Join the Midwest Trust Center at Johnson County Community College for a thrilling season of live performances. The lineup includes several collaborations with local artist and organizations including two concerts with the Friends of Chamber Music-Kansas City, the Opus 76 Quartet, Mesner Puppet Theater and the ninth festival of contemporary and modern dance known as New Dance Partners.
Highlights include:
Chris Botti (Aug. 24) will kick off the season in Yardley Hall. Botti is the complete package: a dazzling trumpeter at home in everything from jazz to pop to rock, a brilliant bandleader who lets his players shine, and a born showman whose joy at being onstage is infectious. See him live and you’ll understand why musical stars from Sting to Paul Simon to Joni Mitchell have been eager to share his stage.
The Midwest Trust Center will partner with the Friends of Chamber Music-Kansas City, presenting two acclaimed quartets. The Verona Quartet, winner of the Chamber Music America’s 2020 Cleveland Quartet Award, will perform Friday, September 30. On Saturday, February 18, the Emerson Quartet with guest David Finckel, cello, come to Yardley Hall as part of their farewell tour. They have maintained their status as one of the world’s premier chamber music ensembles for more than four decades collaborating with some of today’s most esteemed composers and soloists.
The acclaimed, record-breaking run of Disney’s Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Stage Adaptation, created and directed by Jonathan Rockefeller, will perform October 15 in Yardley Hall The celebrated show for families of all ages, will feature Pooh, Christopher Robin, and their best friends Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit and Owl (and Tigger too!) in a new story from the Hundred Acre Wood. This fresh stage adaptation is told with impressive life-size puppetry, telling exciting new stories featuring characters that have played iconic roles in the lives of children for generations.
Saturday, Oct. 22, the wait is over! Enjoy An Evening with Jon Heder, Jon Gries and Efren Ramirez as they screen the film Napoleon Dynamite followed by a conversation moderated by film critic Lonita Cook. The evening promises to be a hilarious celebration of the amazing comedy classic that made Napoleon Dynamite, LaFawnduh and Pedro household names. Jon Heder (Napoleon), Efren Ramirez (Pedro) and Jon Gries (Uncle Rico) have plenty of behind-the-scenes scoop on the film we all love.
On Sunday, Oct. 30, Piff the Magic Dragon and Puddles Pity Party will bring their Misery Loves Company tour to Yardley Hall. These satin-adorned down-and-outers have been pals since meeting ages ago at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Now, they’re world-famous and traveling the world. Not bad for two “losers” from “America’s Got Talent.”
Saturday, November 12, America’s favorite blonde, Elle Woods, is ready to prove who’s in charge (again) as Legally Blonde – The Musical comes to Yardley Hall for 2 performances. The ultimate Broadway tribute to girl power, Legally Blonde will take you from the UCLA sorority house to the Harvard halls of justice with the timely coming of age story of Broadway’s brightest heroine.
Saturday and Sunday, February 11 and 12, L.A. Theatre Works’ production of Lucy Loves Desi: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Sitcom comes to Polsky Theatre. Playwright Gregg Oppenheimer—son of I Love Lucy creator Jess Oppenheimer—spins this witty, fast-paced tale of Lucy and Desi’s battles with CBS over the pioneering ideas that changed the face of television forever. This show has as much heart and humor as an episode of I Love Lucy itself.
DakhaBrakha returns to the Midwest Trust Center Friday, February 24. Accompanied by Indian, Arabic, African, Russian and Australian traditional instrumentation, the quartet’s astonishingly powerful and uncompromising vocal range creates a trans-national sound rooted in Ukrainian culture. Reflecting fundamental elements of sound and soul, this “ethno chaos” band creates a world of unexpected new music.
Closing out the season, Cirque Kalabanté will perform Afrique en Cirque May 19 in Yardley Hall. This highly colorful creation features amazing acrobats performing authentic choreography to the frantic rhythms of native instruments of Guinea. Artistic director and company founder, Yamoussa Bangoura, radiates the diversity of traditional African arts with the virtuosity of the North American modern circus performance.
Ticket Information
Season packages go on sale May 2 at 10 a.m. Individual show tickets go on sale June 6. Tickets may be purchased online jccc.edu/MidwestTrustCenter or by phone (913) 469-4445.
For more information about each show in the 2022-2023 Season, visit www.jccc.edu/MidwestTrustCenter.
Disney’s The Little Mermaid Swims into The Lewis & Shirley White Theatre, July 6-28
“Disney’s The Little Mermaid” swims into The Lewis & Shirley White Theatre at The J on Saturday, July 6, where it will run for 14 performances on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays through July 28.…
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