Kevin King's "They Listen" Reading Dec. 12

They Listen by Kevin King

When Cody meets Will on an app and invites him over, Cody and his straight roommate Paul find themselves in situations they'd never fathomed. A look at identity, paranoia, and belief.

Content Notice: Contains lots of queer and sexual themes. Suggested for Mature Audiences. 

7:00pm Monday, December 12, 2022
415 Prospect Avenue (in the former United Christian Church)
There is limited parking next to the building and parking on the street.
Note: Please contact us if you have accessibility needs.

Cody - Jack Kneessy
Will - Tyler McCall
Paul - McCandlys Harrison
Stage Directions - Bradley Meyer

Feel free to bring non-perishable food items, hygiene items, or winter hats, coats, and gloves! We're collecting for the Theatre Community Fund of Kansas City.

About the playwright

Kevin King (he/him) is a queer playwright in Kansas City, MO, and producing artistic director of Whim Productions, a theater company dedicated to producing works by LGBTQ+ playwrights. He was a 2016 playwright-in-residence in The Charlotte Street Foundation's studio residency program. His work ranges from camp and satire to unblinking looks at moments in modern queer lives.

His short play "The Swallows'' was selected for the Smith & Kraus Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2022 anthology and for the William Inge Festival's 2019 New Play Lab. His short play "Debating" was a 2021 semi-finalist for the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival. A reading of his full-length play “Hyenas” was presented by the Dramatists Guild’s Kansas/Missouri Region’s Footlights series in 2021. In 2022, Kansas City Public Theatre produced a developmental reading of “Boxed,” a gay #metoo play.

Lezlie Revelle Zucker's "Night at the Palace" Reading Nov 7

This month MDC is invited to a special workshop reading of a new musical by Lezlie Revelle Zucker and MDC founder David Hanson.

Night at the Palace 

7:30pm Monday, November 7, 2022
Congregation Beth Torah
6100 W 127th St, Overland Park, KS 66209

Sophie Grace is a pop star for the ages now at the end of her career. Maia is struggling singer at the beginning. Both are booked tonight at the Palace theater to sing about family, fame, and failure. It's two concerts forty years apart but simultaneously happening now because there's always a little magic when it's A Night At The Palace.

Cast
Franci Talamentez-Witte – Sophie Grace
Natalee Merola – Maia
Larry Goodman – Darrell

Artistic Team
Lezlie Revelle Zucker – Lyricist, Composer, Musical Director
David Hanson – Librettist, Director
Susie Adams – Accompanist

Dan Born's "Unghosting the Chromosome" Reading on Sep. 12

The Midwest Dramatist Center is once again presenting live stage readings by its MDC playwrights.

This month's reading is Unghosting the Chromosome by Dan Born. It will be held at Prospero's Books at 1800 W 39th Street at 7:30pm on Monday, September 12, 2022.

Unghosting the Chromosome is based on the life of a little known but ground-breaking scientist from the turn of the 20th century, Walter Sutton. Sutton's theories of the chromosome, developed while he was still an undergraduate at the University of Kansas, established a theoretical basis for Mendel's famous experiments and laid the foundation of for the modern science of genetics. While at KU, he also found the time to be a member of that school's very first basketball team. 

The play was developed from a play by Stanley Nelson, Professor of Anatomy at KUMC. 

• Michael Golliher - Walter Sutton
• Jake Golliher - John Sutton
• J. Will Fritz - Clarence McClure
• Meredith Wolfe - Anna McClure
• Shawn Franklin - Livingston

 Come join Dan Born for the exciting return of MDC's live readings.