Includes softball, theatre, art and more!
We are Kansas City’s university, and our hometown’s energy influences everything that happens here. We welcome our community to campus for an array of events, and we’re also happy to recommend opportunities on behalf of our alumni and friends. These activities are part of what give UMKC a vibrant campus life, and make UMKC an arts and culture powerhouse.
1. Conservatory Performances
The UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance students, faculty and alumni regularly perform on the UMKC campus and nearby facilities. If you want to hear live music from talented musicians, check out one of the many performances.
Details:
Check out the UMKC Conservatory calendar for a current list of free recitals and conservatory performances. Please note that some performances may have a fee.
2. UMKC Softball vs. Utah Valley
Good to know:
UMKC is Kansas City’s Division I sports team.
Details:
UMKC Softball will play Utah Valley at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., Friday, April 13; and at 1 p.m., Saturday, April 14 at the Urban Youth Academy, 1622 E. 17th Terrace, Kansas City, Mo. Attendance is free.
3. UMKC Theatre: ‘(Against) Type’
This is a collection of work challenging the parameters of texts and what the audience expects of them. From Tennessee Williams to Yasmina Reza, to Shakespeare, these scenes and monologues will have you questioning our assumptions around “type” and tradition. It is directed and created by Darren Sextro.
Details:
Performances run April 20 – 29 in Studio 116 of the Olson Performing Arts Center, 4949 Cherry St., Kansas City, Mo.
4. Unicorn Theatre: ‘Vietgone’
In Vietgone, award-winning pioneer playwright Qui Nguyen brilliantly chronicles the love story of his parents’ meeting in an Arkansas refugee center after fleeing Vietnam. It’s a buddy story, an all-American romance, and a motorcycle road-trip adventure that revisits 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.
Good to know:
Three UMKC Theatre graduates started Unicorn Theatre.
Details:
The play will run April 18 through May 13 on the Levin Stage, 3828 Main Street, Kansas City, Mo. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling the Box Office at 816-531-PLAY (7529).
5. The Coterie: ‘Jack and the Bean Mágico!’
The classic fairytale, “Jack and the Beanstalk,” is told with the audience’s help, who assist Jack as he climbs the beanstalk to the giant’s rich and fertile land. While there, Jack discovers the source of the trouble with his farmland, learning how to make it fertile again by understanding and balancing the life cycle. Young audiences will become tiny bugs in the giant’s garden. The giant loves the bugs because they help keep his soil and plants so healthy!
Good to know:
Two UMKC graduate theatre students founded The Coterie.
Details:
April 17 through May 20 at The Coterie, Crown Center, 2450 Grand Ave., Suite 144, Kansas City, Mo. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling the Box Office at 816-474-6552.
6. KC Rep: ‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’
This musical thriller tells the story of an obsessively vengeful barber and his twisted partnership with the outrageous Mrs. Lovett, who together devise a devilish plot to add a special ingredient to a recipe that has all of London dying for their pies. Sondheim’s gloriously gruesome and fiercely funny musical combines melodrama and murder and features one of the most chilling, thrilling scores ever written for the stage.
Details:
Performances run March 23 through April 15 at Spencer Theatre, James C. Olson Performing Arts Center, 4949 Cherry St., Kansas City, Mo. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Box Office at 816-235- 2700 or online.
7. A Look Inside Our Antique Bookplate Collection
As one of the more seemingly ephemeral works of graphic arts, bookplates nevertheless can wield a powerful visual presence in a small amount of space. Bookplates are printed labels that indicate ownership of a book, and are usually affixed to the inside cover of a volume. While the bookplates in this exhibit offer a cross-section of the collection, there are nearly 600 unique bookplates available for viewing in the LaBudde Special Collections.
Details:
This free exhibit is on display now and will run through the spring semester. It is on the Fourth Floor, Dean’s Gallery, Miller Nichols Library, 800 E. 51st St.
8. Cindy Williams starring in ‘Barefoot in the Park’
Newlywed Corie wants everything about the new apartment to be perfect for her new husband Paul. But it has no furniture or heat, the skylight lets in the snow, the paint job’s all wrong and the bedroom is too small for a bed. Just when things couldn’t get any worse, Corie’s mom and potential boyfriend show up. One of Neil Simon’s best comedies, “Barefoot” received an Oscar nomination and four Tony nominations including Best Play.
Good to know:
Co-owners Dennis Hennessy and Richard Carrothers are both UMKC graduates; the UMKC College of Arts and Sciences presented both honorary doctorates in 2012.
Details:
The production runs now through April 22 at New Theatre Restaurant, 9229 Foster
Overland Park, Kan. Tickets can be purchased online.
Check the following for other upcoming events: