John Rensenhouse

Cast Set For A CHRISTMAS CAROL at Kansas City Repertory Theatre
by Stephi Wild - Oct 21, 2026

Kansas City Repertory Theatre announced the cast of its holiday production, with veteran actor Mark Robbins stepping into the role of Ebenezer Scrooge at Spencer Theatre, succeeding Gary Neal Johnson.

Review: EUREKA DAY at City Stage
by Alan Portner - Sep 15, 2026

It had taken me a day or two to absorb Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day both well-acted and well-produced by Kansas City Actor’s Theatre in the City Theatre space of Union Station.  Cleverly cloaked in comedy, this 2025 Tony Award Winner strikes a deeply held cultural belief from playwright Jonathan Spector that I recognize from my own upbringing in the suburban Chicago Midwest. In my day, if a school had an exceptional reputation, parents moved to that school district. Now-a-days, parents can drop their kids out of school and start their own school with a charter that conforms to their own point-of-view.  That explains the push for government to pay for these “special charter schools.” Eureka Day is a deceptively simple play with only five characters. Eureka Day is one of those high-end private charter schools split off from the traditional public schools by the parents desire to do better for their children.

EUREKA DAY to Open at Kansas City Actors Theatre's City Stage
by Chloe Rabinowitz - Aug 27, 2026

Kansas City Actors Theatre will present Eureka Day at the City Stage in Union Station, directed by Darren Sextro and featuring John Rensenhouse, Teisha M. Bankston and Cinnamon Schultz.

Interview: Marilu Henner of CACTUS FLOWER at New Theater & Restaurant
by Alan Portner - May 17, 2026

Marilu Henner is currently starring as Stephanie Dickinson in Cactus Flower at The New Theatre & Restaurant in Overland Park, Kansas. Best known for her work on Taxi and for her Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) - Henner remains one of the most dynamic and wide-ranging performers working today.

Review: CACTUS FLOWER at New Theatre Restaurant
by Alan Portner - May 4, 2026

The air at New Theatre Restaurant in Overland Park is thick with the scent of high-end buffet favorites and the electric hum of a sold-out crowd. The curtain has risen on a revival of the 1960s Broadway classic Cactus Flower, and if the opening week's standing ovations are any indication, Kansas City has another bona fide hit on its hands.

Review: EVERYBODY at Kansas City Actors Theatre
by Alan Portner - Mar 9, 2026

The new Kansas City Actors Theater production of “Everybody” is a sly meditation on the human condition. It is a riff on the oldest known surviving play in English called “Everyman.”

Review: CLUE at New Theatre Restaurant
by Alan Portner - Jul 7, 2025

Madcap! Frenetic! Hilarious! It is the New Theatre Restaurant production of CLUE. Clue is a comic murder-mystery tale based on the 1985 film of the same name which was based on the 1949 Parker Brothers board game that just about anyone who grew up in that period will surely have played at some point.

Review: RUMORS at New Theatre Restaurant
by Alan Portner - Feb 23, 2025

A super cast makes the most of Neil Simon’s 1988 word-salad comedy masterpiece entitled RUMORS. RUMORS opened last week at New Theater Restaurant in Overland Park.   This one is played strictly for laughs.

THE ROOMMATE, UNCLE VANYA, and More Set For Kansas City Actors Theatre's 2025/2026 Season
by Stephi Wild - Dec 18, 2024

Kansas City Actors Theatre has announced the line-up for its 21st Season, running from May 2025 through March 2026. Learn more about the full lineup and find out how to get tickets ehre!

Review: TROUBLE IN MIND at Kansas City Actors Theatre
by Alan Portner - Aug 14, 2024

It is funny. It is a slice of life. It is a literal peek behind the curtain. Kansas City Actors Theatre production of Alice Childress’s TROUBLE IN MIND allows audiences a long-delayed opportunity to vision America (and its theatrical community) as it appeared in 1955 from an African American point of view. I was struck by how much our country has matured (mostly for the better) over eighty years.

KCAT to Bring TROUBLE IN MIND To KC For The First Time In 50 Years
by Blair Ingenthron - Jul 14, 2024

Kansas City Actors Theatre will continue their 2024/2025 20th Anniversary Season with Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress. Over 65 years after it was written, Trouble in Mind finally made its Broadway debut in late-2021, and comes to the City Stage this August!

Review: THE LEHMAN TRILOGY at Kansas City Actors Theatre
by Alan Portner - May 26, 2024

The Lehman Trilogy studies American Dream Mythology as seen through the eyes of Italian playwright and poet Stefano Massini. The English translation by Ben Power transfigures itself into an absorbing and poignant exercise in stellar storytelling as one might imagine it by three brothers around a metaphorical campfire.

KCAT Kicks Off Season 20 with THE LEHMAN TRILOGY
by Stephi Wild - May 3, 2024

Kansas City Actors Theatre will kick off its 2024/2025 20th Anniversary Season of productions with the award-winning The Lehman Trilogy by Stefano Massini, adapted to English by Ben Power.

Review: GASLIGHT at Union Station
by Alan Portner - Jan 20, 2024

They say you never forget your first.  That was certainly the situation for a former Scotland Yard Police Inspector named Rough (played by John Rensenhouse).  Oddly, Inspector Rough had no known first name. Rough’s first bloody murder case in 1865 remained unsolved fifteen years after the event.

Kansas City Actors Theatre Present The Classic Victorian Thriller GASLIGHT
by Chloe Rabinowitz - Jan 5, 2024

Kansas City Actors Theatre presents the classic Victorian thriller 'Gaslight (Angel Street)' by Patrick Hamilton. This edge-of-your-seat thriller starts January 17th at the City Stage in Union Station.

Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL at Kansas City Repertory Theatre
by Alan Portner - Nov 22, 2023

Last night, November 21, 2023, a Kansas City tradition, the 42rd annual (almost) Kansas City Repertory Theatre production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” opened at the Spencer Theater on the UMKC campus for an extended run through Christmas Eve. Except for the Covid year when the live production was replaced by a video version, audiences have gathered for “A Christmas Carol” since 1980. The house lights dim and a cast of Victorian holiday carolers appear complete with an onstage costumed orchestra. Our Storyteller (Nedra Dixon) also dressed in stunning early Victorian garb, welcomes us. Ms. Dixon is elegant and charming in this her first stint as the Storyteller.

Kansas City Actors Theatre Reveals 2024/2025 20th Anniversary Season
by Stephi Wild - Nov 15, 2023

Kansas City Actors Theatre has announced the line-up for its 20th Anniversary season, which will feature one classic work receiving its first professional regional production, a revival of a contemporary classic, the regional premiere of a new adaptation of a classic thriller, and the regional premiere of an award-winning new play.

Interview: Jason Chanos of A CHRISTMAS CAROL at Kansas City Repertory Theatre
by Alan Portner - Nov 14, 2023

The Kansas City holiday season officially begins on November 21st with the forty-second annual iteration of the Kansas City Repertory Theatre Production of Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella “A Christmas Carol.  Director Jason Chanos is excited about this new mounting of the annual classic. Chanos is both the director of this production and the Associate Artistic Director of Kansas City Repertory Theatre.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre Announces Cast For A CHRISTMAS CAROL
by A.A. Cristi - Oct 17, 2023

Kansas City Repertory Theatre continues its 2023-24 season with the beloved holiday classic, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, adapted for the stage by Geoff Elliott and directed by Kansas City Repertory Theatre's Associate Artistic Director of KCRep/UMKC Partnership Jason Chanos.

Lyric Opera Of Kansas City Announces THE SOUND OF MUSIC
by A.A. Cristi - Oct 6, 2023

Lyric Opera of Kansas City has announced the beloved American Broadway Musical, The Sound of Music, Nov. 4-12, 2023 at Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.