MTH: A performing arts stand-out
Local theater buffs have lots of choices. Kansas City’s theater scene is well-populated. So how does a performing arts venue stand out?
“We’re able to offer a professional live theatergoing experience in an intimate seven-row theater setting,” says Melissa Ford, director of development for Musical Theater Heritage at Crown Center.
The 22-year-old theater company produces musicals, cabarets and original reviews in three performing arts spaces on Crown’s Center’s third level. The main stage seats 244 patrons, MTH Stage 2 seats 133 and Studio Theater, up to 100.
“Our theater is an intimate setting with truly not a bad seat,” says Danica Murdock-Colin, MTH executive assistant and project coordinator.
Now halfway through the 2019 season, MTH is presenting its reimagined production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s spirited musical, Oklahoma! It runs through June 30. The next production is Lin Manuel Miranda’s four-time Tony Award-winning musical, In the Heights, opening Aug. 8.
The Musical Monday and Tuesday series continues with upcoming performances, Let’s Disco; Folk Yeah!; and Treat Me Nice: A Musical Tribute to the King. This is the popular series’s 11th season.
Summer theater camps, among MTH’s most sought-after programs for K-12 students, are underway. This week’s five-day camp, Get Wicked!, is for young thespians going into grades six through 12. It’s the fifth of 12 camps offered this summer. They typically fill up, but as of June 25, four camps still have a few openings.
Since beginning with four camps and 20 campers in 2016, MTH has increased to 34 camps to meet growing demand. To date, 620 youngsters have attended, many on scholarship.
“Twenty-one percent are scholarship students,” says Andrea Boswell-Burns, MTH education and community outreach director. “This summer alone we were able to offer 54 scholarships.”
During spring break, MTH provided a weeklong outreach camp at Operation Breakthrough. Generous donors made the camp possible for urban youth who’d have no other way to experience theater camp, Boswell-Burns says.
Afterschool programs and workshops and student matinees are also components of MTH’s three-year-old education and community outreach initiatives, which have reached 1,000-plus students. Partnering with Girl Scouts of Northeast Kansas and Northwest Missouri, MTH designed workshops to help Scouts earn arts badges. Girl Scout workshops resume starting Sep. 7.
“Girl Scouts community outreach is connecting us with urban troops that may not have the funds or transportation to reach us. We can take our curriculum to them,” says Boswell-Burns.
She curates and leads post-show discussions with the cast following K-12 student matinee performances and designs accompanying age-appropriate classroom resources.
“With each of our shows, we have a curriculum and connections piece,” she says. “When they come to a show, we provide a dramaturgical packet to be used as an educational resource.”
MTH is accepting internship applications for the 2020 season. Currently three interns occupy the 2019 season stipend-based positions.
The nonprofit also relies on 145 volunteers in all departments, says Boswell-Burns. “Our volunteers help make us who we are.”
MTH will hold auditions by appointment for the 2020 season July 20 and 21 for “strong actors/singers/dancers” and diverse performers, including those with a disability.
“MTH employs some of Kansas City’s best actors,” says Murdock-Colin. “We also draw from a very talented regional pool of performers.”
Thanks to executive artistic director, Tim Scott, both the current and just-announced 2020 season are happily mixed bags.
“Tim definitely has his thumb on the pulse of what our audiences want to see and what he wants to push our audiences to try,” says Boswell-Burns.
Funding for the mission-driven nonprofit comes from tax-deductible corporate and individual donations, and foundation and arts grants.
MTH is dedicated to fostering awareness and appreciation for the American musical, Ford says, and celebrating the art form while entertaining and educating the next generation of artists and theater lovers.
