UMKC Theatre Presents Keith Dewhurst’s adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s

Black Snow in Spencer Theatre

UMKC Theatre presents Mikhail Bulgakov’s Black Snow adapted by Keith Dewhurst.  Black Snow is directed by Barry Kyle and will perform in Spencer Theatre at the Performing Arts Center.  It will begin previews April 8 and performances April 12.

A writer can be a lonely creature. An unpublished writer can be a desperate one. And what of a writer who is lonely, unpublished and living in the Soviet Union? In Bulgakov's comic masterpiece Black Snow, a man who can't take it anymore, is rescued by the offer of having his writing dramatized and staged in the greatest theater in the land. And then his troubles really start.

Under constant threats from the authorities, Bulgakov developed his work through a short but brilliant career, and helped drama move on from the limitations of Realism. In the long, thrilling history of theatre in the last century, Bulgakov's career is one of its most intriguing secrets.

If you have ever worried about what exactly "The Method" is in the theatre, and why it is so important, come and see the wonderful characters in Black Snow. They are trying to figure it out, too.

-         Barry Kyle, director

Barry Kyle (Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, first Artistic Director of Stratford's Swan Theatre, and Founding Artistic Director of Swine Palace Productions in Louisiana) has directed many productions in Stratford and London over the last 20 years. These include Love's Labour's Lost, The Two Noble Kinsmen, The Taming of the Shrew, Richard II, Edward Bond's Lear, and Marlowe's Dr. Faustus. In 1992 he directed an off-Broadway production of Henry V which was awarded the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Revival. He also directed To Kill a Mockingbird at Actors Theatre of Louisville and Romeo and Juliet at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C. More recently in New York City, Kyle directed Henry VI, which won a Drama Desk Nomination as Outstanding Revival, and Measure for Measure. He has directed many major British actors including Jeremy Irons, Patrick Stewart, Kenneth Branagh and Ben Kingsley. He has directed many productions in major theatres around the world including Tel Aviv, Melbourne, Warsaw, Berlin, Paris, Hamburg, and Moscow, and was the first Western director to work at the National Theatre in Prague where he directed Shakespeare's King Lear. Mr. Kyle directed King Lear (London and Tokyo) in 2001 as well as a ground-breaking all-female cast of Richard III at Shakespeare's Globe in London in the summer of 2003.

                       
Tickets for the performances can be purchased at the Central Ticket Office at (816) 235-6222 or by visiting www.umkc.edu/theatre (see Playbill).

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This information is available to people with speech or hearing impairments by calling Relay Missouri at (800) 735-2966 (TT) or (800) 735-2466 (voice).