Tuesday, November 28, 2017

The 5th Annual 12 Plays of Christmas

Join the Fishtank for our 5th Annual Holiday Show, THE 12 PLAYS OF CHRISTMAS!
by Devon Barnes, Emma Carter, Coleman Crenshaw, Joseph De Maria, Julie Thies Dunlap, Joshua Gleeson, and Heidi Van.

Featuring Devon Barnes, Joseph DeMaria, Coleman Crenshaw & Heidi Van.

December 1, 2, 8, 9 at 8pm
December 3, 10 at 6pm
at
The Buffalo Room
(in the back of the Westport Flea Market
817 Westport Road
KCMO 64111




TICKETS ARE $12 and benefit Reconciliation Services! Reserve tickets here!!!

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Fall 2017

The Fishtank's fall season opens with "The Insubordinates" featuring 10 minute adaptations of dystopian novels. 
Source material includes Fahrenheit 451, 1984, Brave New World, The Lottery, Gathering Blue, and The Giver.  

Contributing playwrights and theatre devisers are Lindsay Adams, Darren Canady, Teresa Leggard, Jesse Ray Metcalf, Vanessa Severo and Heidi Van. 

Performances will be held at The Living Room Theatre, November 16 - 19, 2017.

Sunday, July 9, 2017

LIMINAL STATE at the KC FRINGE!

Tickets on sale now at https://kc-fringe.ticketleap.com/liminal-state-a-travelers-guide/

The Fishtank's new performance 'Liminal State: A Traveler's Guide' delivers an eclectic collection of new theatrical work; modern and experimental, celebrating the body as an expressive tool, vessel for research, and site for social action.

Inspired by Butoh and physical theatre, Liminal State travels the threshold of liminality, or, the in-between, and enforces the importance of the journey. It's visually captivating, viscerally stimulating, and mentally immersive. EXPLORERS WANTED. Directed by Heidi Van & Logan Black. 

 

Saturday, February 11, 2017

THE FISHTANK PRESENTS DRY LAND

A Kansas City Premiere by Ruby Rae Spiegel
Directed by Heidi Van
April 13-23, 2017
Second Stage, MTH Theatre at Crown Center

In Kansas City Premiere Dry Land, young women are swimming in school, drowning in life 

Set in a girl’s locker room of a Florida high school, DRY LAND wrestles with the complexities of friendship and the fears of the future that grip young women arriving at the threshold of adulthood. 

Emerging as the Lena Dunham of the theatre world, 21-year-old playwright Ruby Rae Spiegel — a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn prize — writes a brazen, no-holds-barred play about that time in your life when no one else can possibly understand what you’re going through. DRY LAND, a New York Times critics’ pick, is a brave portrayal of the contemporary American teenager that epitomizes What’s Next in American theatre.

“Tender, caustic, funny and harrowing, often all at the same time.” — New York Times

“Spiegel’s simple, fierce play to put a young woman’s capacity for pain center stage — and the choice feels thrilling, even political.” — Time Out New York 

From Director Heidi Van:
DRY LAND is the result of conversations we are refusing to have, unable to have, and because of this - we are failing  women on a global scale.  Spiegel fearlessly presents one of the lesser told, but not lesser known, experiences of being a young woman. This story of teenage girls entering adulthood is devastating, riveting, and full of heart. I had to produce this play - as a woman, and a mother. This play is for our daughters. 

DRY LAND features Emily Sukolics, Erdin Schultz-
Bever, Emily Ho, Cooper Slater and Joseph Fournier. 
Performances run April 13, 14, 15, at 8pm, April 16 at 2pm, April 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, and 23 at 8pm. 

Tickets available online at By clicking our tickets page!

Monday, November 28, 2016

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Now Showing!

"The African Company Presents Richard III"

Directed by Sidonie Garrett

Produced by The Black Repertory Theatre of Kansas City, The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival and the Fishtank. 
Forty years before Lincoln ended slavery, and fifty years before black Americans earned the right to vote, the first black theatrical group, was putting on plays in a downtown Manhattan theater to which both blacks and whites audiences flocked. When their competition, Stephen Price, an uptown, Broadway-type impersario, decides to Produce Richard III at the same time, the African company must decide whether to close their doors or “Play on”.
 

TICKETS: General Admission: $30 (Guaranteed Seating – available online only)
Senior Citizens: $25 at the door
Student: $10 at the door

CAST:
Teddy Trice as James Hewlett
Rufus Burns as William Henry Brown
George Forbes as Papa Shakespeare
Amber McKinnon as Anne
Meredith Wolfe as Sarah
Andy Perkins as Constable
Ben Auxier as Price

* * * * * * * * * * * * *


PRESIDENTIAL BRIEFS by Ry Kincaid
with opening act FIRST LADY PARTS 
curated by Heidi Van
7pm First Friday, November 4
7pm Saturday, November 5
7pm Sunday, November 6
7pm Monday, November 7


All TICKETS $10 (clicking ticket tab above will get you to the online box office!)

Presidential Briefs is a one-man musical production, featuring 44 original songs about each and every U.S. President, performed in just under an hour. Composer/performer Ry Kincaid plays a teacher who gives the class a historical, hysterical, bipartisan, and bitchin' lesson on every Commander-in-Chief.

First Lady Parts, curated by Heidi Van, is a brief opening act that pays homage to the women who broke the mold and broke the ceiling! 

* * * * * * * * * *

BEEN FINN by Phil Kinen

Once again, from the outrageous mind of Phil Kinen, who paired Huck Finn with Peter Pan in last year’s Fringe hit Never Ever After, comes another unconventional Huck Finn tale.

Playing at a variety of "Catch It" Times:
Thursday, November 10, at 7:30pm
Friday, November 11, at 6pm & 9pm
Saturday, November 12 at 2:00pm, 5:30pm & 9pm
Sunday, November 13 at 11am, 2pm & 8pm
Tuesday, November 15 at 7pm.

All tickets are $10. See ticket tab above!

BEEN FINN is the story of a middle-aged Huck Finn meeting for the first time his 20-year old bastard son, Benjamin Franklin Rushforth. In their banter of blood lines, imagined friends, lost youth, and kite flying; the estranged pair unearth the ills and inherit sins of their heritage. Father and son desperately seek absolution and reconciliation by the discovery of the one compelling aspect they both mysteriously mirror.

Monday, September 19, 2016

ANIMAL FARM - SEPTEMBER 22 - 25

This weekend only: ANIMAL FARM !!! — The Fishtank and UMKC Theatre present ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell as one of the bi-annual co-productions of the Fishtank 2016-2017 Season.

Reserve your tickets HERE!!! 

Twice a year The Fishtank works with theatre students on a production that fuses form and idea - this fall we approach ANIMAL FARM with a foundation in commedia dell' arte. Directed by Fishtank Resident Artist Brian Buntin and coached by Commedia scholar Patrick Rippeto, ANIMAL FARM plays this weekend only, Thursday, September 22 to Sunday, September 25.

ANIMAL FARM is a fable with a sting. In this timely allegory you will meet beasts whose prototypes have dominated news headlines for many fearful years. Intermingling humor and drama, Animal Farm leaves audiences shaken with the tale of a tragedy that happened in a mythical barnyard far away but could happen in our own back yard.

THURSDAY 9/22 at 8pm* *Pay what you can
FRIDAY 9/23 at 8pm $15 GA, $10 UMKC
SATURDAY 9/24 AT 8pm $15 GA, $10 UMKC
SUNDAY 9/25 at 2pm $15 GA, $10 UMKC

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Thank you!

Young Black Victorian and Second Ladies closed on August 12. 
Thank you so much for coming!

Friday, July 29, 2016

Second Ladies and Young Black Victorian EXTEND to AUGUST 12

Fishtank original productions "Second Ladies" by Heidi Van & Katherine Gwynn and "Young Black Victorian" by Rasheedat Badejo extend to August 12! Same low fringe ticket price of $10! 

These 2 plays have been playing to full houses and were developed during the Fishtank Internship and Acting Apprenticeship Program. The program and the productions are supported by The Richard J. Stern Foundation for the Arts and a residency at Missouri Bank! 

Show times and ticket link below!!!

August 3  - SL at 7pm / YBV at 8:30pm
August 4 - YBV at 7pm / SL at 8:30pm
August 6 - SL at 7pm / YBV at 8:30pm
August 8 - YBV at 7pm / SL at 8:30pm
August 11 - SL at 7pm / YBV at 8:30pm
August 12 - YBV at 7pm / SL at 8:30pm



GET TICKETS FOR SECOND LADIES HERE!

GET TICKETS FOR YOUNG BLACK VICTORIAN HERE!

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Marilyn/God extended to June 1


MARILYN/GOD extends performances to June 1!

Performances are *Thursday, Friday & Saturday at 8pm
*Sunday at 3pm     *pay what you can performances

The 5th Annual 12 Plays of Christmas

Join the Fishtank for our 5th Annual Holiday Show, THE 12 PLAYS OF CHRISTMAS! by Devon Barnes, Emma Carter , Coleman Crenshaw , Joseph De...