THE CIRCUS SHOW
Directed by Joe Price
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Performing Arts Center, Studio 116
Dec. 3 through Dec. 17, 2004
UMKC Central Ticket Office 816-235-6222
Our world is a great big circus. Inspired by recent news articles and cultural phenomena, today’s greatest story on earth will be told under the “big top” of PAC 116. Clowns, soldiers, forbidden marriage, feats of strength, towers and trapeze above the crowd, thrills, chills and laughter will fill the air. UMKC Theatre has been working creatively on this project for a full year in the classroom. The Circus Show is an essentially scriptless production that is being crafted by the company of actors, designers, mask/clown faculty and the director.
Joe Price has recently directed The Shape of Things, Blue/Orange and Bright Ideas for the Unicorn Theatre. He works as an actor, director and fight choreographer throughout the county. Price is an associate professor at UMKC, where he teaches acting, directing and stage combat, and serves as the director of undergraduate theatre for the department. He is a founding member of A Red Orchid Theatre in Chicago and the Oasis Theatre Company in Buffalo, where he has served as associate artistic director. In addition to acting and directing with Oasis Theatre and A Red Orchid Theatre, he has acted with Hillside Repertory, Minnesota Repertory, The Dallas Shakespeare Festival, the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, and the Kansas City Rep (formerly the Missouri Rep). Assisting Mr. Price in the creation of this production is UMKC Theatre’s mask/clown professor Joe Krienke and trapeze specialist and choreographer Julia Ludwick.
Previews Friday, Dec. 3, 2004 8 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 4, 2004 8 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 5, 2004 7 p.m.
Opens Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2004 7 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 9, 2004 7 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 10, 2004 8 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 11, 2004 8 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 12, 2004 2 p.m.
Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2004 7 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 16, 2004 7 p.m.
Close Friday, Dec. 17, 2004 8 p.m.
UMKC FESTIVAL OF N.O.W!
(New
Original Work)
In the fall of 2003, the faculty of UMKC Theatre challenged the graduate theatre students in the weekly Collaboration Class to divide into nine groups and each conceive their ideal for a new theatre in Kansas City. Called “Project X,” nine proposals were presented to the entire Department of Theatre several weeks later. Although the proposals were varied, what rang through loud and clear to the faculty was an enthusiasm and desire in the students to experience new, original work.
We will present three new, original works that are described below, a retail theatre project, a “scriptless” stage production (without playwright, that is created through the rehearsal and discovery process), and the more traditional development of a new play written by Dominic Leggett that received its first week of “reading” with playwright, director, actors and designers in May, 2004, again in October, 2004, and a full rehearsal and production schedule in the spring of 2005. (Tom Mardikes)
RETAIL THEATRE PROJECT
In association with the Urban Culture Project
Conceived and directed by Barry Kyle
Jenkins Music Store
12th & Walnut (downtown)
Kansas City, Missouri
This is a recurring evening theatre piece on Oct. 15 and 22, and Nov. 5, 2004
Free and open to the public
In January 2003, the Urban Culture Project (UCP) debuted Downtown, a window gallery at the corner of Petticoat Lane and Main Street. Featuring an exhibition of new work by four local contemporary artists, this premiere offered the public its first glimpse of the Urban Culture Project's mission: To transform empty storefronts in the core of downtown Kansas City into dynamic new venues for visual art and performance. The Kansas City Star described the exhibition as such. "The exhibit teems with a feel for the hip and modern – terms rarely associated with our middling downtown – and makes for an unexpected treasure chest for the unsuspecting passer-by.” Several months after the premier of Downtown, the site was leased to a paying tenant, providing tangible evidence of the soundness of UCP’s underlying premise, that grassroots cultural activity not only enriches lives, but also fuels economic development and urban renewal.
Barry Kyle will lead the creation of a downtown “retail theatre” project in October and November, 2004. UMKC Theatre will present a recurring ten-minute piece of election-time theatre in two display windows of the old Jenkins Music Store, on Walnut Street between 12th and 13th. This event is free and open to the public, and will premier on Friday, Oct. 15th, with repeat performances on Friday, Oct. 22nd and Friday, Nov. 5th.