EARTh Presents Gogol's THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR, 2/21

Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector will be the third presentation of the Inaugural Series of EARTh (Equity Actors' Readers' Theatre). Featuring some of the finest professional actors in the Greater Kansas City area, this concert-style stage reading will be presented on Monday, February 21, at 7:30PM in the Music & Art Building on the campus of St. Teresa's Academy/KCYA.

Take one corrupt, small-town mayor, a conniving judge who leverages the legal system, an ineffective superintendent of schools who can't cope with tenured faculty, a boozing post master who reads everybody's mail and a fumbling hospital administrator who decides it's most cost effective to "just let Nature take her course." Add the mayor's wife with a wandering eye, her daughter who has to fight her mother for the social spotlight, a couple of sassy servants and a town-full of merchants and tradesmen who are either short-changing customers or bribing their betters. Now throw in one charming yet good-for-nothing scoundrel who happens to be passing through town at the same time that rumors start flying that an important government official has been sent - incognito - from the capital to investigate the affairs of the town. Stir together with a generous portion of mistaken identity, a splash of seduction, a cup of kopeks and a rasher of rubles and you have the makings for one of the truly classic comedies of all time.

Political intrigue? Bribery? Moral shallowness? Influence bought and paid for? Judicial malfeasance? Two-faced elected officials? Governmental corruption? Even though this Russian masterpiece was written 175 years ago, it has the flavor of a story "ripped from today's headlines."

As with all of EARTh's presentations, the company exclusively features Kansas City-area professional Theatre Artists. This cast includes (in alphabetical order): Kevin Albert, Dodie Brown, Rick Brown, Martin Buchanan, Scott Cordes, Michael Dragen, Ray Ettinger, Laurie J. Hamilton, Herman Johanson, Evan Gamsu, Katie Gilchrest, T. Max Graham, Jennie Greenberry, Larry Greer, Melinda MacDonald, Jennifer Mays, Richard Alan Nichols, Ken Remmert, Marshall Rimann, Natalie Weaver and Darren Kennedy as "the inspector" - or is he? Doug Weaver directs, with Jim Mitchell as Production Stage Manager.

St. Teresa's Academy/KCYA is located at 5601 Wyandotte (between 55th & 57th, between Wornall & Brookside Boulevard), in Kansas City, MO. Ample free parking is available in the lot accessed from 57th Street, between Wyandotte and Main. Admission is free, though donations are welcome and encouraged.