BLANK by Brian Stanton

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE!

(click the link above to be re-directed to purchase tickets)

Kansas City Native Returns Home with Award-Winning Solo Play Exploring Adoption & Identity

Los Angeles based Playwright/Actor Brian Stanton announces the Midwest Premiere of his award-winning, critically acclaimed, original solo play BLANK, directed by McKerrin Kelly.

Produced by Heidi Van and The Fishtank Performance Studio in association with BLANK Productions, BLANK, written and performed by Kansas City native Stanton, will run June 23 – July 10, Thursdays thru Saturdays at 8:30pm with Sunday matinees at 3:00pm at The Fishtank Performance Studio in the Crossroads District of Kansas City at 1715 Wyandotte.  Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online at 

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/178955.

Stanton plays 12 characters to share his true adoption story, the title referring to the name space on his Original Birth Certificate.  He has 2 birth certificates: one stating the names of his adoptive parents, and, although illegal for adoptees to possess in his birth state of Missouri, one revealing the name of his birth mother.  Brian embarks on a mythical quest for identity only to learn he’s a product of rape.  This horrific truth ultimately leads Brian to discover an instinctive love for his birth mother, a grateful dedication to his adoptive family and a sense of wholeness within.

BLANK had its World Premiere in Los Angeles, CA in April of 2010.  Since then, BLANK has visited Off Broadway New York, Dallas, Orlando and several cities in Southern California garnering critical acclaim along the way including a “Best Solo Actor” award at the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York City and 2 StageSceneLA awards: “Outstanding Actor in a Solo Performance” for Stanton and “Outstanding Director of a Solo Performance” for Kelly. Following the Kansas City run, BLANK will return to New York City in August for the New York International Fringe Festival.  Stanton has also reached out to the adoption community performing for national support organizations such as the American Adoption Congress and the Concerned United Birthparents.

Stanton began his professional acting career in Overland Park, KS at Theatre for Young America in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as Mike TeeVee in 1988.  He was last seen acting in Kansas City in The Rose Theatre at Rockhurst High School in 1993.  After receiving his MFA in Theatre at California Institute of the Arts, he has made a theatrical career in Southern California. BLANK marks Stanton’s first turn as playwright.

For further information on BLANK, please visit www.thebrianstanton.com and “Like” BLANK on Facebook. 

BUY TICKETS HERE!

Pies From the Porn Kitchen -EXTENDED! April 7-9!

A new play by Natalie Licardello

"A potent bit of alternative theatre." - KC Star
Read the full review here!

Two cleaning ladies walk into an upscale Manhattan apartment and encounter an unlikely mix of baked goods, pornography, and a naked dude named Zeke. Shenanigans ensue, hearts are won, and a star is born in “Pies from the Porn Kitchen”, a new play by Natalie Liccardello, directed by TJ Chasteen and starring Emily Peterson, Maggie Hogan and J. Will Fritz.

Performances are 8:00pm on Thursday April 7, and Friday, April 8.
A late night performance at 10pm on Saturday, April 9.
Pie and refreshments will be served.

To reserve you ticket call (816) 809-7110 or email heidi@fishtanktheater.com. Tickets are $10 - 20 on a sliding scale. Proceeds benefit the University Theatre Association.

Pies From the Porn Kitchen,

Get Committed!

THREE PERFORMANCES LEFT!
MARCH 17,18 & 19
All shows at 8:30pm
Tickets: $15

This devastatingly funny show follows a day in the life of Sam Peliczowski, an out-of-work actor who mans the red-hot reservation line at New York's number-one restaurant. From a high class housewife, to Naomi Campbell's light in the loafer assistant and many more in this cast of desperate callers who will stop at nothing to land a prime reservation, or the right table. Amid the insanity, Sam's got his own needs to contend with—his recently widowed dad wants him home for Christmas, and he's up for a choice part at Lincoln Center. While juggling scheming socialites, name-dropping wannabes, fickle celebrities and egomaniacal bosses, can he manage to look out for himself? Fully Committed boasts a cast of 40 all played by one man!

Shea Coffman as Sam Peliczowski
Directed by Fishtank Curator, Heidi Van

PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS IN ADVANCE

Birdies

116 W. 18th Street

12:00PM - 7:00PM (Tuesday - Sunday)

You can also purchase your tickets at the door 1/2 prior to showtime.

Seating is limited and tickets are going fast!

Get Your Seats TODAY!!

TICKETS NOW ON SALE! $15

Fully Committed

by Becky Mode

MARCH 3,4 & 5; 10,11,12 & 14; 17,18 & 19

All shows at 8:30pm

Tickets: $15

This devastatingly funny show follows a day in the life of Sam Peliczowski, an out-of-work actor who mans the red-hot reservation line at New York's number-one restaurant. From a high class housewife, to Naomi Campbell's light in the loafer assistant and many more in this cast of desperate callers who will stop at nothing to land a prime reservation, or the right table. Amid the insanity, Sam's got his own needs to contend with—his recently widowed dad wants him home for Christmas, and he's up for a choice part at Lincoln Center. While juggling scheming socialites, name-dropping wannabes, fickle celebrities and egomaniacal bosses, can he manage to look out for himself? Fully Committed boasts a cast of 40 all played by one man!

Shea Coffman as Sam Peliczowski

Directed by Fishtank Curator, Heidi Van

PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS IN ADVANCE

Birdies

116 W. 18th Street

12:00PM - 7:00PM (Tuesday - Sunday)

You can also purchase your tickets at the door 1/2 prior to showtime.

Seating is limited and tickets are going fast!

Get your tickets today!!

A Night of Re-defining Social Conventions

Rhiannon Birdsall Invitational Performance

A Fishtank monthly series

presents

PRIVATE vs. PUBLIC

February 24th 7:00pm

Come enjoy another round of performances at The Fishtank Studio! This month's theme PRIVATE vs. PUBLIC challenges and blurs the boundaries between social, private and public content. You can expect a night full of dynamic original new perspectives on how we extend, and define, and re-appropriate our public and private conventions. So come with an open mind and experience how each artist personally defines this month's theme!

Adults drinks and perhaps some snacks!
Donations: $5-15 sliding scale donation (no one will be turned away!!!)

The “Rhiannon Birdsall Invitational Performances” is a conceptually themed performance series featuring local artists, and performers every last Thursday of the month at The Fishtank Performance Studio. The monthly performance series was founded in the Fall of 2009 by local artist Paul Shortt and is continued by friend, and collaborating local artist and actress Rhiannon Birdsall.

The "Invitational Performances" support artists and viewer pursuits in experimental, interactive, and non-traditional forms of expression with a live audience.

Second Year of Celebration!!

KC Crossroads Comedy

Friday, February 25, 2011

7:00PM - 9:00PM

Fishtank Performance Studio and KC Crossroads Comedy are celebrating their second year of partnership. This collaboration has generated some of the most innovative improv of 2010, and in keeping with that tradition, Kansas City Crossroads Comedy will offer a pair of first-ever collaborations in their February improv show.

Featuring: comedy troupe Jane Goodall - a collaboration between two elite troupes Your Mother Called and Not A Great Gorilla, Mike Farris and Christian Robinson performing Non De Script and Kansas City's best Babel Fish.

These show are very popular and sell out quickly, get your tickets in advance or arrive early and pay at the door. Doors open at 6:30!!

Tickets: $8
Purchase at the door or in advance at www.kcxrc.com/tickets.

Haunted by a Dead Man's Cellphone!

Friday, February 18, 2011
Dead Man's Cellphone


by Sarah Ruhl
presented by Laurence Arts Center Theatre



“'Dead Man’s Cell Phone' educates, imagines, surprises, and entertains in perfect proportions, and if the Lawrence Arts Center keeps bringing remarkable plays, it would be exciting indeed." Thomas C. Hardy, Lawrence.com

While at a café, a man dies - but his cell phone will not stop ringing. The woman at the next table, Jean, picks it up and finds herself stuck in the middle of the dead man's troubles. She meets his widow his mother, his mistress, and ends up falling in love with the dead man's brother. Come enjoy this professional "over 18" comedy - bring your friends and turn off your Cell Phone!

Featuring:

Jeanne Averill

Will Averill

Doogin Brown

Natalie Liccardello

Kitty Steffens

Dian Yvette

Directed by Ric Averill


Tickets: $15
www.lawrenceartscenter.org

Read the reviews!!
Lawrence.com
LJWorld.com

The Fishtank Goes BOOM!!!

On Sunday, February 20 at 7PM join us for the first of our BOOM! Unplugged Series.

Meet the siblings of Boom! An International Lost and Found Family Marching Band in a casual, hip setting doing brand new strange and revealing material.

The above video clip is an excerpt from their KC Fringe performance!

Sunday's performance features Lily, Baloo and Neil (aka Stephanie Roberts, Heidi Van and Peter Lawless)

Tickets: $5-$15 sliding scale

All proceeds go toward the Boom! Spring Tour!!!

The lines are long... so get your tickets in advance!

WHITE NOSE CHRISTMAS
created & performed by
DAVID WAYNE REED, BESS WALLERSTEIN
& HEIDI VAN

Now Playing Dec. 16 - 23 at 8:30pm
Tickets are *$15 and available in advance at
Birdies Panties, 116 W. 18th Street
*SEATING IS LIMITED, WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND PURCHASING TICKETS IN ADVANCE. TIX ARE $15, THERE WAS A MISPRINT IN THE KC STAR ON PRICING.

"Runaway winner for best holiday show...story flies like a Friday night on ecstacy and is as crisp as this week's issue of US Weekly."

-GRACE SUH, PITCH WEEKLY

"A holiday show unlike anyother...the room resonated with a vibe that wouldn't be out of place in a hole-in-the-wall theatre in downtown Manhattan."

-ROBERT TRUSSELL, KANSAS CITY STAR

Brindsay Kardilton is a Hollywood It Girl with a penchant for all vices great and small. It's all fame and reindeer games till a car accident/DUI/altercation lands her in the slammer. On a not-so-silent night in Jail, Brindsay Kardilton is visited by the Ghosts of Rehab Past, Present & Future where visions of booger sugar and fenemies dance in her head.

Don't miss this original Fishtank Holiday Show by David Wayne Reed, Heidi Van & Bess Wallerstein!!!

A Big Easy Welcome to KC's Fishtank Performers

Kansas City’s growing reputation as a theater town was enhanced last weekend when Heidi Van and performers from the Fishtank Performance Studio staged “L’Histoire D’Amour: A Clown Love Story” at the New Orleans Fringe Festival.

Van and Matt Weiss, along with musicians Daniel Eichenbaum and Peter Lawless, delivered four performances of the piece in the window of Le Chat Noir, a New Orleans cabaret and bar on St. Charles Avenue in the Warehouse District, where other festival artists performed.

“L’Histoire D’Amour” was initially staged in 2009 at the Fishtank, a small venue near 17th and Wyandotte streets. Audiences seated in folding chairs on the street watched the 30-minute show through the Fishtank’s picture window and on the sidewalk.

Van plays Lucette, a pastry chef who falls in love with Marcel (Weiss), a Charlie Chaplin-like vagrant, but the window glass prevents them from being together. The action is accompanied by Eichenbaum on clarinet and Lawless on accordion.

Van said she applied to the New Orleans festival in the “bring your own venue” category, which meant it was up to her to find a place to perform. She said she looked at 50 locations, including a park, on Google Earth before Le Chat Noir invited the group to perform.

“They have a classy, sexy bar in front and a little cabaret theater in back,” she said. “And their window was huge. It’s twice as big as the Fishtank window.”

Van said she and Weiss brought minimal scenic elements with them. They had to build platforms once they arrived.

“I had a tub of scenery, a tub of extension cords and lights and a tub of props,” she said.

Van said that the show was well-received and that people were often surprised when they discovered the troupe’s home base.

“They said, ‘Where are you from? Montreal? Greenwich Village? You mean you’re from Kansas City?’ ” Van said.

Van said it was such a good experience that she wants to return to the Big Easy.

“The four of us have all decided we want to do this again next year,” she said. “I really didn’t know if I could pull this off, and I did. And that makes me feel like I can do almost anything. I’ve got a big appetite. And I love touring.”

Up next for Van is a new piece in December at the Fishtank — “Brindsay Kardilton’s White Nose Christmas,” which she’s creating with theater artists David Wayne Reed and Bess Wallerstein.

To learn more about the Fishtank, visit www.fishtanktheater .blogspot.com.

To reach Robert Trussell, theater critic, call 816-234-4765 or send e-mail to rtrussell@kcstar.com.

Posted on Wed, Dec. 01, 2010 10:15 PM

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/01/2487221/a-big-easy-welcome-to-kcs-fishtank.html#ixzz1705DjhUI