Feature: BRITISH INVASION 2024 at Central Standard Theatre

Since 2010, Central Standard Theatre has been producing thought inducing, innovative theatre.  Based in Kansas City, CST offers an international angle to the local theatre scene.  With productions touring Britain, Ireland, Canada and Australia, CST offers the world a unique view of who we are in the Heartland by showcasing our culture at theatre festivals around the world. CST also brings the world to Kansas City.  Annually, The Invasion features the best solo work from International theatre artists.

The 2024 edition of the “British Invasion” features four individual shows. Each solo piece of theater brings something special to Kansas City audiences. This year’s menu of performances covers a huge range of subject matters from a show about King Henry VIII to a Science Fiction piece to a living document on the “Red Scare” of the 1950s and finally a meditation on the journey through life itself. This year’s quartet of international talent brings four fascinating artists and personalities based in Brighton, on the South Coast of England.

The 2024 Invasion is scheduled for February 28, 2024 to March 3,2024. The location for “Invasion 2024” is the Just Off-Broadway Theatre at 3051 Central Street in Kansas City.  Don’t miss this special treat.  Always new. Always challenging.  Reserve tickets now on the Central Standard Theatre website.   

The Invaders

Ross Gurney Randall

Ross was born in North London in 1965 and became a professional actor in 1994 and, later, a playwright. Theatre includes Mussolini: A One-Man Political Farce (RGR Edinburgh 2010), Follow Me (Guy Masterson & TTI Edinburgh 2007 – Winner: Herald Angel and Brighton Fringe Award) and Goering’s Defence (Guy Masterson – TTI, Edinburgh 2002), all of which he co-wrote. Other theatre includes A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Festival Shakespeare Co), Hamlet (Edinburgh ’96 & national tour, Vital Theatre), Moonlight Over India (Komedia Theatre) and The Greatest Hits of British History (National tour). TV appearances include Kavanagh QC, The Bill, London’s Burning, The Missing Postman, 2.4 Children, Doctors, Chucklevision, and Crimewatch. Films include Honest and The Big Game. In 2011’s Brighton Festival and Fringe he won The Latest 7 Award for Best Male Performer for his role in Big Daddy Vs. Giant Haystacks.

An Audience with Henry VIII

"I do not have syphilis; I want to make that quite clear. As for the wives - there were perfectly good reasons why they had to go.  And where's God?  It's been 477 years since I died, and I've been waiting to meet God ever since.  I'm starting to lose my patience".  The 16th Century King meets a 21st Century audience. Heads will roll.

"Ross Gurney Randall is funny the way water is wet - naturally, undeniably and inexplicably. He pulls no fast ones, he just is." - The Guardian

Jennifer Rowe

Jen Rowe is an actor, improviser & writer, who performs and teaches improv internationally.  In 2018 she wrote her solo show, Tiptree, about the American science fiction writer, Alice Sheldon, which she continues to tour. Other performances include, Read Not Dead - Shakespeare's Globe; Clean by Sam Chittenden (Best Play Award, Brighton Fringe 2019), Mary Rose by J.M.Barrie (National Tour) & Somewhere in England by Mark Burgess, where she discovered the inspiration for her latest show.   A member of Impromptu Shakespeare & Brighton Fringe Comedy Award-winners, The Maydays, since 2006, she's played on the Chicago mainstage with Whirled News Tonight and headlined at improv festivals across Europe.  Jen writes weird, dark short stories, which occasionally get published in weird dark magazines.  www.jennyrowe.co.uk

Tiptree: No One Else’s Damn Secret But My Own

James Tiptree Jr: CIA official, international traveller, “ineluctably masculine” writer of science fiction... And, in 1976, ‘outed’ as Alice Sheldon, a 61-year-old woman from Virginia.  An award-winning writer, born from a jar of English Marmalade; what happens when your secret’s out, but it’s only the signature that’s changed?

“Tiptree is a fascinating biography well worth knowing, convincingly acted and eloquently written, raising questions about gender, fulfilment, subterfuge and love.” – FringeReview

Robert Cohen

An actor, writer and recovering journalist (he was once a sub-editor on the London Times), Robert has won acclaim for a series of solo shows, including the Jewish memoir Dog’s Chosen, the Shakespearean paraquel Something Rotten (Hamlet as seen from the viewpoint of Uncle Claudius), High Vis (about a traffic warden with a stalker), and The Trials of Harvey Matusow, true-life Cold War tale of a McCarthyite supersnitch. In addition to these solo ventures, his full-cast plays have included the Constance Cox Prize-winner The Ragged Regiment and Propaganda, an epic account of the Essex rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I. Robert’s debut novel, Architecture For Beginners, is the tragicomic tale of two old schoolfriends reunited: Alex, an architect in crisis, and Reggie, the retired footballer who commissions him to build a full-size stadium on his country estate. It was published by Hobart Books in early 2023. www.bobbycohen.co.uk

The Trials of Harvey Matusow

The age of McCarthyism, as seen through the eyes of America’s most notorious liar.  Starting out a communist in post-war New York, Harvey Matusow turned informer, spent four years mouthing off to anti-red committees, then put the cat among the stoolpigeons by admitting he’d made up almost all of it.   What drove him to do these extraordinary things? Was it money? Was it fear? Or was it a simple lust for fame – fame of any kind and at any cost?  Winner of the FringeReview Outstanding Theatre Award

“What is unequivocal is the sheer powerful brilliance of Cohen’s script... And then there’s the performance – pitch-perfect, adroit, vivacious and charming.” -  Fringe Guru 

Paul Levy

Paul Levy is a social scientist.  He is a writer and senior researcher at CENTRIM, The Centre for Change, Enterprise and Innovation Management Research at the University of Brighton. He has facilitated conferences for Digital Leadership Group and the Bitcoin and Blockchain Leadership Forum.  He has written articles for journals, conferences, newspapers and magazines. He is the author of the book Digital Inferno, which is a practical guide to mastering the digital world’s high-tech devices for personal and professional use at home and at work.  Paul is also engaged in research into Digital Leadership skills which he recently presented at the University of Ulster.  His wider research interests include innovation management, change management and digital technology in the arts.  www.cats3000.com, www.digitaldeepdive.co.uk, https://rationalmadnesstheatre.wordpress.com/ Levy is also a Playwright and performer.

The Debrief – A Piece of Emergent Solo Theatre

The performer is debriefing a critical incident, an encounter with death, a dance with mortality.  This is a semi-improvised piece of theatre where the performer gathers the artifacts of his story and offers them to the audience, who share the experience in a way he hopes will bring resolution, healing and hints of further steps along the way.

“The world of the rational, the logical, the cause and effect; The world of the irrational, the chaotic and the crazy.”- – Rational Madness Theatre

For Central Standard Theatre

John Robert Paisley, Producer/Director

Bob is an award-winning actor and director, working with theatres across North America, UK and Australia.  In his time, Bob has played such challenging roles as Teach in American Buffalo, the title role in Faustus (LA Dramalogue Award), Tom in The Glass Menagerie, Heisenberg in Copenhagen, The Man in The Event, and President Bill Clinton in Bill Clinton Hercules, touring to Australia, Northern Ireland and the UK.  He has directed productions for Theatre West Virginia, the Birmingham Children’s Theatre, Neptune Theatre, Our Town Theatre Group and Fringe festivals in Kansas City, Bedford, Adelaide and Edinburgh. He is a founding member of Another Theatre Company in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre in Kansas City and Central Standard Theatre - Kansas City.

, Associate Producer

John Story has designed sound for CST productions Driving Miss Daisy, Bedtime Solos, A Steady Rain, The Event, and The Professor. He has worked in regional theatres across the US and has toured extensively throughout the country. His designs have been presented internationally, including the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the 2019 Adelaide Fringe in Australia, and a critically acclaimed production of Just So Stories at the 2022 Bedfringe Festival. Mr. Story has worked in film and video, record production, broadcast audio, and acoustical design. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Sound Design from the University of Missouri–Kansas City, where he taught theatre sound technology. He currently sits on the board for Central Standard.                                                                                                                                                                  

More Information about Central Standard Theater and this year’s offerings is available on the cstks.com Website or Contact Bob Paisley – jrobertpaisley@gmail.com .

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