John Rensenhouse News

Award-winning pioneer playwright Qui Nguyen brilliantly chronicles the love story of his parents' meeting in an Arkansas refugee center after fleeing Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1975. It's a buddy story, an all-American romance, and a motorcycle road-trip adventure that reexamines how we think about the heroes and victims of the Vietnam War. Vietgone skips through time and roams the globe with snarky humor, hip-hop, and lots of sex. It's one ironic, foul-mouthed, bad-ass new play.

Artistic Director Sandy Robbins comments in the Program Notes that any director would prefer staging KING LEAR rather than A FLEA IN HER EAR.

A perfumed letter, a seedy hotel and a pack of wacky characters bring 1907 Paris to Delaware in the Resident Ensemble Players (REP) production A Flea in Her Ear, a new version of Georges Feydeau's farce, written by David Ives, Mar. 1 through Mar. 18, in the Roselle Center for the Arts, Newark, DE. Internationally renowned director, Mark Lamos, returns to the REP to stage the bawdy bedroom comedy.

Faithful to the original text, what is 175 years old is new again

UD Rep Ensemble by and large stages classics: Shakespeare, Moliere, Bernard Shaw, Tennessee Williams, etc. Plays become classics due to their timeless quality and universal truths; truths that lived, for example, in Shakespeare's time as they do today. The immediacy of live theatre brings these principals to life before our eyes.

Spinning Tree Theatre proudly produces the Kansas City premiere of Harvey Fierstein's CASA VALENTINA October 27 November 12. Four-time Tony Award winner Fierstein (Kinky Boots, Newsies, La Cage aux Folles, Torch Song Trilogy) based his 2014 play on actual events.

KCAT's current production of Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None' grips the audience with a suspenseful quickly paced mystery. Ensemble shines in this timeless tale of accusation, guilt, judgement, and murder. The attention to detail from costumes, to set, to lighting provides a sensory experience that everyone will enjoy. This fresh take is a perfect way for those new to theater to discover what great story-telling is all about.

Kansas City Actors Theatre has completed casting for their production of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None", the opening show of their thirteenth season. The production will be directed by John Rensenhouse and will star Robert Gibby Brand, Greg Butell, Scott Cordes, Kyle Dyck, Bonnie Griffin, Manon Halliburton, Ellen Kirk, Victor Raider-Wexler, Matt Rapport, Matt Schwader, and Peter Zazzali. The production team includes Mark Exline (scenic designer), Kevin Seiss (properties designer), Sarah Oliver (costumer designer), Shane Rowse (lighting designer), Jonathan Robertson (sound designer), and Kyle Dyck (technical director).

???????We've added two Saturday matinee performances of Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None' at 2 pm on August 19 and August 26. Now you have two extra opportunities to see this exciting production! Previews start August 9 and performances run through August 27 at the H&R Block City Stage in Union Station.

The 1947 musical fantasy FINIAN'S RAINBOW, with music by Burton Lane and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, gets the Spinning Tree-tment September 1-17. The score, "one of the most enduringly delicious ever concocted for an American musical" (The New York Times), includes "Old Devil Moon," "How are things in Glocca Morra" and "Look to the Rainbow."

The 1947 musical fantasy FINIAN'S RAINBOW, with music by Burton Lane and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, gets the Spinning Tree-tment September 1-17.

Kansas City Actors Theatre has completed casting for their production of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None", the opening show of their thirteenth season.

World class performance of 'Hamlet' now playing for free at Kansas City's Southmoreland Park next door to the Nelson-Adkins Museum. Featuring a stellar cast who breathe a fresh breath into Shakespeare's revenge tragedy.

In response to pending budget cuts which threaten the very existence of UMKC Theatre, arts leaders, theatre faculty, students and alumni are organizing a public Town Hall to show support for UMKC Theatre and exhibit to the UMKC administration the extensive community support for this program. The 'Save UMKC Theatre' event will be held at the Spencer Theatre on Sunday, June 4 at 6 p.m.

Will Eno's 'The Realistic Joneses' at KCAT plots two couples, who are new neighbors in a small mountain town, as they navigate married life through not always ideal situations. This tightly balanced ensemble cast crafts a show that traverses a minefield of typical relationship troubles keeping it fun the whole way through.

Kansas City Actors Theatre will conclude its Season Twelve with the regional premiere of Will Eno's The Realistic Joneses, performing now through June 11 at the H&R Block City Stage in Union Station. The production will be directed by John Rensenhouse and will star Brian Paulette, Carla Noack, Phil Fiorini, and Ashley Pankow. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!?

Widely considered the most controversial musical ever written, ASSASSINS premiered off-Broadway in 1990 at Playwrights Horizons and won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival. This is a unique vision of American history told through imagined interactions between antiheroes from John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald…from Charles Guiteau to John Hinckley. ASSASSINS is recommended for mature audiences.

Kansas City Actors Theatre will conclude its Season Twelve with the regional premiere of Will Eno's The Realistic Joneses, performing from May 24 to June 11 at the H&R Block City Stage in Union Station. The production will be directed by John Rensenhouse and will star Brian Paulette, Carla Noack, Phil Fiorini, and Ashley Pankow.

The Kansas City Actors Theatre has announced its lineup of plays for 2017-2018 at the H&R Block City Stage in Union Station and the Spencer Theater on UMKC's campus. This is the company's 13th season of productions showcasing Kansas City's own top theatre professionals.

Kansas City Actors Theatre, in collaboration with the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, is presenting a free staged reading of The Beard of Avon on Sunday, February 26th at 2:00 pm at the H&R Block City Stage in Union Station.