word,” he wrote.
more at kcjazzlark
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Geoffrey Nauffts’ play “Next Fall,” a hit both on and off Broadway in 2009-10, addresses issues of love, faith, death and loss — and, remarkably, does so with a sense of humor that cuts to the bone.
more at kansascity.com
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It’s the middle of January. There’s still a Christmas tree in the corner, and kids’ footsteps rattle the floors upstairs at the Kuhlman residence. “Daddy, we made a mess,” one of them yells on the edge of the stairwell. “OK,” an exasperated Les Kuhlman says. “Just stay upstairs. They’re filming down there.”
more at lawrence.com
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Visually arresting by way of incredible physicality, dynamic lighting and eclectic movement vocabulary, Parsons Dance is a proudly accessible modern dance company. Its debut performance Saturday night in the Muriel Kauffman Theatre of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts marked the company’s 11th appearance as part of the Harriman-Jewell Series.
more at kansascity.com
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According to Gustav Mahler, “the symphony is a world; it must contain everything.” Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “The Resurrection” is almost 90 minutes long, and it certainly contains a world of emotion.
more at kansascity.com
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Barn Players Barny Awards 2011
- Technical Achievement - Michael Ong (projections), "Marvin's Room" and Christi Fulton Reeder (choreography), "Sweet Charity"
- Supporting Actor - Josh Brady, "Marvin's Room"
- Supporting Actress - Julie Harris Shaw, "The Drowsy Chaperone"
- Actor - Eric Magnus, "The Drowsy Chaperone"
- Actress - Jennifer Coville, "Marvin's Room"
- Director - Barbara Evans Nichols, "The Drowsy Chaperone" and Shelly Stewart, "Frost / Nixon"
- Best Show - "The Drowsy Chaperone"
Congratulations to all the winners and nominees, and thank you to John Rensenhouse and the Barny judges, as well as, everyone who came out this evening to celebrate our wonderful 2011 season! 
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More than 300 young musicians comprise the five orchestras and perform more than 15 annual performances. The Youth Symphony of Kansas City has served as the orchestral music home to more than 8,000 young musicians throughout the span of its 50-plus year history.
more at Johnson County Lifestyles
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Last October, local filmmakers Jori Sackin and Pat Vamos screened Space Thang, a 40-minute mashing up of '70s sci-fi porn and original animation, at the Strand Theater, the old-school porn house on Troost. It was good times, although when I went outside to smoke pot before the movie started, I lost my seat and had to sit cross-legged on the floor in the aisle. Let me tell you, I was not crazy about my hands touching that carpet. Spent a good minute scrubbing my hands in the restroom afterward.
more at the Pitch
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Kansas City’s involvement in the global brainfest known as TED continues to expand.
more at kansascity.com
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Sometimes Vivica Genaux loves to sing with the precision and breakneck speed of an athlete — in “techno rhythm.” Other times, the tunes are achingly slow but still bursting with passion. The common thread of most of the songs she performs is that they come from obscure archives, silent for centuries.
more at kansascity.com
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When we are young, every single day appears to be bursting at the seams with potential for adventure. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” at The Kansas City Repertory Theatre ignites that desire to get a little messy and have a lot of fun.
more at the Vignette
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As the orchestra began the main title theme from “Star Wars,” it was obvious that this concert, the first of two weekend concerts, was unlike any yet in Helzberg Hall. The stage on Friday night was filled to near capacity with members of the Kansas City Symphony, including expanded brass and percussion sections, and singers from the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and Dance and Blue Valley North, Olathe North and Olathe Northwest high schools.
more at kansascity.com
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Kansas City will live long and prosper if it continues to support its vibrant arts community. The Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City borrowed that message Friday for its Star Trek-themed annual ArtsKC Awards luncheon, kicking off its 2012 ArtsKC Fund campaign. The effort aims to raise $420,000 in workplace contributions.
more at kansascity.com
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The Coterie Theatre and the UMKC Theatre Department have joined forces to produce a remarkably well-acted revival of "The Wrestling Season," a taut one-act play by Laurie Brooks about intense social pressures and sexual identity among a group of teens.
more at kansascity.com
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The world's most celebrated cellist, Yo-Yo Ma, recently performed with the Kansas City Symphony in their new home, Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Here is what he had to say about his experience in the new hall. 
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Meet the AJM Staff Video Series by Melaney Mitchell. Our IT Manager and Technical Director talks about what its like working at the American Jazz Museum and points out some helpful tips for those also interested in an technical audio career.
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Everyday miracles are often overlooked. Take, for instance, the ability to turn a mishmash group of men, ranging from high school age to 80 with no formal musical training, into a chorus of voices that spreads entertainment and happiness throughout the Kansas City area.
more at Johnson County Lifestyle
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When Denton Yockey, president and executive producer at Starlight Theatre, approached Jerry Jay Cranford about directing the Disney musical “Aladdin” at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, he thought he was making a simple, common-sense decision.
more at kansascity.com
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Following a season of perennial favorites and premieres in a brand new performance hall is not an easy feat. Yet the Kansas City Ballet’s artistic director, William Whitener, has programmed a season of performances for 2012-13 that aims to meet the high standards Kansas City dance fans have come to expect as the company settled into its new performance home, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, and its new headquarters, the Bolender Center.
more at kansascity.com
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It takes real guts and musicianship to pull off pieces like the ones we heard last night at Kansas City’s Kauffman Center!
more at Chamber Music Today
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"An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin" reunites two Tony Award-winning performers for the first time since they performed together in the original Broadway cast of "Evita."
more at KCUR
and more here
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Kudos to J. Kent Barnhart and Quality Hill Playhouse for creating a show that transported a seen-it-all theater critic to a different time and place.
more at kansascity.com
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The Film Commission of Greater Kansas City has created The Robert Altman Emerging Filmmakers Fund, which is a sustainable fund designed to help filmmakers get their short film productions off the ground. This new fund will leverage individual, institutional, charitable and corporate support to reach critical mass. All donations go the the Commission.
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In one corner, there is Slash — the heavy-metal rock icon and former lead guitarist for the band Guns N’ Roses. In the other corner, there is Iona, an 86-year-old rural Douglas County resident intent on keeping riffraff out of her neighborhood’s historic cemetery. It sure appears a clash is coming.
more at lawrence.com
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Richard Nixon, Mao, First Lady Pat Nixon, et. al. are travelling by semi truck to Kansas City, Missouri from Vancouver.
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"The Year of Magical Thinking" explores, in the words of its author, Joan Didion, explores "a place none of know until we reach it": grief.
more at the Topeka Capital Journal
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Anyone lucky enough to have a ticket can see one of the world's greatest cellists, Yo-Yo Ma, perform this weekend with the Kansas City Symphony.
Blue Springs high school sophomore Alyssa Aubuchon will get a much closer encounter on Saturday: she will have the chance to learn from him.
more at NBC Action News
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“There is an element of camaraderie that you can only get from a group of singing guys; we’re a brotherhood,” Amphion president Samuel Green said. “It’s nice to know that after we’re done singing, we’re just a bunch of dudes. We goof off, have inside jokes, and that makes our bond that much stronger.”
more at the University News
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Getting a little stir-crazy? It’s been a weird winter for weather here in Kansas City (three points for alliteration!) One day it’s so freezing cold you don’t even want to get out of bed, and the next it’s nice enough… more 
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"An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin" reunites two Tony Award-winning performers for the first time since they performed together in the original Broadway cast of "Evita."
more at KCUR
and more here
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Topic: "DEALING WITH TECHNOLOGY IN THE WORKPLACE"
Tuesday, February 14, 2012, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Wikipedia says "technology" is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. But many businesses find that technology often brings problems and it is left up to HR to solve them! The use of some technology has proven to be good for business, like Social Media, Working Remotely, HRCI, Video Streaming and Teleconferencing...and others. Some technology is also often troublesome, like Social Media, Working Remotely, HRCI, Video Streaming and Teleconferencing...and others!
Attend this meeting and discuss policies and procedures that will help your organization thrive with the help of (and in spite of) technology. As always if you have first-hand experience or information on this topic to share with the group, please plan to be there. See you soon!
What is the HR Roundtable?
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It offers a unique environment for human resources practitioners to interact with their peers on a monthly basis, discuss and share related best practices, emerging trends, and workplace issues.
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Meeting registration opens two weeks prior to the event date and ends the Friday before the meetng date. Cost is $11 per person for catered lunch or FREE for the "B.Y.O.Lunch" option. Complimentary Pepsi beverages always available.
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Payments for catered lunch are accepted online or at the door. Notify staff of B.Y.O.Lunch option via email or phone call. Cancelations must be received by 5 p.m. on the Friday prior to the event in order to avoid charges.
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Space is limited to 30 people. A waiting list will be maintained as needed and individuals will be contacted if space becomes available.
Mission Statement:
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The Olathe HR Roundtable offers human resource practitioners of member organizations a forum to discuss and share related best practices, emerging trends, and workplace issues. The main purpose of the roundtable is to create a unique environment where information can be shared in an open-exchange format that is collaborative, engaging, and valuable to represented organizations and the HR profession.
Who is it designed for?
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The HR Roundtable was created as a networking and problem-solving opportunity for human resource practitioners who are directly involved in the personnel and hiring process of their organization (i.e. HR managers, recruiters, payroll administrators, etc.).
Can vendors attend?
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Due to limited space and because of the nature of the topics that are openly discussed by the HR practitioners, some attendance restrictions do apply. Thus it is crucial to the group’s success that attendance is restricted to vendors that provide uniquely human resources services and/or products.
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Up to five seats will be reserved for vendors representing a relevant product or service may attend each meeting, with only one representative per business or organization each month.
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Vendors are sometimes the “solutions experts” to the questions and concerns that the HR practitioners have; therefore vendor input is welcome while “sales messages” are not.
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In determining the appropriateness of the various vendors in attendance, Chamber staff will consider the relevance to the hiring and employment situations that the HR practitioners face in their day-to-day jobs or to the topic of the month (i.e. vendors who deal with payroll services, pre-employment testing, staffing assistance, training, benefits, etc.).
Can non-members of the Olathe Chamber attend?
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One representative of a non-member organization is welcome to attend one meeting a year.
Can vendors make presentations to the HR practitioners that attend?
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Presentations are at the sole discretion of the Olathe Chamber of Commerce. Please consider the sponsorship opportunity described below.
The “Quarterly Lunch Sponsorship” program is an exclusive opportunity for vendors to promote their products and services. Please contact Chamber staff for details. It is offered to Olathe Chamber members in order to best serve its membership while continuing to discourage “sales messages” from meeting discussions:
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Vendors are offered an opportunity to provide printed materials and promotional items on a designated table and to be available afterwards to answer questions. Chamber staff will oversee the quantity and duration of displayed items and the length of the meeting.
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On occasion, the Chamber might invite various “experts” to address the group as deemed necessary and helpful to the overall group and topic of discussion. This is not a sales opportunity and may not qualify for the HR Roundtable Lunch Sponsorship program.
Discussion is facilitated by Susan Wallace, Olathe Chamber, Personnel & Projects Manager
To RSVP w/o online pre-payment, you may submit the form below and indicate "RSVP," your name, email, and lunch choice: (1) $11 Catered lunch option but pay at the door, or (2) Free B.Y.O.Lunch option. We will respond to submitted questions at our earliest convenience, or you may call the Olathe Chamber (913) 764-1050.
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Topic: "TECHNOLOGY IN THE WORKPLACE: Policies & Discipline Issues"
Tuesday, February 14, 2012, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Wikipedia says "technology" is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques. . . in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. But many businesses know that technology often brings problems and it is left up to HR to solve them! The use of some technology has proven to be good for business, like Social Media, Working Remotely, HRCI, Video Streaming and Teleconferencing...and others. While the use of some of these same technologies is also often proven to be troublesome!
Attend the February meeting and discuss policies, procedures, and discipline issues that will help your organization thrive with technology. As always if you have first-hand experience or information to share on this topic, please plan to be there. See you soon!
What is the HR Roundtable?
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It offers a unique environment for human resources practitioners to interact with their peers on a monthly basis, discuss and share related best practices, emerging trends, and workplace issues.
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Meeting registration opens two weeks prior to the event date and ends the Friday before the meetng date. Cost is $11 per person for catered lunch or FREE for the "B.Y.O.Lunch" option. Complimentary Pepsi beverages always available.
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Payments for catered lunch are accepted online or at the door. Notify staff of B.Y.O.Lunch option via email or phone call. Cancelations must be received by 5 p.m. on the Friday prior to the event in order to avoid charges.
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Space is limited to 30 people. A waiting list will be maintained as needed and individuals will be contacted if space becomes available.
Mission Statement:
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The Olathe HR Roundtable offers human resource practitioners of member organizations a forum to discuss and share related best practices, emerging trends, and workplace issues. The main purpose of the roundtable is to create a unique environment where information can be shared in an open-exchange format that is collaborative, engaging, and valuable to represented organizations and the HR profession.
Who is it designed for?
-
The HR Roundtable was created as a networking and problem-solving opportunity for human resource practitioners who are directly involved in the personnel and hiring process of their organization (i.e. HR managers, recruiters, payroll administrators, etc.).
Can vendors attend?
-
Due to limited space and because of the nature of the topics that are openly discussed by the HR practitioners, some attendance restrictions do apply. Thus it is crucial to the group’s success that attendance is restricted to vendors that provide uniquely human resources services and/or products.
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Up to five seats will be reserved for vendors representing a relevant product or service may attend each meeting, with only one representative per business or organization each month.
-
Vendors are sometimes the “solutions experts” to the questions and concerns that the HR practitioners have; therefore vendor input is welcome while “sales messages” are not.
-
In determining the appropriateness of the various vendors in attendance, Chamber staff will consider the relevance to the hiring and employment situations that the HR practitioners face in their day-to-day jobs or to the topic of the month (i.e. vendors who deal with payroll services, pre-employment testing, staffing assistance, training, benefits, etc.).
Can non-members of the Olathe Chamber attend?
-
One representative of a non-member organization is welcome to attend one meeting a year.
Can vendors make presentations to the HR practitioners that attend?
-
Presentations are at the sole discretion of the Olathe Chamber of Commerce. Please consider the sponsorship opportunity described below.
The “Quarterly Lunch Sponsorship” program is an exclusive opportunity for vendors to promote their products and services. Please contact Chamber staff for details. It is offered to Olathe Chamber members in order to best serve its membership while continuing to discourage “sales messages” from meeting discussions:
-
Vendors are offered an opportunity to provide printed materials and promotional items on a designated table and to be available afterwards to answer questions. Chamber staff will oversee the quantity and duration of displayed items and the length of the meeting.
-
On occasion, the Chamber might invite various “experts” to address the group as deemed necessary and helpful to the overall group and topic of discussion. This is not a sales opportunity and may not qualify for the HR Roundtable Lunch Sponsorship program.
Discussion is facilitated by Susan Wallace, Olathe Chamber, Personnel & Projects Manager
To RSVP w/o online pre-payment, you may submit the form below and indicate "RSVP," your name, email, and lunch choice: (1) $11 Catered lunch option but pay at the door, or (2) Free B.Y.O.Lunch option. We will respond to submitted questions at our earliest convenience, or you may call the Olathe Chamber (913) 764-1050.
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Topic: "TECHNOLOGY IN THE WORKPLACE: Policies & Discipline Issues"
Tuesday, February 14, 2012, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Wikipedia says "technology" is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques. . . in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. But many businesses know that technology often brings problems and it is left up to HR to solve them! The use of some technology has proven to be good for business, like Social Media, Working Remotely, HRCI, Video Streaming and Teleconferencing...and others. While the use of some of these same technologies is also often proven to be troublesome!
Attend the February meeting and discuss policies, procedures, and discipline issues that will help your organization thrive with technology. As always if you have first-hand experience or information to share on this topic, please plan to be there. See you soon!
What is the HR Roundtable?
-
It offers a unique environment for human resources practitioners to interact with their peers on a monthly basis, discuss and share related best practices, emerging trends, and workplace issues.
-
Meeting registration opens two weeks prior to the event date and ends the Friday before the meetng date. Cost is $11 per person for catered lunch or FREE for the "B.Y.O.Lunch" option. Complimentary Pepsi beverages always available.
-
Payments for catered lunch are accepted online or at the door. Notify staff of B.Y.O.Lunch option via email or phone call. Cancelations must be received by 5 p.m. on the Friday prior to the event in order to avoid charges.
-
Space is limited to 30 people. A waiting list will be maintained as needed and individuals will be contacted if space becomes available.
Mission Statement:
-
The Olathe HR Roundtable offers human resource practitioners of member organizations a forum to discuss and share related best practices, emerging trends, and workplace issues. The main purpose of the roundtable is to create a unique environment where information can be shared in an open-exchange format that is collaborative, engaging, and valuable to represented organizations and the HR profession.
Who is it designed for?
-
The HR Roundtable was created as a networking and problem-solving opportunity for human resource practitioners who are directly involved in the personnel and hiring process of their organization (i.e. HR managers, recruiters, payroll administrators, etc.).
Can vendors attend?
-
Due to limited space and because of the nature of the topics that are openly discussed by the HR practitioners, some attendance restrictions do apply. Thus it is crucial to the group’s success that attendance is restricted to vendors that provide uniquely human resources services and/or products.
-
Up to five seats will be reserved for vendors representing a relevant product or service may attend each meeting, with only one representative per business or organization each month.
-
Vendors are sometimes the “solutions experts” to the questions and concerns that the HR practitioners have; therefore vendor input is welcome while “sales messages” are not.
-
In determining the appropriateness of the various vendors in attendance, Chamber staff will consider the relevance to the hiring and employment situations that the HR practitioners face in their day-to-day jobs or to the topic of the month (i.e. vendors who deal with payroll services, pre-employment testing, staffing assistance, training, benefits, etc.).
Can non-members of the Olathe Chamber attend?
-
One representative of a non-member organization is welcome to attend one meeting a year.
Can vendors make presentations to the HR practitioners that attend?
-
Presentations are at the sole discretion of the Olathe Chamber of Commerce. Please consider the sponsorship opportunity described below.
The “Quarterly Lunch Sponsorship” program is an exclusive opportunity for vendors to promote their products and services. Please contact Chamber staff for details. It is offered to Olathe Chamber members in order to best serve its membership while continuing to discourage “sales messages” from meeting discussions:
-
Vendors are offered an opportunity to provide printed materials and promotional items on a designated table and to be available afterwards to answer questions. Chamber staff will oversee the quantity and duration of displayed items and the length of the meeting.
-
On occasion, the Chamber might invite various “experts” to address the group as deemed necessary and helpful to the overall group and topic of discussion. This is not a sales opportunity and may not qualify for the HR Roundtable Lunch Sponsorship program.
Discussion is facilitated by Susan Wallace, Olathe Chamber, Personnel & Projects Manager
To RSVP w/o online pre-payment, you may submit the form below and indicate "RSVP," your name, email, and lunch choice: (1) $11 Catered lunch option but pay at the door, or (2) Free B.Y.O.Lunch option. We will respond to submitted questions at our earliest convenience, or you may call the Olathe Chamber (913) 764-1050.
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Violinist Guy Braunstein joined the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jeffrey Tate in their Kansas City debuts Wednesday night at Helzberg Hall in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The concert was part of this season’s Harriman-Jewell Series.
more at kansascity.com
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The Kansas City Repertory Theatre, in collaboration with three other regional theaters, gives us an inventive, high-spirited and somewhat endearing stage version of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.”
more at kansascity.com
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A cliché may be a worn-out truth but it’s a truth nonetheless, and one well-known truth came forth boldly Tuesday night inside the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts: Music is a language the whole world speaks.
more at kansascity.com
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Geoffrey Nauffts wants to sucker punch you. At the moment, the playwright is keeping an eye on regional productions of his “Next Fall,” a 2010 hit on and off-Broadway, especially those in theaters down south. The reason, Nauffts said in an interview from Los Angeles, is that his dramedy, which opens this week at the Unicorn Theatre, is a play about a gay relationship unlike others theatergoers have encountered.
more at kansascity.com
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“The idea of a Downtown Campus for the Arts has really captured the public imagination,” said Anne Hartung Spenner, Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications.
more at the University News
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Held on Thursdays at 9 a.m. at different Chamber member businesses, our coffees are the largest weekly networking event in the Kansas City area. Expect to meet 150 to 250 people each time! Please note our inclement weather policy states that if the Olathe School District is Closed the Coffee that day will be cancelled.
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 The Nightcap with Arty Vulgaris at the Fishtank Fishtank Performance Studio shot LIVE each month in Kansas City, Missouri. The theatrical team of Damian Blake and Annie Cherry present a new live talk show at the Fishtank Performance Studio at 10pm the second Friday of each month. The show features interviews with local performers, and occasional historical and/or fictitious characters. Arty Vulgaris asks the hard hitting, the intimate, and the awkward questions. The show also features notable musical guests. The lineup for the debut show includes Annie Cherry, actor Katie Gilchrist, comic Martin Plant, music by The Vi Tran Band, and burlesque by Violet Vendetta. The program will be webcast the week of the performance. Damian Blake and Annie Cherry are a performing duo, specializing in vaudeville style entertainment, though their talents defy confinement to just one genre. They sing, dance, act, pantomime... They are as comfortable and engaging performing in a fancy-schmancy theater as they are on a rural sidewalk. With performances ranging from family friendly clowning to bawdy material they will charm the pants right off of you (usually figuratively speaking). Always searching for new creative outlets, these two are guaranteed to captivate, titillate, and twitterpate. The two perform as well as writing and producing their own material.
more at Blip
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Heartland Habitat JOCO ReStore is celebrating their 1st Anniversary with special in-store offers, food, and other surprises.
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So many rumors, so few facts.... With Kansas City's top jazz club stuck in limbo, it's time again to saddle up and see where - if anywhere - things have progressed. As the world turns.
more at KC Confidential
and more here
and at Tony's Kansas City
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It is often said that waiting is the hardest part. The stress involved in anticipating confirmation or failure is almost enough to kill those stuck in the waiting limbo. This culture behind waiting, specifically in a women's health clinic, was expressed this past weekend in the one-act choreoplay "Tick Tock" written by Marcia Cebulska, with shows at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library and the YWCA.
more at the Washburn Review
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J.S. Bach’s music can really get a grip on people. They plan lifetime careers around it, or celebrate his birthday by getting married, or send it into outer space so that little green men might someday see how smart we are. Albert Schweitzer called Bach the “fifth evangelist.”
more at kansascity.com
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Every object at the taping of America's Lost Treasures told a story. It has been more than an hour since a train left Union Station, but a crowd remains. About 100 people are gathered in front of the Kansas City Power & Light gallery. They give off the disjointed thrum of folks waiting for a train that has been too long coming.
more at the Pitch
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Final Fridays may just be the beginning. Organizers of the year-and-a-half-old monthly arts event in downtown Lawrence are now envisioning a new full-time city position that would promote the arts and work to bring “creative industries” to the city.
more at the Lawrence Journal World
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This article is from the December 2011 issue of KC Stage
On August 13, the National Airline History Museum threw a Rock Around the Props 50’s style sock hop as a fundraiser. At the event, participants received dance lessons, watched a Constellation class airplane rev up, danced to the Benders, participated in a costume contest, and were treated to a display of classic cars. So what does this have to do with the performing arts in Kansas City?
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Good things come to those who wait. After years of study and performance in China, Conservatory of Music and Dance student Wei Shen received a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity last Saturday: a live performance with world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts’ Helzberg Hall.
more at the University News
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Kansas City Video dude Shawn Porter concludes a really great series of clips in his recent documentary . . .
more at Tony's Kansas City
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I wrote a piece for The Kansas City Star that examines Nicholas Payton's Black American Music proposal. The challenging subject makes a lot of people uncomfortable. And while the argument isn't new, it's more relevant than ever. Allow me to set aside the political and sociological aspects of Payton's concept in order to demonstrate one reason this topic matters.
more at Plastic Sax
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Recently, Kim Jong-il—the Dear Leader—passed into blessed oblivion. Subsequently, two important matters struck me: that both totalitarianism and theocracy are still, alas, alive and well. (And George Orwell found no distinction between the two). This presumed modern world simply accepts these malignancies on the stage.
more at Pop Matters
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You don’t always need a cute cat or a quick laugh to become a YouTube sensation. Just ask Sharon Wright. The Grandview native has reached almost 1.5 million hits for her short film. Not bad for a 10-minute drama about change for a dollar.
more at Ink
Read more here: http://inkkc.com/content/grandviews-sharon-wright-filmmaker-model-and-actress/#storylink=cpy
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A pdf of the 2012 Spring issue of UMKC Theatre Training News is now available online.
more at UMatters
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Throughout its history, the Harriman-Jewell Series’ Discovery Concert Series has sought to promote the careers of emerging artists while providing high-quality, free-of-charge concerts for the Kansas City community. It was therefore an unconventional move to select a relatively established figure such as Freddy Kempf for the Series’ Discovery concert on January 20th. Few in the audience were complaining: Kempf brings an old-world gentility to the piano, as well as a mellow, mahogany tone and a refined sense of voice leading. Although the entire program did much to showcase his signature style, the second half proved particularly satisfying.
more at the Independent
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Yo-Yo Ma’s beautiful sarabande-as-encore: dark; warm; transparent. Cello emulates the human voice; proposes spiritual communion between people. Communes with them—as close as a single body; reaches out and touches with sound. Generously melds with the strangers; friends them; speaks as if you and they had known each other for a long time—like kin, like lovers.
more at Chamber Music Today
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Kerwin Young, a student of music composition at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, has undergone extraordinary opportunities and experiences working in the music industry. Young has composed and produced music for such varied mediums as motion pictures, television documentaries, singing artists, symphony orchestras, wind band, jazz big-band and chamber ensembles.
more at the University News
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For those who follow KCKidsFun on Facebook, you may have noticed a post I made there late last week about my nine-year-old daughter’s birthday. We made a last minute change of birthday party plans, taking a group to see… more 
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Boasting two fine national headliners and a significant portion of the region’s most respected musicians, the Jazz Winterlude festival offered jazz lovers a splendid opportunity to hear many of their favorite artists perform.
Aside from spotty attendance, the three-day event at Johnson County Community College was irreproachable.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/22/3385533/concert-review-jazz-winterlude.html#storylink=cpy
more at kansascity.com
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/22/3385533/concert-review-jazz-winterlude.html#storylink=cpy
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Six-Bucks-A-Sack Sale - Sunday only. Purchase a plastic sack at the door for $6 and fill with materials. Buy two bags, get two free. Cash or check accepted and all sales are final. Due to space limitations, no strollers or book carts allowed in the room. Sale will close early if sold out or material selection is low.
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Six-Bucks-A-Sack Sale - Sunday only. Purchase a plastic sack at the door for $6 and fill with materials. Buy two bags, get two free. Cash or check accepted and all sales are final. Due to space limitations, no strollers or book carts allowed in the room. Sale will close early if sold out or material selection is low.
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Mystery and true crime lovers - don't miss this huge selection at the sale sponsored by the Friends of the Olathe Public Library. Other genres include fiction, romance, classics, poetry/arts, children's/teen, DVDs, music CDs, Books on CD, inspiration and much more. Cash or check accepted and all sales are final. Due to space limitations, no strollers or book carts allowed in the room.
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Mystery and true crime lovers - don't miss this huge selection at the sale sponsored by the Friends of the Olathe Public Library. Other genres include fiction, romance, classics, poetry/arts, children's/teen, DVDs, music CDs, Books on CD, inspiration and much more. Cash or check accepted and all sales are final. Due to space limitations, no strollers or book carts allowed in the room.
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If you are planning to attend Wednesday night’s production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s "South Pacific," 7:30 p.m. at the Lied Center, you might want to get to the theater early enough to participate in a discussion of the show by Kansas University professor of musicology and Broadway historian Paul Laird. Laird will lead a pre-performance discussion of the significance of Rodgers and Hammerstein, and a history of the creation of "South Pacific."
more at lawrence.com
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Although critics of the Topeka Performing Arts Center carp about the infrequency of concerts there, the building's 2,544-seat Georgia Neese Gray Performance Hall will by Monday afternoon have experienced the equivalent of six full houses this month.
more at the Topeka Capital Journal
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Richard Harriman, the founder of the Harriman-Jewell series, was loved and respected by the artists he brought to Kansas City for his namesake series.For example, David Parsons, who was raised in Kansas City and whose dance company Harriman tapped many times for his series, last year choreographed a work in Harriman’s honor.
more at kansascity.com
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Who would have thunk it? That a packed house at the opening night show of Broadway stars Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin would devolve into a KU Schmaltz Fest. That's right, schmaltz fest.
more at KC Confidential
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In this video, the Kansas City Symphony perform Brahms' "Academic Festival Overture" with Music Director Michael Stern. 
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A short documentary which tells the story of Missouri River Relief, a non-profit organization aimed at connecting communities to the Missouri River through river clean up events. Featuring River Relief Program Director Vicki Richmond, "Big Muddy" depicts what a river clean up is really about.
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Ready for some more Mark Twain? Just as the Kansas City Ballet’s premiere of “Tom Sawyer: A Ballet in Three Acts” in October has begun to recede from memory, here comes Kansas City Repertory Theatre with its own take on the classic novel about boyhood adventures on the Missouri side of the Mississippi River.
more at kansascity.com
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The Kansas City Symphony has announced its second-season programs in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, aiming to build on the momentum and artistic achievements that led to the current season’s record subscription sales and generally sold-out concerts.
more at kansascity.com
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Every show has its fans, but how many productions are attended by the same theatergoer at every single performance? The answer is none — unless you happen to be talking about “Game Show.”
more at kansascity.com
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Simone Dinnerstein was on tour last fall when an idea struck. What if … ? On her mind was her son’s grade school in Brooklyn, where the rising-star pianist already had introduced a series of community concerts featuring musician friends. In October, for example, she presented Zuill Bailey, who played selections from Bach’s unaccompanied cello suites.
more at kansascity.com
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The Quartet has been all performing all over the world recently, but Johnson County Community College caught up with Chris Brubeck during the holidays and he graciously took some time to tell them exactly what's been going on with him and his brother Dan Brubeck and their quartet. Here's what Chris had to say in his own words.
more at Up to Date
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Renowned pianist Freddy Kempf on Friday delivered a dazzling display of technical and interpretive skill in a Folly Theater recital. Kempf’s abilities as a dynamic performer and emotionally sensitive musician were brilliantly exhibited for his Kansas City debut as part of the Harriman-Jewell Series Discovery Concerts. Kempf played some of the most difficult solo piano pieces in the repertoire.
more at kansascity.com
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Musical Theater Heritage of Kansas City has announced its new shows for the upcoming 2012 season at Crown Center full of traditional favorites. This season will feature MTH's traditional "Musical Mondays," impromptu evenings of musical theater hosted by Tim Scott, featuring KC's finest actors and singers. Both the performers and songs are a surprise, which makes this evening a unique experience.
more at Broadway World
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When Yo-Yo Ma comes to town, it’s not just a concert — it’s an event. Palpable excitement permeated the Kauffman Center Friday night as the world renowned cellist appeared at Helzberg Hall with the Kansas City Symphony under the baton of his longtime friend and colleague Michael Stern.
more at kansascity.com
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There are still two showings left for Bye, Bye Birdie, SM East’s 2012 musical. A matinee starts today at 2 p.m. with an evening showing at 7 p.m. The crowd was loving last night’s performance in the Dan Zollars Auditorium at SM East.
more at the Prairie Village Post
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For more than forty years, Ladysmith Black Mambazo has married the intricate rhythms and harmonies of the native South African musical traditions. The ten member vocal ensemble has recorded forty albums and sold more than six million records.
more at Up to Date
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Spotlight on the Arts: Quality Hill Playhouse. Randy Mason takes you downtown to learn more about the Quality Hill Playhouse.
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If you’re a Bach aficionado, you'll want to head to the Folly Theater this coming Tuesday, where you'll hear the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra perform the complete Brandenburg Concertos. This performance is part of the 2012 Bach Festival.
more at the Pitch
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A lifelong musician, Lisbeth Kay Yasuda was as dedicated to teaching young music-lovers as she was to perfecting her own weekly performances for Sunday services at First Baptist Church in Columbia.
more at the Missourian
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Fifty miles east of Kansas City, here’s how a number of small-town folks experience movie night: They walk from their homes to a downtown restaurant, and after supper they stroll down Main Street to the Davis Theatre. It’s a beauty, once a livery building, resplendent from a movie palace transformation circa 1934 and careful restorations.
more at kansascity.com
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Most music fans in the United States were introduced to Ladysmith Black Mambazo in 1986. That’s the year Paul Simon released “Graceland,” which fused Western music with traditional South African music and showcased several black South African musicians and artists, including Ladysmith, a male choral group.
more at kansascity.com
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Showing at Kansas City's American Heartland Theatre until February 19, 2012. A world premiere. Four middle-aged buddies reunite for a "guy's weekend," complete with old music, cheap beer and enough cholesterol to stop Superman's heart. It's all going well until one of guys doesn't show up...but his wife does. Snowed in overnight, an epic struggle ensues: Will man be judged the superior sex or will woman prevail? Starring Kansas City favorites Cathy Barnett, Scott Cordes, Martin English and playwright Sean Grennan. 816-842-9999 or http://www.ahtkc.com. 
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Who’s on first? The WTCT Players recreating Abbot and Costello’s best-known comedy routine. The WTCT Players, Topeka Civic Theatre & Academy’s resident radio theater troupe of AARP card-carrying actors, will perform an April 17, 1947, episode of “The Abbott and Costello Show,” as well as two other scripts from radio’s golden age, at 8 p.m. Friday in the Oldfather Theatre of TCT, 3028 S.W. 8th.
more at the Topeka Capital Journal
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This week’s top jazz event is, without doubt, the Jazz Winterlude at Johnson County Community College — a weekend of solid, varied jazz programming featuring two wonderful headliners: the Brubeck Brothers Quartet on Friday and Poncho Sanchez on Saturday.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/18/3376008/jazz-town-jccc-warms-winters-heart.html#storylink=cpy
more at kansascity.com
and at kcjazzlark
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A psychologically powerful video depicting strangers facing an unexpected disaster opens at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art on Jan. 21.
more at the Vignette
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A nice clip gives us a good look at Kansas City's Hipster and Condo Central: Traversing the Crossroads.
more at Tony's Kansas City
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His office told NBC Action News that Brownback won't mention arts funding Wednesday night, but a "new approach" to the arts commission will be in the budget that is presented to lawmakers Thursday morning.
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 SEA LIFE Kansas City Aqaurium will have some help from KC area kids as they start to fill their Ocean Tank with water from the Missouri River and the Crown Center fountains on Tuesday, January 24th, 2012. The kids… more
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Tango night at Birdie's B Stage, Kansas City. Christine Brebes, violin, with Beau Bledsoe, guitars.
Lovely Brazilian ballad, one of my favorite Duo Lorca tunes. Composer: Egberto Gismonti. Intimate recital at an intimate shop, Birdie's, Kansas City.
Sorry for the shaky camera work on this one. Christine Brebes, violin, Beau Bledsoe on a Spanish barocca, or baroque guitar. 
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When the members of Philharmonia Columbia take the stage for their premiere performance as an ensemble Saturday night, they will participate both in ushering in an era and underscoring the beauty of lessons learned in eras past.
more at the Columbia Daily Tribune
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Standing at the apex of Broadway Boulevard, in the heart of downtown Kansas City, a visitor from Toronto can't help thinking back to the unveiling in June 1989 of a model for the corner of Bay and Wellesley Sts.
more at toronto.com
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The name says it all -- Yo-Yo Ma, the world's most celebrated cellist and a dynamic international ambassador of music. Any performance, any note played by Yo-Yo Ma becomes a musical event and his debut in Helzberg Hall will be one of Kansas City's most memorable musical occasions. In this video, Music Director Michael Stern talks about the weeekend's program and the excitement of our honored guest. 
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The Kansas City Academy is about to become a regular live-music venue, thanks to some well-known members of its faculty and staff.
more at kansascity.com
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Marion Stoddart was given the derogatory nickname of the “Queen of Nashua” by people who thought she was crazy, Susan Edwards said. As the producer and director of the film, “The Work of 1000”, Edwards chronicles Stoddart’s life and her activism to restore the Nashua River in Massachusetts.
more at the Missourian
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State Rep. Kay Wolf of Prairie Village was one of 40 Republicans to sponsor a bill introduced on the House floor that would allow taxpayers to donate money to the arts.
more at the Prairie Village Post
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The Great Mall has a new candy store where you can purchase candy by the bin, box or bag! Stop by early on Wednesday or Thursday for their soft opening.
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It wasn’t really a straight concert. It wasn’t exactly a stroll down memory lane. And it was something more than a Broadway greatest-hits revue.
And although all of those ingredients are found in “An Evening With Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin,” the show more than anything is LuPone and Patinkin doing their own thing, which met with unbridled approval on opening night Tuesday at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
more at kansascity.com
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Entering the American Heartland Theatre lobby is a little like clubbing. Music plays, people line up for drinks from the full-service bar. By the time you're halfway up the escalator from the ticket window, you're ready for a party.
more at the Pitch
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The actors file into the rehearsal room in two's and four's. Some smile at each other. Others glance around cautiously. They wear identical costumes of beige trousers and vests over white T-shirts. Some wear subtle makeup. The director of the ensemble, a small woman with round glasses and a firm handshake, greets them, then pulls a roll of blue carpenter’s tape from her bag and passes it around. The women tear off little pieces and stick them to the floor to mark the perimeter of a stage. Together they transform the visiting room of the Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center into a theater.
more at the Missourian
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Clint Griffey was an actor with a seemingly inexhaustible reserve of energy. He was something to watch when he immersed himself in a farcical musical parody, which he did often through the years at the Martin City Melodrama and Vaudeville Company.
more at kansascity.com
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This article is from the December 2011 issue of KC Stage
To capture a journalist’s attention and answer her questions, a repository of press releases plus some bios and head shots (which comprises the entirety of most nonprofit press rooms), just isn’t enough. How to ensure you’re providing the timely, meaty information and insight journalists crave, enough to engage and motivate a call or email for a conversation? Every media pro worth her paycheck knows a great online media room means the difference between multiple column inches and a mere mention, if that.
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A new pipe organ was delivered this week to Hope Lutheran Church on Quivira Road. It arrived in nearly 2,000 pieces.
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The performers from The Kansas City Society Of Burlesque have filthy mouths and that makes their latest video that much more captivating to watch: *** the KCSOB Says.
more at Tony's Kansas City
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Nnenna Freelon's hands rarely stopped moving during her commanding performance Saturday at the Folly Theater. As she embellished her singing with fluid motions, Freelon occasionally made the gesture commonly known as "jazz hands." Even when executed by a vocalist as celebrated as Freelon, fully extended fingers on either side of an entertainer's face remains one of the most cringeworthy cliches associated with jazz.
more at kansascity.com
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It’s hard to tell when you are living in a golden age. Woody Allen made that point in his recent movie “Midnight in Paris,” where even some of the great writers and artists in Paris of the 1920s longed for other places and times. Check your watch, Kansas City. This is our finest hour. This is our golden age, here and now.
more at Downtown Campus for the Arts
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On two cold nights in December and January, Charlotte Street Foundation will host Winter Music presented by The Secret Commonwealth of E.F.&F.
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Beer For Breakfast, a world premier play by Sean Grennan is a charming comedy seemingly tailor-made for The American Heartland Theater at Crown Center in Kansas City. A small but well appointed cabin in the woods is the setting where four high school friends are getting together for a much needed “man’s weekend.”
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The Lambda Epsilon City-Wide Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. and The African American Student Union (TAASU) hosted “The Takeover Greek Step Show: Part II” Saturday, Jan 14.
more at the University News
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No one would blame Ravi Coltrane for getting by on his family name — his father, John, was one of the lions of jazz, and his mother, Alice, was a luminous keyboardist, harpist and composer. Yet the younger Coltrane clearly has embraced the call to be his own man, an exhortation that was not found in his parents’ words so much as it sounded through their actions and life’s work.
more at the Columbia Daily Tribune
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Gov. Sam Brownback proposed Thursday to resume state funding for arts programs, and a critic of his administration said the plan is “an important first step” toward resolving a political dispute that has brought Kansas national attention.
more at kansascity.com
and at KCUR
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The River’s Edge Theater’s beautiful under-the-radar venue in the River Market district downtown was the perfect setting for She&Her’s new monthly production, “Come to the Cabaret.”
more at the University News
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It's a stellar week for musicals around here. Not only do we have Patty LuPone and Mandy Patinkin performing selections from Evita, Follies, and South Pacific, (among many others) at the Kauffman Center starting on Tuesday, we've got South Pacific in its entirety at the Lied Center on Wednesday, January 18. The classic Rodgers and Hammerstein production is preceded by a discussion from University of Kansas Professor of Musicology Paul Laird. Since we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday this week, and part of Laird's discussion deals with "the social and racial issues addressed in the musical," we figured we'd ask the professor some questions about the politics and lasting legacy of South Pacific.
more at the Pitch
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This episode is a counter to Episode 7 (where we had Angie’s husband Rich Sutton with us), where we are joined by Jen’s husband, Chuck Smith, who talks about his life as a visual artist and musician.
more at Stage Savvy
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The solo electroacoustic clarinet performance by Cheryl Melfi last night in CharlotteStreet.org’s City Center Square location was excellent. Apart from the beauty of the works, the program illuminated a number of aspects of electroacoustic performance practice—things that are more apparent when it is soloist-plus-electronics, as contrasted with larger-ensemble-plus-electronics.
more at Chamber Music Today
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Certainly, Yo-Yo Ma’s credentials rank with the best of the best in the classical world. Born in 1955, as a child he performed for Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. When he was 9, he was already studying at Juilliard. He eventually graduated from Harvard. Ma has won the Avery Fischer Prize, multiple Grammy Awards and, most recently, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
more at kansascity.com
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The 'Ye/Jay show in November really challenged my listening threshold for the Watch the Throne jam "Niggas in Paris." But here's a fresh local take on the song, courtesy of trumpeter Hermon Mehari, Brad Williams and Ben Leifer. It's note-for-note, and they pretend to be in France, even though they're obviously at Broadway Cafe and the tennis courts at Loose Park. It's charming. Watch.
more at the Pitch
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Dance professional and Topeka native Ellie Goudie-Averill had the rare treat this weekend of returning to her hometown to perform in the premiere of “Tick Tock,” a one-act play for which she also served as choreographer.
more at the Topeka Capital Journal
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We all have personal tastes in music. I usually stop by NPR Music and “Insound” once a week to see what’s new. Insound.com curates my musical head. I like NPR’s 24-hour radio player to stream. My favorite classical station is WQXR in New York...they have a cool station called Q2 which features contemporary compositions. We all have our favorites...
more at Crossroads Currents
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Heartland Men's Chorus sings "We Shall Overcome" in the 2008 concert, "And Justice for All." For more information about HMC, visit http://www.hmckc.org
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The Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre’s impressive production of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull” is remarkable in several ways, but most remarkable of all is how contemporary this 1895 play feels.
more at kansascity.com
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The Kansas City Symphony returned to the Kauffman Center Friday night, led by musical “switch-hitter” Jeffrey Kahane, who served in the double role of piano soloist and conductor. The program featured works known for their great lyric beauty.
more at kansascity.com
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Patti LuPone thinks back to the early days of her friendship with Mandy Patinkin and describes it this way: “Mandy became my rock.”
more at kansascity.com
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Not a single note was played in the creation of the most consequential jazz-related story of last year. A furious torrent of incendiary blog posts and tweets by musician Nicholas Payton is forcing musicians and fans to reassess their relationship with the music. Among other things, Payton insists that the word jazz is racist and that deeply embedded societal oppression of black Americans necessitates a reclassification of the music.
more at kansascity.com
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The Lyceum Theatre in Arrow Rock, MO has announced that its new season will include the following shows: Sister Amnesia's Country Western Jamboree, (May 31 - June 9), The Music Man (June 16 - June 27), Camelot (July 5 - July 15), Boeing Boeing (July 21 - July 28), Agatha Christie's The Unexpected Guest (August 4 - August 11), Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (August 22 - August 31), To Kill A Mockingbird (September 8 - September 15), Sanders Family Christmas More Smoke On The Mountain (November 10 - November 18).
more at Broadway World
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Clint Griffey, a popular actor who had performed almost exclusively for the Martin City Melodrama and Vaudeville Company, has died. Jeanne Beechwood, artistic director of the company, said Griffey died Jan. 7 at the University of Kansas Hospital from liver and kidney failure. He was 36.
more at kansascity.com
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This isn't the first report on the death of former Channel 41 late night personality Uncle Ed Muscare... However, in the interest of adding a bit of corrective information along with some news and views to the mix of mostly blogger driven reporting and commentary, let's take another look. The New York native died in a Florida prison Sunday at the age of 79.
more at KC Confidential
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The Lyric Theater represents another opportunity for Kansas City to show that downtown development can be sustainable. If the FAA deal or some other reuse for the former Lyric Opera building isn't found, the city will just be repeating the mistakes of the Sprint Center and Kemper Arena.
more at the Pitch
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Director Linda Ade Brand had some important instructions for her young opera cast the other day. First, she told the members of the chorus that she wanted them to be something more than an anonymous mass in the background. They needed to react as individuals to events onstage, to think like actors. Her next command: Stop dancing and horsing around.
more at kansascity.com
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The Kansas City Council on Thursday passed a request for tax increment financing for a $27 million redevelopment of the Lyric Theatre as a federal training facility.
more at the Kansas City Business Journal
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Lee’s Summit resident Clarence Smith is the consummate music man. In addition to being the Coordinator of the Music Department and teacher at Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley, he’s also an accomplished musician and music director who has worked with high-profile local and national musicians.
more at the Lee's Summit Lifestyle
[Thanks, Plastic Sax]
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Shawn Trimble stalks across Theatre Lawrence’s stage clutching a plastic pistol. He points it clumsily at Amber Dickinson and clicks the trigger.
“That’s why actors like murder mysteries,” says director Doug Weaver. “They get to play with guns.”
more at lawrence.com
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Governor Sam Brownback’s budget proposal would reinstate some funding for arts programs, but would do away with the Kansas Arts Commission. The Kansas Film Commission and Arts Commission would be combined to become the Kansas Creative Industries Commission.
more at KCUR
and at the Lawrence Journal World
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As many readers may know, the Lyric Opera will be performing John Adams’ Nixon in China and Rossini’s The Barber of Seville this spring as the Company concludes its inaugural season in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. To help our patrons, and those interested in learning about opera, we offer free, in-depth guides about each opera.
more at the Lyric Opera
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Schools across the country are grappling with how to address bullying, a problem that's provoked some teenagers to suicide. Two area theaters for young audiences are staging plays about bullying this month, and in the case of a new play at Theatre for Young America, specifically tackling bullying against the disabled with a disabled actor in its cast.
more at KCUR
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Shots from Muriel Kauffman Theater, one of the two performance halls at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. On Tuesday I posted pics from the adjacent Helzberg Hall. We spent Saturday afternoon photographing the two halls to obtain some shots for the gift shop to utilize on prints and products of the new building.
more at Eric Bowers Photoblog
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At last night's celebration of the 30th anniversary of the NEA Jazz Masters program, Rocco Landesman, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, announced that 12 not-for-profit organizations will receive grants totaling $135,000 to bring outstanding jazz musicians, writers, producers, and scholars to communities across the nation through NEA Jazz Masters Live.
more at the National Endowment for the Arts
[Thanks, Missouri Arts Council]
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One thing is certain about Mandy Patinkin — his Jewishness is part of every role he portrays. “It’s who I am,” said Patinkin in a telephone interview from New York, where he is currently performing on Broadway with longtime friend Patti LuPone. The powerful performing twosome will bring their show, “An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin,” to Kansas City’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts through Theatre League (Jan. 17-22) just days after closing the show on Broadway.
more at the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle
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Workin’ hard. That’s what I thought as I watched a talented cast put its collective shoulder to a new comedy called “Beer for Breakfast” and push it uphill at the American Heartland Theatre.
more at kansascity.com
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Kansas City visual effecs wiz Bruce Branit (of BranitFX) has been nomined for an award by the Visual Effects Society.
more at Butler's Cinema Scene
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Director Karen Paisley summarizes Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull” this way: sex, death, love and marvelous clothes. This week the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre opens the first local professional production of a play by the Russian dramatist in 11 years.
more at kansascity.com
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Special guest conductor and pianist Jeffrey Kahane, currently Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, leads our Kansas City musicians in Rachmaninoff's brooding and mysterious Symphony No. 2, a dramatically intense and romantic traditional Russian symphony. In this video Kahane performs an excerpt of Mozart's Majestic Piano Concert No. 25, one of the grandest, most difficult and most symphonic of all Mozart works, in which he will also perform with the Symphony on January 13 - 15, 2012. 
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Occupation: “Art lady” might be my favorite descriptor. I am co-director of Charlotte Street Foundation, a nonprofit that nurtures, supports and connects artists in Kansas City through cash awards, project grants, commissions, studio residencies, exhibition and performance opportunities (through our Urban Culture Project), professional development training, etc.
more at the Pitch
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Edward Muscare, known to 1970′s and ’80s late-night television viewers in Kansas City as “Uncle Ed” and who was later convicted of molesting a teen boy, died over the weekend in a Florida jail. He was 79.
more at Bottom Line Communications
and at the Pitch
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Meet the AJM Staff Video Series by Melaney Mitchell
Our Marketing and Communications Manager talks about what its like working at the American Jazz Museum and points out the importance of marketing today. See: http://AmericanJazzMuseum.org
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CREDITS: Video Produced and Developed as part of a "Meet the AJM Staff" series which was created by Kansas City Art Institute student, Melaney Mitchell, as part of the work she did during her American Jazz Museum Marketing and Communications Department 2011 Fall Internship. For more information about her work, see: http://MelaneyAnn.com
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For more information about Chris Burnett, see: http://BurnettPublishing.com
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A Kansas City Council committee is expected to decide this week whether to recommend awarding tax increment financing to help bring a Federal Aviation Administration training facility to the Lyric Theatre in Downtown.
more at the Kansas City Business Journal
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Quixotic, conceived by founder Anthony Magliano is an ensemble of artists from various disciplines including aerial acrobatics, dance, fashion, film, music and visual f-x. This inventive group of artists goes beyond the limits of any specific art form, challenging traditional perceptions and creating a total sensory experience unlike any other for its audience while exploring infinite possibilities of movement, sound and multimedia.
more at TED
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The music the Topeka Symphony Orchestra will perform at its “Fiesta” concert Saturday night will have a south of the border flavor.
more at the Topeka Capital Journal
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This article is from the December 2011 issue of KC Stage
Along with so many aspects of art, stage lighting has changed rapidly over the last 100 years. Starting with the sun itself, theatrical lighting has evolved into a defined art form. Fire, candles, and gas lighting all contributed in making this art into what it is today, but there is one particular evolutionary step that set theatrical lighting on its path.
more at KC Stage
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Mix Match Machine from T2 + Back Alley Films on Vimeo.
We made a game that utilizes custom software to record people and then scramble their body parts using a Microsoft Kinect to control the screen without contact. Perfect for parties or social gatherings! The song is "Boe Money (feat. The Rebirth Brass Band)" by Galactic.
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Reports of new ownership and management at Jardine's may be a bit premature, say former Jardine's co-owner Pat Hanrahan and businessman Paul Wilson, who is still in what he has been told are negotiations to buy the local jazz club.
more at KC Confidential
and more here and here
and at Tony's Kansas City
and more here
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Placards and vintage books, records, posters and other artifacts on display at Miller Nichols Library tell the history of Kansas City’s African-American culture. An entire semester of original student research culminated with the Dec. 8 opening of “Bar-B-Que, Baseball and Jazz,” an exhibit prepared by students in Dr. Pellom McDaniels’ history class.
more at the University News
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UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance composition professor Chen Yi’s composition for recorders, "The Ancient Chinese Beauty," is featured on the 2011 Grammy-nominated CD Chinese Recorder Concertos – East Meets West, Lan Shui, conductor; Michala Petri (Copenhagen Philharmonic), [OUR Recordings]. The CD is nominated for Best Classical Instrumental Solo Grammy.
more at UMatters
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On Saturday Jan. 7 2012 I shot for several hours in the two performance halls at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. They’ll be using a selection of what we shot for prints and products available through the gift shop, along with several other pictures I took in 2011 both on the interior and exterior. I’ll be trying to post a few shots this week. These are some of the first from Helzberg Hall. Muriel Kauffman Theatre to come later.
more at Eric Bowers Photoblog
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Actors from The Wrestling Season discuss how the costumes and their own personal experience inform their performance.
Director, Leigh Miller, provides wrestling terminology and connects it to the action of the play.
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Prospective students are invited to learn about the graduate and undergraduate programs available on the Edwards Campus. Free GMAT and GRE test prep classes will be offered at 10:30 a.m.
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 I’ve received several emails asking about Kansas City indoor swimming pools. There are quite a few indoor pools and community centers throughout the metro, and many offer swimming lessons year-round.
You’ll want to click around on the website and even call… more 
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It can be done. I’ve done the research. I’ve written the business plan. I’ve prepared a five year budget showing annual profits while projecting less business than experienced consultants said it would draw, because I wouldn’t invest my own money unless the numbers worked with a cushion.
So I know it can be done.
more at kcjazzlark
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The Ensemble Espanol Spanish Dance Theatre, established in 1976, was the first Spanish dance center in the United States to gain in-residence status at a university. In 2011, it celebrated 35 years of residency at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago under the auspices of the department of music and dance.
more at Infozine
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Local film critics love George Clooney. Members of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle chose “The Descendants” as the best film of 2011 and Clooney as best actor for portraying a man whose philandering wife is in a coma. Two years ago, those honors went to Clooney and his film “Up in the Air.”
more at kansascity.com
and at CinemaKC
and KC Confidential
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If it were still the Renaissance, perhaps Nathan Redelfs wouldn’t be quite so unique for his interest in and skill at a complete spectrum of creative pursuits. As it happens, however, he strikes a fascinating balance between all the things he is involved in, even as he completes his college degree. He is a photographer, video editor and producer, an actor and theater coach at TRYPS Children’s Theatre, previously took part in a stint with Columbia College’s Jane Froman Singers and plays a wicked mandolin.
more at the Columbia Daily Tribune
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Between the Two of Us explores the process of learning to communicate that couples must overcome in order to gain the acceptance of each other needed to move onto more intimate levels of their relationships. When his long-time girlfriend Sadie asks Max to move in with her, he is forced to acknowledge the feelings of curiosity he's had for guys -- and the fact that he's acted on those feelings. Does she love him enough to be understanding and accept him for who he is? 
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When ballet instructor and dancer Karen Mareck Grundy originated Missouri Contemporary Ballet in 2006, her vision was to bring the dance company to the entire state of Missouri and eventually beyond. Today and tomorrow, the beginnings of that dream are to be realized, at least a bit. The company was selected to be a guest artist for the Association of Performing Arts Presenters’ 2012 conference, performing at the national event today and tomorrow in New York City.
more at the Columbia Daily Tribune
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And then there's the often overlooked Micah Herman. He's no less impressive than the aforementioned bassists, but to my knowledge he hasn't had a regular widely-touted public gig since he teamed up with Loren Pickford at the Golden Ox for a three-year run that ended in 2009. His new album The Ship, Vol. 1: The Studio Sessions makes a strong case for Herman as a top-tier talent.
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The Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s superb education department has brought opera into the lives of countless children for the last 20 years. One of its many outreach projects is the production of a youth opera every two or three years. This year, the Lyric Opera and Minnesota Opera have co-commissioned “The Giver” from composer Susan Kander. The work, based on a Newbery Medal-winning novel by Lois Lowry, will be presented at 2 p.m. Jan. 14 at Rockhurst High School, 9301 State Line Road.
more at kansascity.com
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From futuristic science fiction to a 19th century classic tale of the shortcomings of society, the latest production at The Barn Players Theatre in Mission is advantageous and brilliant. But this production has another twist – it’s performed by an all-youth cast.
more at the Vignette
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In the winter of 2000 — pre-Sept. 11, pre-social-media boom, pre-gay-suicide outbreak — Kansas City’s Coterie Theatre, one of the nation’s leading companies for young audiences, staged the world premiere of a play that has since proven remarkably prescient. In The Wrestling Season, a work commissioned by the Coterie, playwright and author Laurie Brooks explored a number of issues relating to teen identity — principally, how does the rumor mill that seems to run standard in virtually every high school affect the way that young people identify themselves?
more at Camp
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The Raytown High School band will be part of the mass band finale at half time of the Bowl Championship Series National Championship game.
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For the first time ever, Congregation Beth Torah will play host to an American Library Association touring exhibit. “A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs,” will be on display for six weeks from Wednesday, Jan. 11, through Thursday, Feb. 23, in the congregation’s foyer. The exhibit highlights the lives and works of Jewish American popular music composers from 1910-1965. It is free and open to the public.
more at the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle
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Writer/Director Sharon Wright’s film Change For A Dollar is an incredible example of what can happen once you put your film online. Since uploading the short a few months back, the film has generated more than 1.5 million views (and rising) and a mention from a world famous movie critic. Not to mention thousands of comments and feedback. I had the opportunity to find out more about what inspired the film and what it was like to find an audience that eludes so many. Read on for proof that anything is possible if your believe in your film.
more at the Athletic Nerd
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All proceeds will be donated to Positive Changes, a local non-profit organization founded to keep disabled individuals in their homes and give support to
their families. Prizes are 1st Place: $350 Cash, 2nd Place: Garmin Nuvi, Oil Change, Car Wash, and 3rd Place: One Night Hotel Stay & Dinner. Purchase tickets at Decker Chiropractic 913-829-5111.
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RACHEL SIMONS, you are the lucky winner of our giveaway! You will receive 4 vouchers to attend a performance of Sesame Street Live/ Elmo Makes Music…all thanks to our friends at Sprint Center. Thanks to… more 
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When he graduated from college, Clarence Smith didn't want to be a teacher.
The 1980 Marshall High School graduate hit the road with a circus band when he graduated from Central Methodist University, touring the U.S. and Canada. Then he received a phone call from his father letting him know that the band director in his hometown of Marshall was leaving the school district.
more at the Marshall Democrat News
[Thanks, Plastic Sax]
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At the end of the day, I preferred the fake horse to the real one.
The art of illusion is tricky business, especially when you start comparing movies with the plays they were based on. Take “War Horse,” Steven Spielberg’s epic film that opened Christmas Day.
more at kansascity.com
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Occupation: Host and producer of KCPT Channel 19’s Kansas City Week in Review
more at the Pitch
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Picture yourself at a long dinner table — maybe a holiday feast or perhaps an old-fashioned boardinghouse. That’s the image Richard Carrothers evokes when asked why he and his business partner, Dennis Hennessy, give as much as they do to the community.
more at kansascity.com
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Jim Fisher host & narrates this special edition. EMM has programmed over 500 new electroacoustic compositions. Composers have traveled from around the world to graciously share their music with audiences in the Midwest. 
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Kansas City native and Theater League Executive Director Mark Edelman is happy to be presenting Broadway shows again in his hometown. He founded Theater League in 1976. It is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt, community-based performing arts organization dedicated to the development of professional theater, both as a cultural and an educational resource. Serving its constituent communities by producing and presenting Broadway musicals, plays and new works in local performing arts centers, Theater League has more than 30,000 members who subscribe to its cultural offerings in eight cities across the country.
more at the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle
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MICS ON FIRE: Kansas City Style Hip-Hop ft. Snoop Dogg, Tech N9ne, Krizz Kaliko, Bone Thugs N Harmony, The Jacka, Method Man, Devin the Dude, and more! 
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This week is a small-scale start on the Kansas City jazz year. But that’s not a bad way to begin. Look closer, and it provides a glimpse of what our music will sound like in the decades to come.
more at kansascity.com
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The early 1930s marked a tremendous output for the growth of the arts and culture in Kansas City. In October 1933 the University of Kansas City opened. One month late, Karl Krueger and the Kansas City Philharmonic performed their first concert. The very next month the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and the Atkins Museum opened their doors to present their world class collection of art. However, before any of these institutions, there was The Resident Theatre of the Jewish Community Center, Kansas City’s oldest community theater.
more at the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle
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The Kansas City Symphony and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts will be featured in the nationally broadcast PBS Summer Arts Festival.
more at kansascity.com
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This article is from the December 2011 issue of KC Stage
Over in the KC Stage Green Room ( kcstage.com/greenroom), Patti Buhler asked: An actor auditions for multiple roles in different theatre companies. He receives a call back and is cast in a production. Before rehearsals start he receives a call back on a show in a more well known theatre that would be a better opportunity. Is he locked into the first production on his verbal acceptance of the role? What's the theatre etiquette in this situation?
Does it make a difference if the roles are paying roles? It prompted quite the discussion.
more at KC Stage
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If you hear the word opera and think of a stuffy art form - with horned helmets and a large singing lady - well, think again. A new opera, co-commissioned by the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, is based on Lois Lowry’s The Giver - a popular but controversial novel about a dystopian society.
more at KCUR
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Held on Thursdays at 9 a.m. at different Chamber member businesses, our coffees are the largest weekly networking event in the Kansas City area. Expect to meet 150 to 250 people each time! Please note our inclement weather policy states that if the Olathe School District is Closed the Coffee that day will be cancelled.
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Held on Thursdays at 9 a.m. at different Chamber member businesses, our coffees are the largest weekly networking event in the Kansas City area. Expect to meet 150 to 250 people each time! Please note our inclement weather policy states that if the Olathe School District is Closed the Coffee that day will be cancelled.
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Held on Thursdays at 9 a.m. at different Chamber member businesses, our coffees are the largest weekly networking event in the Kansas City area. Expect to meet 150 to 250 people each time! Please note our inclement weather policy states that if the Olathe School District is Closed the Coffee that day will be cancelled.
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Held on Thursdays at 9 a.m. at different Chamber member businesses, our coffees are the largest weekly networking event in the Kansas City area. Expect to meet 150 to 250 people each time! Please note our inclement weather policy states that if the Olathe School District is Closed the Coffee that day will be cancelled.
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Held on Thursdays at 9 a.m. at different Chamber member businesses, our coffees are the largest weekly networking event in the Kansas City area. Expect to meet 150 to 250 people each time! Please note our inclement weather policy states that if the Olathe School District is Closed the Coffee that day will be cancelled.
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Held on Thursdays at 9 a.m. at different Chamber member businesses, our coffees are the largest weekly networking event in the Kansas City area. Expect to meet 150 to 250 people each time! Please note our inclement weather policy states that if the Olathe School District is Closed the Coffee that day will be cancelled.
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Held on Thursdays at 9 a.m. at different Chamber member businesses, our coffees are the largest weekly networking event in the Kansas City area. Expect to meet 150 to 250 people each time! Please note our inclement weather policy states that if the Olathe School District is Closed the Coffee that day will be cancelled.
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This waited two months because Pat was on tour, and his mother insisted it not interrupt work. That’s how she was, he explained.
more at kcjazzlark
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And so Sean Grennan returns. The New York-based actor/playwright has been a fairly regular presence at the American Heartland Theatre since 2003, when the Heartland’s Paul Hough cast him in “The Diaries of Adam and Eve.”
more at kansascity.com
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Topic: "WORKING WITH MULTIPLE GENERATIONS"
Tuesday, January 17, 2012, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The office environment is challenging enough. Working with five generations under one corporate roof can be particularly challenging. With businesses operating faster with fewer people, now is the time to understand what makes each other tick! We'll discuss the difficulties and possibilities the blend can bring. You'll leave with a better understanding of the different generations you employ and what motivates them.
What is the HR Roundtable?
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It offers a unique environment for human resources practitioners to interact with their peers on a monthly basis, discuss and share related best practices, emerging trends, and workplace issues.
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Meeting registration opens two weeks prior to the event date and ends the Friday before the meetng date. Cost is $11 per person for catered lunch or FREE for the "B.Y.O.Lunch" option. Complimentary Pepsi beverages always available.
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Payments for catered lunch are accepted online or at the door. Notify staff of B.Y.O.Lunch option via email or phone call. Cancelations must be received by 5 p.m. on the Friday prior to the event in order to avoid charges.
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Space is limited to 30 people. A waiting list will be maintained as needed and individuals will be contacted if space becomes available.
Mission Statement:
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The Olathe HR Roundtable offers human resource practitioners of member organizations a forum to discuss and share related best practices, emerging trends, and workplace issues. The main purpose of the roundtable is to create a unique environment where information can be shared in an open-exchange format that is collaborative, engaging, and valuable to represented organizations and the HR profession.
Who is it designed for?
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The HR Roundtable was created as a networking and problem-solving opportunity for human resource practitioners who are directly involved in the personnel and hiring process of their organization (i.e. HR managers, recruiters, payroll administrators, etc.).
Can vendors attend?
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Due to limited space and because of the nature of the topics that are openly discussed by the HR practitioners, some attendance restrictions do apply. Thus it is crucial to the group’s success that attendance is restricted to vendors that provide uniquely human resources services and/or products.
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Up to five seats will be reserved for vendors representing a relevant product or service may attend each meeting, with only one representative per business or organization each month.
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Vendors are sometimes the “solutions experts” to the questions and concerns that the HR practitioners have; therefore vendor input is welcome while “sales messages” are not.
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In determining the appropriateness of the various vendors in attendance, Chamber staff will consider the relevance to the hiring and employment situations that the HR practitioners face in their day-to-day jobs or to the topic of the month (i.e. vendors who deal with payroll services, pre-employment testing, staffing assistance, training, benefits, etc.).
Can non-members of the Olathe Chamber attend?
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One representative of a non-member organization is welcome to attend one meeting a year.
Can vendors make presentations to the HR practitioners that attend?
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Presentations are at the sole discretion of the Olathe Chamber of Commerce. Please consider the sponsorship opportunity described below.
The “Quarterly Lunch Sponsorship” program is an exclusive opportunity for vendors to promote their products and services. Please contact Chamber staff for details. It is offered to Olathe Chamber members in order to best serve its membership while continuing to discourage “sales messages” from meeting discussions:
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Vendors are offered an opportunity to provide printed materials and promotional items on a designated table and to be available afterwards to answer questions. Chamber staff will oversee the quantity and duration of displayed items and the length of the meeting.
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On occasion, the Chamber might invite various “experts” to address the group as deemed necessary and helpful to the overall group and topic of discussion. This is not a sales opportunity and may not qualify for the HR Roundtable Lunch Sponsorship program.
Discussion is facilitated by Susan Wallace, Olathe Chamber, Personnel & Projects Manager
To RSVP w/o online pre-payment, you may submit the form below and indicate "RSVP," your name, email, and lunch choice: (1) $11 Catered lunch option but pay at the door, or (2) Free B.Y.O.Lunch option. We will respond to submitted questions at our earliest convenience, or you may call the Olathe Chamber (913) 764-1050.
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Inside Benton Elementary School’s Trailer D, a poster of Beethoven hangs beside one of Beyonce. Robert Battle, the music teacher at Benton and Cedar Ridge elementary schools, sees value in both the new and the old. Battle joined Benton and Cedar Ridge elementary schools this year as their music teacher.
more at the Missourian
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Four years ago, Jon Fulton Adams and Ron Megee got married and set out to buy their first home together.
more at Ink
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Washburn Rural High School will stage its production of Neil Simon’s “Fools” this week in Wichita’s Century II Concert Hall as one of just four high schools statewide selected to perform at the Kansas Thespians’ 33rd annual state conference.
more at the Topeka Capital Journal
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Happy New Year! Hope 2012 is off to a good start for one and all. We figured everyone was feeling somewhat lazy today…maybe even bumping around on our website looking for activities for kids in Kansas City for… more 
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Michele Hamlett-Weith’s life has never been one of mere existence. Rather, she lives life to its fullest, no brakes applied, with gutsy passion. Barely 3, she demonstrated an unquenchable thirst for movement and theatrics and began taking dance lessons.
more at 435 South
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I had to chaperone some of my students at a fashion event held in downtown KC. They took their camcorders and still cameras to cover the event, so I took along my GH2. This is the result.
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I attempt to clear my calendar when I learn that Jeff Harshbarger is participating in a gig. The contributions he makes during jazz, rock, classical and tango presentations often transform good shows into great ones. Harshbarger's refusal to be limited by categories is just one reason the prominent bassist is Plastic Sax's Person of the Year.
more at Plastic Sax
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A year into his job of running Kansas, Gov. Sam Brownback appears to be moving away from strict ideology and toward practicality on some topics. If so, that’s a good thing for all Kansans.
more at kansascity.com
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The UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance’s students. faculty, and alumni will perform a concert titled Crossroads, in New York City’s renowned le poisson rouge, March 9, 2012.
more at UMatters
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Suggesting that it's not easy to replicate this is a gross understatement. Yet under the direction of Jim Mair these Kansas City Kansas Community College students get it done. Impressive.
more at Plastic Sax
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Members of the Shawnee Mission West high school marching band helped ring in the new year in London. The band took part in the London's New Year's Day Parade Sunday morning. They were among the 14 U.S. high school bands taking part in the 2 mile parade.During the trip, they also got a chance to see historic sites like Stonehenge.
more at NBC Action News
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This film is an examination of the life and poetry of the black feminist poet and social voice of Natasha Ria El-Scari. Presented in an "abstractumentary" or abstract-documentary style, the director juxtaposes intimate interviews, dramatic performances, and archival footage to examine El-Scari's work in context of the African American struggle.
more at Tony's Kansas City
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Though bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens are certainly to be desired during the tinny, brittle winter season, sometimes arts warm the spot in the spirit that physical items just can’t touch. We reflect on just a few of many things that sparked our own sense of reflection, curiosity and awareness of beauty during 2011.
more at the Columbia Daily Tribune
and more here
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Happy New Year!
January's issue of KC Stage Magazine is on its way to subscribers, and if you would like to see a copy, single issues are available for $5 at the Barnes & Noble on the Plaza, and are also available for purchase online at Magcloud.
- Spotlight on Paula Winans
"When Paula Winans asks people what they liked doing most when they were little, most of the time they'll say something similar to what they're doing now." Read more about the Lyric Opera's director of education Paula Winans with this article by Erika Crane Ricketts.
- 2011 Year in Review
Join Angie Fiedler Sutton, as she flashes back on the ups and downs of 2011.
- Paradise Found
Rebecca Dempsey talked with Cress Hewitt, the current artistic/events director of the reopened Paradise Playhouse. Read her conversation about the dinner theater in this article.
- Move from KC to LA Brings Some Funny Days
Read more about the online series Funny Days, written, directed, and starring some KC natives who moved to LA in this article by Pete Bakely.
- A Decade in Kansas City
The Cappies has now been alive and well in Kansas City for a decade. Since the program started with just five schools in the region, it has grown to not just include the KC metro, but to help launch chapters in Springfield, St. Louis, and also a mid-Missouri chapter as well. Read more in this article by Beth Bloom Ocheskey.
- KKFI's New Transmitter
Bill Clause presents a short article about the latest developments at the community radio station.
 
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The KC Stage blog is two years old, and this year I made 2,726 posts (almost identical to last year). The blog received 158,813 total hits, an average of 13,234 per month, which is a big increase from 9,200 last year. Thank you to all of our regular readers for your support of KC Stage, and I'm looking forward to the blog getting bigger and better in 2012.
Here are some of the most noteworthy blog postings from 2011:
THE KAUFFMAN CENTER
Judging from the media coverage, the arts story of the century was the opening of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. It has come to represent all that's great about the arts in Kansas City, an emblem that says the arts are a big deal in this town, even to those who never partake. It showed that the city's elite are serious about making Kansas City a cultural mecca, and it appears that local arts organizations have stepped up their game to impress the public in return for this enormous gift. It remains to be seen what the long-term impact of the Kauffman Center will be on local arts, or if the generous philanthropy that built the Kauffman will support similar growth throughout the local community. However, it does seem like the arts in Kansas City has reached a major turning point.
It was difficult keeping up with the whirlwind of press that surround the Kauffman Center opening, which gave the impression it was the only thing happening in the month of September. I have curated all 128 Kauffman Center-specific posts from the blog if you feel like indulging.
Here is some of the most noteworthy Kauffman Center press coverage:
- The most impressive thing I've seen online about the Kauffman Center is a video of the projections by Quixotic that were done on the north side of the building on opening night. In fact, it's probably my favorite blog post of the year. Video projectors were used extensively during the opening ceremonies, with a great look at the work by T2 + Back Alley Films behind the scenes.
- Television stations jumped on the Kauffman Center, and the best TV coverage was "Raise the Roof" on KCPT's The Local Show.
- One of the stars of the Kauffman Center was architect Moshe Safdie, who did a radio tour of the center with Steve Kraske on KCUR's Up to Date, and interviews on Charlie Rose and PBS Newshour.
- Roger Oyster plays trombone for the Kansas City Symphony, and did a great multi-part series on the Kauffman Center with Laura Spencer on KCUR.
- The Kauffman Center garnered attention all around the world, as this collection of international news coverage shows.
- Steve Paul at the Kansas City Star revisited the Kauffman Center two months after the opening with his thorough and thoughtful look at the good and the bad of the new Kauffman Center, "Open two months, Kauffman Center displays glories and glitches." (dead link)
- When the Kansas City Symphony publicly announced its new season in the Kauffman Center, it was done with respect, heartfelt gratitude, and genuine excitement in anticipation of what the Kauffman offered.
- Before moving into their new digs at the Kauffman Center, The Lyric Opera bid adieu to the Lyric Theatre, as reported by Robert Trussell in the Kansas City Star with "Lyric Opera prepares its final production in its ‘womb’" (dead link). Touching farewells appeared on KCUR and the Lyric Opera's website from Ward Holmquist, Erin Thompson, Doug Allen, Debbie Morgan, Evan Luskin, and R. Keith Brumley.
THE KANSAS CITY STAR
The Kansas City Star still seems to believe that yesterday's news is worthless, either that or they're making a killing selling access to their archives. In any case, good luck finding links to old arts articles at kansascity.com, or even information on where to find the articles when you get a dead link. Remarking on the good work The Star has done this year seems pointless when I can't link to any of the articles, but I'll give it a go anyway. If you really must read the articles, you can search for the headlines in the Star archives (for free!) with your library card through the Kansas City Public Library, The Johnson County Public Library, the Mid-Continent Public Library, or the Kansas City, Kansas Public Library.
THEATRE
- Robert Trussell acknowledged the existence of Kansas City's robust community theatre scene with his extensive article "Community Theatres Thrive on Challenging Material," covering organizations that normally receive far too little media attention. (live link)
- Robert Trussell also celebrated the abundance of young talent in Kansas City with his article "Young actors are home, home on the KC stage" (dead link)
- When writer Terry Teachout was in town to promote his book Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, Steve Kraske snagged him for an interview on KCUR's Up to Date, where he discussed his book, his first play, and the future of American theatre. It's a terrific interview with a well-known figure who also happens to be a Missouri native.
- Brian Stanton's play Blank, about his unique life experiences, premiered at the Fishtank, and Sylvia Maria Gross did a great interview with him on KCUR's KC Currents.
- When the Starlight Theatre put out their self-produced interview with The King and I star Lou Diamond Phillips, I didn't expect it to be so informative or to learn how dedicated he is to this role. His heartfelt "Thank You" made it even better.
MUSIC
- The Pitch, which is normally focused on the rock music scene, did an in-depth interview with Iraq War veteran Richard Gibson and his work with the Lyric Opera.
- kcjazzlark told us about the wonderful, horrible life of singer Megan Birdsall.
- Kansas City Symphony violinist Ginni Rader's retirement inspired this nice article by Steve Paul, "Violinist Ginni Rader bows out of KC Symphony after 48 years." (dead link)
- Director Kristine McIntyre gave us this informative look at the history, design, and vision behind her staging of the Lyric Opera's Cosi Fan Tutti.
- Paul Horsley at The Independent did an excellent interview with Paul O'Dette, director of the Friends of Chamber Music's production of Handel's Acis and Galetea.
- If you haven't been to the American Jazz Museum yet, this well-made promotional video will make you consider spending a day there.
- Kansas City's entire arts scene becomes uniquely and singularly focused when the holidays roll around. Two items that stood out this year amidst all the holiday offerings were concerts at the Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral. and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Redemptorist Church. These well-produced videos were a close as you could get to enjoying local offerings without leaving your computer.
FILM
- Local filmmaker Sharon Wright, who recently moved to Los Angeles, found sudden success with the YouTube video "Change for a Dollar," which she made in Osawatomie. It currently has well over a million views, and Wright gave an excellent interview about her life in Kansas City on Arts Talk.
- The Independent Filmmaker's Coalition has been doing it's One Night Stand contest for over ten years, and Ben Palosaari with the Pitch looked at the annual event in great detail.
- Despite having two recent Academy Award Best Picture nominees filmed in Missouri, the state eliminated the film tax credit that draws Hollywood productions to the state, as reported by Robert Butler in "Without film tax credit, will Hollywood still call?" (live link)
- One of the best local films I've seen this year was actually just an extended trailer, but Christopher Good's Holy Moly shows a level of craftsmanship, acting, and humor that's beyond most local productions. Can't wait to see the finished film.
- Before Robert Butler was fired from the Kansas City Star, he wrote this nice look at the local art houses and the indie film business that drives them. (live link)
- Kansas City Art Institute student Caitlin Harris made the lovely little animated short, Packrats.
- My holidays were blissfully topped off with the short but funny Sweater Punch from T2 + Back Alley Films.
DANCE
HISTORY
- One thing the internet is good for is exploring Kansas City's 150+ year history of arts and entertainment. I was pleased to learn about the Brush Creek Follies on KCUR, a corner of our history that few people know about.
- Digging deep into Missouri history, KCUR also told us about the life of forgotten ragtime composer Blind Boone. The Boone Theatre on 18th Street was named after Blind Boone, and kcjazzlark has the history of the building which has been targeted for restoration.
- Of course, Kansas City's history is rich with jazz, which this excellent (although not locally produced) Tribute to Kansas City Jazz by Jazz Alley TV makes clear.
- Peter Barrett created this loving documentary about the history of the Gant Sisters Music in Miniature program.
- The NBC drama The Playboy Club inspired Charles Ferruzza to write about Kansas City's own Playboy Club in the Pitch.
ACADEMICS
It's no secret that Kansas City schools and universities have some terrific performing arts programs, and it's great to see media coverage of what's going on in our academic institutions. Here are some notable academic-oriented blog postings from the last year:
- The Johnson County Community College produced a nifty show called It's Our Community, which interviewed several local artists including music therapist Janalea Hoffman, theatre historian Doug Harvey, musicians Anita Cyrier and Mark Hayes, PBS's American Experience producer Mark Samels, clarinetist Charles Neidich, and local actor and Doonesbury inker Don Carlton.
- David Hudnall at the Pitch did an excellent story on the Eddie Baker School of Music, which offered music classes to over 2,500 students in the Kansas City Missouri School District.
- Considering a career in the arts? You'll want to watch this great interview with casting director Stephen Kopel, alumnus of Music Theatre for Young People of Kansas City.
- The Kansas City Art Institute treated us to a huge collection of animated student films. The quality varies wildly, but you can check out parts one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven. (with a bonus)
- A look at the UMKC Conservatory's Outreach Program showed UMKC's ties to the community that few people are aware of.
- The Starlight Theatre offered a bunch of fun interviews with the high schoolers in the Blue Star All-Star Chorus of Xanadu.
- James Fussell gave us the lowdown on Shawnee Mission Northwest's Ukelele Club with his article "New Ukulele Players Are Strumming in Style." (dead link)
FUNDRAISING
- Everyone has taken to the internet for fundraising, with Kickstarter projects and email appeals for donations, but none of them have been as clever or entertaining as this Coterie Theatre video seeking funding to take their production of Lucky Duck to New York.
- One funding organization that has traditionally supported visual arts has been building a bridge to the performing arts, and this excellent overview of the Charlotte Street Foundation by the enormously talented T2 + Back Alley Films is a great introduction to a longtime local player. Theresa Bembnister's Kansas City Star article "Rocket Grants propel artistic innovation" (dead link) explained more about what the Charlotte Street Foundation does.
- I try not to toot my own horn with the KC Stage blog, but I was overly pleased with how my Kansas City Fringe Festival promo video Fringe Follies turned out. Thanks to all the talented people that helped make it happen.
REGION
The biggest news this year was Governor Sam Brownback's defunding of the Kansas Arts Commission, which made headlines across the nation and lit up local discussion boards with vehement debate. The Lawrence Journal World did a great job of showing where the money goes and how losing it would affect Lawrence.
Here's some other news that put regional arts in a more positive light:
- The Kansas City Symphony's annual concert in the middle of the Kansas Flint Hills is an enormously popular event. Cindy Hoedel with The Kansas City Star took us behind the scenes with the article "Dedicated staff orchestrates Symphony in the Flint Hills" (dead link). The Lawrence Journal World tackled the same subject in another excellent article. (live link)
- Speaking of behind the scenes, the Lawrence Journal World did a fantastic series on the people who make the arts happen in Lawrence, including a backstage look at the Lied Center, pre-school arts teacher Linda Reimond (who has been teaching at the Lawrence Arts Center for 25 years), arts volunteer Amy Albright, Theatre Lawrence costume designer Jane Pennington, guitar maker Leo Posch, organist Sharee Thompson, and finishing off by looking at children's theatre programs.
- I was pleased to learn that the city of Columbia actually has a Cultural Affairs Manager, and this year appointed Chris Stevens to the position. The Columbia Daily Tribune gave him a nice introduction.
- Lawrence has long been a hotbed for local filmmaking thanks largely to Kansas Filmworks, which was given full coverage by the University Daily Kansan.
- Baldwin City is the home of Joyce Castle, a world-renown mezzo-soprano who was interviewed in the Kansas City Star by Chris Shull. "130 roles, 40 years, only one Joyce Castle" (dead link). She appeared in the Lyric Opera's production of The Daughter of the Regiment.
That's it for 2011, a landmark year for Kansas City. If you appreciate this blog, I hope that you will subscribe to KC Stage to get everything we have to offer and make it possible to keep bringing you all the arts in Kansas City.
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