By Paul Horsley One of the challenges of the Kauffman Center these days is for the resident companies to prove that the brilliant successes of the first two seasons were […]

By Paul Horsley Jodie Gates has danced, choreographed, staged ballets, created festivals, served as mentor for young dancers. But few things excite the California native more than creating new choreography, […]

By Paul Horsley The operatic version of the Romeo and Juliet legend that Bellini and his librettist Felice Romani created from Italian sources predating Shakespeare is at least as action-packed […]

By Paul Horsley Always look both ways before crossing, because sometimes the car that hits you comes from the place you least expect. The season-opening productions by the KC Actors […]

By Paul Horsley Not every child prodigy makes it through adolescence to emerge as an extraordinary adult artist. One such musician to arrive recently at the “other side” is pianist […]

By Paul Horsley Opera is such a collaborative art form that it cannot succeed unless music, acting, stage direction and design all work together to form a sort of magical […]

By Paul Horsley Eugene O’Neill’s dark-hued Long Day’s Journey into Night is a classic whose infrequency on the stage belies its importance in theater history. The great Irish American playwright […]

A Conversation with Angela Lee Gieras Angela Lee Gieras is a financial whiz whose fundraising savvy is driven by a lifelong passion for theater, so she was in many ways […]

By Paul Horsley Part of the fun of watching William Inge’s Picnic just a stone’s throw from its setting, the small-town Kansas milieu in which the playwright was raised, is […]

By Paul Horsley To be sure, one could start by looking at the sheer empirical data on Deborah Sandler’s first season as general director and CEO of the Lyric Opera […]

British playwrights have figured heavily into the Kansas City Actors Theatre seasons of late, so this year the nine-year-old company found material for its late-summer shows closer to home. KCAT’s […]

BOLD NEW DANCE: In an era of change, Carney steps in as Kansas City Ballet’s new leader By Paul Horsley It must be an exciting time to be Devon Carney. […]

  If you want to build a dance festival from scratch, the key is collaboration. When veteran Kansas City Ballet dancers Logan Pachciarz and Anthony Krutzkamp determined to create an […]

Summer in Kansas City used to be a pretty sleepy affair for classical music, theater and dance, but no longer. The Summer Solstice is not even upon us yet, and […]

NO LIMITS   –    Stern on the Kansas City Symphony: We’re just getting started! One of the exciting things about living in Kansas City through the last decade has been […]

The stars came out on May 12th, as the Kansas City Ballet bid farewell to its longtime artistic director, William Whitener. He departs this June 30th after 17 years at […]

NINE FOR THE NINE THAT DRESSED SO FINE: Harriman-Jewell Series presents Cantus Cantus is an all-male a cappella ensemble consisting of nine singers who perform a most eclectic mix of […]

Unicorn’s production of Potok adaptation is golden My Name is Asher Lev became a classic work of American fiction virtually from the day it came out in 1972, and Aaron […]

To be a serious ballet company these days you can’t just do an endless series of Swan Lakes: You’ve got to push things forward. The Kansas City Ballet in its […]

You’d be hard-pressed to find an American artist in any field as interesting and engaging as Karole Armitage. The Wisconsin native, who grew up partly in Lawrence, learned classical ballet […]

Almost every singer has a “breakthrough” moment, when he or she lands the right role at the right time and scores a deep impression with public and press. For Irish-born […]