If you are around a week from this Saturday on August 27th please come to the Twist and Shout--Joplin Art benefit I have been working on the last two months.  Approximately 90 KC artists have enlisted to make new works of art from a debris pile that a number of us have gathered on two trips to Joplin.  We will have a silent and live auction of all the work that night.  There will be some light appetizers, drink and music.  We have Johnny Rowlands MCing the event.  We also have a bus load of people coming up from Joplin. Admission is a suggested art material that will be used for art therapy sessions in Joplin to help children and adults cope with their tough experiences otherwise a suggested $5 donation.

100% of the proceeds from the art auction will go to a special fund through the Spiva Arts Center of Joplin in which local Joplin artists who have lost their homes, studios, art materials will be able to apply for mini-grants to help them get restarted.

If you are from out of town and you can't come and would like to still support the project you can go online to our project website or you can send a check made out to the Spiva Arts Center  with a memo line "Project Reclamation"--send directly to the Spiva Center for the Arts 222 W. 3rd Street Joplin, MO. 64801.  Our project website is  www.kcartists4joplin.com  There is a great variety of working painting, photography, sculpture, mixed media, works made with light and neon, etc....

the project was featured recently in the KC Star Arts Preview by Alice Thorson  KC STAR ARTICLE LINK

I have attached a flyer that I would appreciate you forwarding on to other friends you think would love to support the project through a donation and/or have fun evening out.  There will be a number of people from Joplin coming up to support the event--I hope for the art lovers of KC to come out an show their support.

I have attached an image of the first of two works of art I have created incorporating Joplin debris. One I made use of a wooden children's chair and tree branches...

thank you,
Matt

Matthew Dehaemers
Artist Website www.matthewdehaemers.com

E.M.U. Theatre of Lawrence, KS announces auditions for its upcoming Halloween production: Horrorshow V: “The Last Call of C'thulhu at the Old Arkham Saloon".

The production is a collection of locally written short plays adapted or inspired by the works of seminal horror author, H. P. Lovecraft.  Performances will be the last two Fridays and Saturdays in October (Oct. 21-22 and 28-29) and Halloween Monday, October 31.  Roles are available for adults of all ages.  No prepared audition material is required.

Auditions will take place:
-Saturday, August 20, 3 - 6 PM in the gallery at The Lawrence Public Library, (707 Vermont St.)

-Thursday, August 25, 7 - 10 PM at The Invisible Hand Art Gallery, (801 1/2 Massachusetts St., Suite D)

-Saturday August 27, 2 - 5 PM in the auditorium at The Lawrence Public Library, (707 Vermont St.)

For more information please contact:

Andy Stowers, producer, 785-312-4407, andystowers@gmail.com

Todd Schwartz, director, 785-766-4772, impresario615@hotmail.com

OK, I am going to do my best to see a lot of these shows, but even if I don’t, I want to make a few recommendations.

• Shakespeare in the Parking Lot V

Last year, my husband decided to participate in this event at the Alcott Arts Center in Kansas City, Kan. It’s just about the most fun to see Shakespeare performed by folks who simply have a love for it. This year, the production is As You Like It and is directed by Rockhurst professor Dr. Susan Proctor. The show stretches over two weekends — Sept. 10-11 and 17-18. There will be an art fair the first day. The play starts at 4 p.m. We have a dear friend playing in the show, Troy Olsen. Remember to give Alcott a chance. Chuck and Chris Green are the loving caretakers of this former elementary school on 18^th Street. They wanted to take the former school and make it a viable arts center. Since 2002, the engine has been chugging along, making inroads and keeping the community engaged.

www.alcottartscenter.org

• Rules for Widows by Michael Ruth

From Sept. 8 – Oct. 2, the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre takes a stab at the play, Rules for Widows. The unexpected death of a husband unravels a string of deceptions and family turmoil. Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre's Artistic Director Karen Paisley will put her stamp on this production. Actress Jan Rogge takes on the lead character of Iris and MET Core company member Marilyn Lynch stars as Liddie, the overbearing sister.

http://home.mindspring.com/~metoffice/id1.html

• The Barn Players Present The Drowsy Chaperone

From Sept. 16 – Oct. 2, The Barn Players present the awesome, feel-good, musical comedy The Drowsy Chaperone, a show with tons of laughs, great music and the winner of the most Tony Awards of any show on Broadway in 2006. In the play, a die-hard musical comedy fan, puts his favorite cast album, a 1928 musical hit called The Drowsy Chaperone on his home record player and the musical magically bursts to life right in his living room, telling the tale of a beautiful celebrity bride and her uproarious wedding day.

The Barn Players production is directed by Barb Nichols and features Eric Magnus, Julie O’Rourke, Rob Reeder, Julie Shaw, Mark Allen Johnson, Greg Butell, Jay Coombes, Kay Noonan, Mark Murphy, Trevor French and Curt Crespino.

Artistic Director Magnus is usually handling directing responsibilities and other executive decisions, but he is returning to the stage. “I haven’t been on stage since the fall of 2009, so I’m excited about the prospect of returning after concentrating on directing shows and running The Barn Players for the last two years. This will be my first appearance in a regular season show at The Barn since Urinetown in 2006.  I’m looking forward to working with the incredibly talented cast of actors from all over the metro area...and am grateful that director Barb Nichols cast me as "Man in Chair" after my audition. I can't wait to work with her again.”

www.thebarnplayers.org

• Coterie Theatre Presents The Outsiders

I remember being almost a teenager and begging my mother to take me to see this movie that starred all the heartthrobs from Tiger Beat Magazine. The movie The Outsiders, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, was just full of all the coolest guys: C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise and Leif Garrett. Even the lovely Diane Lane was the love interest. The story of the haves and the have-nots hit my mother. Then I read the book by S.E. Hinton.

For the longest time, I thought S.E. Hinton was a man. It’s actually a woman named Susan Eloise Hinton. I liked that a woman wrote the story about gangs and fighting. The Socs jump Greasers like Ponyboy and his friend Johnny for fun. When Johnny kills a Soc who was beating the two of them up, the pair goes into hiding. As Pony's world crumbles, it teaches him that pain feels the same whether a Soc or a Greaser.

I wonder how Producing Artistic Director Jeff Church will tackle this show. It is a great piece of literature that has already found its way to the big screen. I can only imagine the intimacy of the Coterie Theatre will provide an even more powerful setting. I guess the trick will be to see the play sometime between Sept. 13 and Oct. 9.

www.coterietheatre.org

If you are around a week from this Saturday on August 27th please come to the Twist and Shout--Joplin Art benefit I have been working on the last two months.  Approximately 90 KC artists have enlisted to make new works of art from a debris pile that a number of us have gathered on two trips to Joplin.  We will have a silent and live auction of all the work that night.  There will be some light appetizers, drink and music.  We have Johnny Rowlands MCing the event.  We also have a bus load of people coming up from Joplin. Admission is a suggested art material that will be used for art therapy sessions in Joplin to help children and adults cope with their tough experiences otherwise a suggested $5 donation.

100% of the proceeds from the art auction will go to a special fund through the Spiva Arts Center of Joplin in which local Joplin artists who have lost their homes, studios, art materials will be able to apply for mini-grants to help them get restarted.

If you are from out of town and you can't come and would like to still support the project you can go online to our project website or you can send a check made out to the Spiva Arts Center  with a memo line "Project Reclamation"--send directly to the Spiva Center for the Arts 222 W. 3rd Street Joplin, MO. 64801.  Our project website is  www.kcartists4joplin.com  There is a great variety of working painting, photography, sculpture, mixed media, works made with light and neon, etc....

the project was featured recently in the KC Star Arts Preview by Alice Thorson  KC STAR ARTICLE LINK

I have attached a flyer that I would appreciate you forwarding on to other friends you think would love to support the project through a donation and/or have fun evening out.  There will be a number of people from Joplin coming up to support the event--I hope for the art lovers of KC to come out an show their support.

I have attached an image of the first of two works of art I have created incorporating Joplin debris. One I made use of a wooden children's chair and tree branches...

thank you,
Matt

Matthew Dehaemers
Artist Website www.matthewdehaemers.com

Sarah's Key reviewed by Heidi Nast

Sarah's Key meshes elements of fiction with historical non-fiction, an oxymoron if you will of truth within a story of coincidences. Sarah's Key is an adaptation from a book titled Elle s'appelait Sarah by Tatiana de Rosnay.  French subtitled with hints of English spoken, directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner starring Kristin Scott Thomas (Julia) and Mélusine Mayance as 10-year old (Sarah Starzynski) interweaves flashbacks between 1942 and current day Paris.

For me, a history buff at heart; my question throughout the movie was, “Did Vel' d'Hiv Roundup really happen” in Paris during WWII?  My message to you is to know your history before you see Sarah's Key.  Until German occupation of France in 1940, a formal census had not been held in France since 1874. By late September 1940, a German ordinance was enforced that all citizens, with an expressed emphasis on the Jewish population in the occupied zone, register at their local French police station.  This was a joint effort between the German officials and French administrators gathering Jewish files in Paris and in the neighboring suburbs that were categorized and handed over to the Gestapo in charge of the “Jewish problem.”  Yet another step toward the final solution, part of a continent-wide plan to intern and exterminate Europe's Jewish population. 

The first roundup was in May 1941, arresting 4,000 men. The second roundup on July 16-17, 1942 (just after Bastille Day on July 14) code named Opération Vent printanier, “Operation Spring Breeze” arrested 13,152 Jews comprising mostly of women and children that were held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver; a bicycling racetrack-stadium until they were transportated to Auschwitz for extermination. Conditions for the arrested were harsh. Most families were split up and never reunited. There remain an unknown number of people, warned by the French Resistance or hidden by neighbors that escaped being rounded up. During German occupation 76,000 Jews were deported from France with perhaps as few as 2,500 returning after the war.  What is most chilling is that under the orders of the Nazis, it was the French Government  and their own complicit French police who carried out these raids. In 1995 French President Jacques Chirac apologized for the role of French policemen and civil servants served in these raids.

Sarah's Key is an important story to be told — one to remind each of us the horrors that mankind can inflict.  It pulled at my soul, it made my heart ache and my intellect cringe at the thought of human atrocity.  Sarah is a testament of perseverance and yet, suffers her own demons of survivor’s guilt. What would I do?  Would I react the same way Sarah did?  How could I piece my life together with so much torn away?  Would I undoubtedly lose all sense of trust in what the future holds?  The closing line (I'm paraphrasing) suggests that when a story is told it will never be forgotten in an effort to remind future generations of what could have been.  Message received.   

Lidia's Italian Restaurant in the old Kansas City Freight District has a beautiful upstairs event loft. Bryan Moses takes the reins again as producer of this The Living Room series, and continues to bring a unique experience to that space.

The Accidental Waiter is a theatrical event created by Alex Espy and Matt Weiss. Mark Lowrey returns on keyboard with his improvisational accompaniment. After a successful first run, this second time around the cast has expanded with the addition of Annie Cherry, Katie Gilchrist, and Damian Blake, joining Alan Tilson and Marty Honig, but alas, no Matt Weiss.

The show is directed by Alex Espy, creator of last summer's Alice in Wonderland at the Nelson Atkins Museum.

The show begins at 2:30 and runs August 20, 21, 27, 28, and September 3 & 4. Tickets are $20, for reservations call Lidia's at 816.221.3722. Lidia's address is 101 W 22nd St. KCMO.

Documentary on “underground” musicians includes two from KC

KANSAS CITY, MO – What does it take to sing, strum and otherwise make live music for sometimes little or no money in the subterranean recesses of the Big Apple?

Find out in “Busking the System,” an entertaining and enlightening documentary feature film that follows several young “buskers” or street musicians as they seek artistic success and most importantly pocket change in the New York City subway system.

CinemaKC, a not-for-profit organization connecting film-devoted groups in Missouri and Kansas, will present the Kansas City premiere of “Busking the System” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 19; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20; and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 21, at the Screenland Crown Center, 2450 Grand Blvd.

The film’s cast of authentic characters includes musician and Kansas City native Phillip Bradley and former Akron, Ohio, musician Nate Corsi, who now calls Kansas City home.

“I feel like we captured a couple of real-life adventures with real characters,” said “Busking the System” director Justin Michael Morales, an independent filmmaker from Manchester, Conn. “The film tells the story of the first amendment and how it applies to art and music.”

Friday night’s screening of “Busking the System” will include a Q&A with one of the filmmakers and busker Bradley. Saturday night’s screening will include a Q&A with director Morales, and buskers Bradley and Corsi. Sunday night’s screening will include a Q&A with Morales and Bradley.

Having enough talent is only the first step in achieving successful buskerdom in the subway’s packed and noisy public spaces. You’ve also got to have enough nerve to risk getting on other people’s nerves.

“If you don’t live in New York, you don’t know what busking is,” said singer, songwriter and guitarist Bradley. “If you do live in New York, you are both annoyed and amazed – and made to feel uncomfortable by buskers. They are a certain breed of people.”

They comprise such colorful performers as enigmatic singer and keyboardist Mystro Dee, who maintains that if you don’t feel the music, neither will passersby; trendsetting percussionist Larry Wright, considered to be the subway’s first plastic bucket drummer; and joyful musical saw player Natalia Paruz, who quit her regular day job when she realized that she could make more money busking.

“I want to open the eyes of the viewer to a new world,” said director Morales. “ ‘Busking the System’ brings you into the subways of New York City to see the sights and hear the sounds of a melting pot of dreamers not only from all over the country, but from all over the world.”

Tickets to “Busking the System” cost $6 (matinees) and $8 (evenings); go to screenland.com or call the box office at 816-421-9700.

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CinemaKC’s Strategic Partners include ArtsKC, Film Commission of Greater Kansas City, Blackberry Castle Productions, Film Society of Greater Kansas City, Independent Filmmaker’s Coalition, Kansas City Film Critics Circle, Kansas City FilmFest, Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee, Kansas City Fringe Festival, Kansas City Screenwriters, Kansas City Urban Film Festival, Kansas City Women in Film and TV, Kansas Film Commission, Kansas International Film Festival, Missouri Film Commission, Missouri Motion Media Association, Reel Spirit, Thank You Walt Disney, UMKC Film Department, University of Kansas Film and Media Studies, Variety the Children's Charity of Greater Kansas City and Women of the Motion Picture Industry.

CinemaKC’s Business Alliance includes Allied Integrated Marketing, Allied Theatre Craft, American Heartland Theatre, Haywood Marketing Communications, Kansas City Area Development Council, KC Stage Magazine, KC Studio, Prizm Productions, Screenland Armour, Screenland Crossroads, Screenland Crown Center, StagePort KC, Substream Music & Sound Design and T2.

In five performances produced by Musical Theater Heritage, I have yet to be disappointed by any show. The variety has been vast — Big River, a more traditional American musical to the all-women cast of 1776. Then there is the charming A Spectacular Christmas. I had the chance to take my father to see Gypsy with Deb Bluford in the lead role and walked out, again amazed at the big bang for the production buck. And now they have staged the collaborative effort of lyricist Tim Rice and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita.

The show runs Thursday through Sunday. The next shows are Aug. 18-21 and Aug. 25-28. The Thursday performances are at 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m. and the Saturday and Sunday matinees are at 2 p.m. And remember this is affordable theater that doesn’t break the bank.

In many polls of famous actors that helped shape political change, Eva Duarte Peron is often listed in the top 10. Eva, the illegitimate child of a farm laborer and coachman’s daughter, escaped her small town life at 15 for a career in show business in Buenos Aires. She made six movies and found some success as a radio star. However, her political motivations led to marriage with military leader Juan Peron in 1945. Her humble background, frowned upon by the upper classes, made her a hero to the poor. Within a year, Peron was elected president, thanks in no small part to the popularity of “Evita” (Little Eva). Politically astute, Eva had a strong influence in her husband’s government, and he wanted her to run as his vice-president in the 1951 election. Sadly, she had been stricken with cervical cancer and was too ill. She died in 1952 at the age of 33.

Twenty-six years later, Rice and Webber unveiled Evita in the West End. The show hit Broadway in 1979. A Broadway revival is slated for 2012. Until then, Musical Theater Heritage is doing its best to breathe a unique life into this musical for Kansas City audiences.

Katie Karel, a blond spitfire who keeps charming me in each role I see her in, plays Eva Peron. She has a big voice that fills Crown Center’s Off Centre Theatre. In last year’s 1776, she played Edward Rutledge, the delegate from South Carolina. Her number Molasses to Rum gave me goose bumps. She sang in MTH’s production of Big River and then at the Kansas City Repertory’s production of Into the Woods. Her voice is mighty. My husband, who has fast become a huge fan of Musical Theater Heritage, said Kansas City audiences are fortunate that Karel has stayed in Kansas City. Don’t miss her singing Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina — I was really moved to tears.

The actor, Tim Scott, impressed me. I found him charming and sometimes a little scary as the narrator Che. Most of Musical Theater Heritage’s shows are staged as a sort of old-time radio show with most of the actors having their own microphones and stands to place their music. The one exception to this is the Christmas Spectacular. Scott has a body mic and moves freely around the stage and the actors. That part was the little scary part as he moves like a vengeful spirit, especially in And the Money Kept Rolling In.

The other standout for me is Aubrey Ireland. In her first show with Musical Theater Heritage, she plays Juan Peron’s lover, an unnamed girl, who gets to sing one of the most beautiful pieces of feminine strength, Another Suitcase in Another Hall. I don’t know if it was Ireland who made the song work or my anticipation for the song, but it was top-notch.

Michael Dragen is super fun as Migaldi, the lounge singer who discovers Eva. Christopher Sanders is a stoic and tall figure with a great baritone voice. He delivers Juan Peron with a sort of understated charm. Juan Peron was probably more Machiavellian, but I have always felt that the musical character is much more devoted to Eva than he is political.

I have to give one more plug for my friend Ken Remmert. While I have seen him in shows and he has a comedic streak a mile long, I sometimes have to remember that he is a percussionist as well. For this musical, he is behind the drum kit.

And once again, a big round of applause goes to Director Sarah Crawford and producers George Harter and Chad Gerlt. It’s a remarkable production and to take a phrase from my second favorite song, “High flying, adored/ Did you believe in your wildest moments/ All this would be yours.” Keep up the good work, Musical Theater Heritage team, your wildest dreams of success are yours.