2016-2017 MainStage Season

You Never Know What You’ll Find!

For starters, you’ll find another exciting season of music, comedy, and drama on our stages! From classic to contemporary, from the ridiculous to the sublime, these shows run the gamut of today’s most popular theatrical productions.

September 2 – 25, 2016
Kephart Theatre

Monty Python’s Spamalot

By Eric Idle and John Du Prez

Contains middle-aged men acting incredibly silly. Suggested for ages 13+ with a great sense of humor.

This 2005 Tony Award­-winner for Best Musical is a musical comedy lovingly ripped off from the 1975 film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” King Arthur is traveling around England recruiting his Knights of the Round Table. When he and his band of misfit knights finally gather in Camelot, they receive a charge from God to find the Holy Grail. The quest brings King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table to strange places and into the company of strange characters, challenging them to keep their heads on straight or die terribly weird deaths.

SPONSORED BY SAINT FRANCIS MINISTRIES

October 14-30, 2016
Sunflower Financial Theatre

God of Carnage

By Yasmina Reza

Contains potty-mouthed adults acting like children. Recommended for ages 13+.

Set in present-day New York City, God of Carnage is the story of two married couples who meet for the first time shortly after their respective sons have a nasty schoolyard tangle. Michael and Veronica, whose son’s teeth were knocked out with a stick, invite Alan and Annette, whose son did the knocking, to their home to settle matters such as who will pay for new teeth. But any attempt at having a civilized discussion about whose child is responsible for the fight, and how the parents may have influenced such destructive behavior, quickly devolves into finger-pointing, name-calling, stomping around and throwing things. And that’s before they break out the rum!

Fast, furious, and very funny, God of Carnage goes for every kind of laugh in the book, from one-liners to sight gags to physical comedy. It’s action-packed, as the cast gets into several rows and eventually makes a bigger mess of Michael and Veronica’s living room than any child ever could.

SPONSORED BY COLDWELL BANKER ANTRIM-PIPER WENGER REALTORS & K-COE ISOM

November 25 – December 11, 2016
Kephart Theatre

Roald Dahl’s

Willy Wonka

By Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley

Roald Dahl’s fantastical tale of the world-famous Willy Wonka and his quest for an heir comes to chocolate-covered life this holiday season!

Follow this enigmatic candy manufacturer as he stages a contest by hiding golden tickets in five of his scrumptious candy bars. Whoever comes up with these tickets will win a free tour of the Wonka factory, as well as a lifetime supply of candy. Four of the five winning children are insufferable brats, but the fifth is a likable young lad named Charlie Bucket, who takes the tour in the company of his equally amiable grandfather. The children must learn to follow Mr. Wonka’s rules in the factory… or suffer the consequences.

PRODUCTION SPONSORED BY SUNFLOWER BANK  |  ORCHESTRA SPONSORED BY EDWARD JONES

January 6-22, 2017
Sunflower Financial Theatre

The Glass Menagerie

By Tennessee Williams

One of the truly great American dramas. Recommended for audiences who think.

No play in the modern theatre has so captured the imagination and heart of the American public as Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. It was Williams’s first popular success and launched his brilliant, if somewhat controversial, career.

The story revolves around a young man begrudgingly supporting the family his father has abandoned. It also features a painfully shy sister, whose preoccupation with a collection of glass animals draws her away from reality. Set against the backdrop of the Depression, the family struggles together with the past, the future, and one another.

DIRECTED BY TYREES ALLEN

SPONSORED BY PKM STEEL

Tyrees Allen’s participation was funded in part by the Horizons Grants Program of the Salina Arts and Humanities Foundation. Funding is provided by Horizons, a private donor group.

February 3-18, 2017
Kephart Theatre

Noises Off

By Michael Frayn

Recommended for ages 13 and older. Silly actors using one very naughty word.

The director of a theatre company is desperately trying to get his production together, despite the best efforts of the cast, the crew, and Lady Luck. We follow the production from final rehearsals, through opening night, and onto the tour: as with any group of actors forced to work closely together for any great length of time, romances and arguments are bound to break out. Quite often, what’s happening on stage is nothing compared to what’s happening backstage. Doors slamming, on and offstage intrigue, and an errant herring all figure in the plot of this hilarious and classically comic play, called the funniest farce ever written.

SPONSORED BY BENNINGTON STATE BANK

April 7-9 & 20-23, 2017
Kephart Theatre

In the Heights

Book by Quiara Alegria Hudes
Music and Lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda

Presented in collaboration with KANSAS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY

The first Broadway production from the creator of the hit Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda!

The story centers on a variety of characters living in the neighborhood of Washington Heights, on the northern tip of Manhattan. At the center of the show is Usnavi, a bodega owner who looks after the aging Cuban lady next door, pines for the gorgeous girl working in the neighboring beauty salon and dreams of winning the lottery and escaping to the shores of his native Dominican Republic. Meanwhile, Nina, a childhood friend of Usnavi’s, has returned to the neighborhood from her first year at college with surprising news for her parents, who have spent their life savings on building a better life for their daughter. Ultimately, Usnavi and the residents of the close-knit neighborhood get a dose of what it means to be home.

SPONSORED BY WELLS FARGO ADVISORS & KASA CONTROLS

June 9-25, 2017
Kephart Theatre

9 to 5: The Musical

Book by Patricia Resnick
Music and Lyrics by Dolly Parton

Contains bosses acting at their worst. Recommended for anyone who’s ever had a job.

With music and lyrics by Dolly Parton and book by Patricia Resnick, 9 To 5: The Musical is a hilarious story of friendship and revenge set in the 1970s. Pushed to the boiling point, three female co-workers concoct a plan to get even with the sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot they call their boss. In a funny turn of events, Violet, Judy and Doralee live out their wildest fantasy — giving their boss the boot! While Hart remains “otherwise engaged,” the women give their workplace a dream makeover, taking control of the company that had always kept them down. Hey, a girl can scheme, can’t she?

PRODUCTION SPONSORED BY BANK OF TESCOTT  | ORCHESTRA SPONSORED BY MOWERY CLINIC