Tickets for the 8:00pm performance, which include the post-show talkback, are available by calling (816) 842-9999 or at www.spinningtreetheatre.com. Seating is limited, and securing reservations in advance is highly recommended as this event is expected to be sold-out.

LaChiusa wrote the music, lyrics and libretto for the 1993 Obie Award winning musical, which ...]]>

Five-time Tony Award nominee Michael John LaChiusa is visiting Kansas City’s Spinning Tree Theatre to view the Friday, May 24 performance of his musical Hello Again and to conduct a talkback about the show.

Tickets for the 8:00pm performance, which include the post-show talkback, are available by calling (816) 842-9999 or at www.spinningtreetheatre.com. Seating is limited, and securing reservations in advance is highly recommended as this event is expected to be sold-out.

LaChiusa wrote the music, lyrics and libretto for the 1993 Obie Award winning musical, which premiered at New York City’s Lincoln Center Theatre. Spinning Tree’s production marks not only the Kansas City premiere of Hello Again, but the first time Kansas City audiences have had the opportunity to see any show written by LaChiusa, one of the American musical theatre’s most celebrated and respected living writers.

LaChiusa recently won the Dramatists Guild of America Award for Queen of the Mist, and is nominated for multiple 2013 Drama Desk Awards for Giant. His other works include The Wild Party, See What I Wanna See, Marie Christine, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, First Lady Suite, Bernarda Alba and Little Fish.

Spinning Tree Theatre is Kansas City’s newest small professional theatre company, and is committed to investing in local, professional talent and producing intelligent, thought-provoking and entertaining plays and musicals. Hello Again celebrates Spinning Tree’s two-year anniversary, and is their fourth Kansas City premiere.

By Karen Hauge  Wed, May 15, 2013

Spinning Tree Theatre closes its season with the steamy and thought-provoking “Hello Again,” an exploration of human attachment and sexuality performed with great passion and insight by a stellar local cast.

Sex is a beautiful, uncomfortable, serious, laughable, awkward, messy, natural, ecstatic, offensive, organic, curious, bizarre, and glorious part of life—but it’s not something that often gets explored in as great or graphic detail on the musical stage as in Hello Again. Michael John LaChiusa’s ten-scene, ...]]> Sexy Sizzle at Spinning Tree

By Karen Hauge  Wed, May 15, 2013

Spinning Tree Theatre closes its season with the steamy and thought-provoking “Hello Again,” an exploration of human attachment and sexuality performed with great passion and insight by a stellar local cast.

Sex is a beautiful, uncomfortable, serious, laughable, awkward, messy, natural, ecstatic, offensive, organic, curious, bizarre, and glorious part of life—but it’s not something that often gets explored in as great or graphic detail on the musical stage as in Hello Again. Michael John LaChiusa’s ten-scene, one-act play explores the relationships between ten pairs of sexual partners spanning the whole of the twentieth century.

Based on the 1920 play La Ronde by German playwright Arthur Schnitzler, LaChiusa’s work borrows its format from the original, with each new scene presenting a character from the previous one engaged in a different relationship, creating a revolving door of sexual encounters. Unlike Schnitzler’s work, which takes place in Vienna in the 1890s and is meant to show how people of all different classes are connected by their simplest common desires, the characters of Hello Again do not last longer than one scene, instead reappearing in their second scene as a different incarnation of the same character type: the Nurse, the College Boy, the Husband, etc. The sudden shifts of setting and the actors’ versatile performances highlight how the human sexual experience is at once ever-evolving and completely immutable.

In a bold move, directors Andy Parkhurst and Michael Grayman have chosen to block off the side sections of Off Center Theatre with black curtains, limiting the number of available seats but also forcing the audience to sit directly in front of the action, which is blocked all over the stage and would be less effective if viewed from any perspective besides the front. The sold-out audience from the opening weekend didn’t seem to mind being forced to sit in the best seats in the house, either.

Outstanding performances and creative direction make Hello Again an insightful and provocative theater experience (for adults only) that brings a somehow still-taboo subject of daily life crashing into view. Even now, when we’d like to believe we are more enlightened even than the first viewers of this show twenty years ago, there is still something startling about watching actors mime the sexual act on stage, especially as it’s done by Spinning Tree, with matter-of-fact honesty.

Julie Shaw brings slow-burning drama and surprising depth to The Whore, and her smoky voice is perfectly suited to give life to a lady of the night. Two of the younger members of the cast, Seth Jones and Shelby Floyd share a dazzlingly impressive quality that is not often found in young musicians—they both have powerful, engaging, beautiful voices that could easily blow away any production, but they embrace the idea that less is more, and make mature musical choices that are far more interesting than haphazard showboating would be. Jacob Aaron Cullum as The Soldier lends his stellar voice to characters representing the guy who just wants that one thing, and who won’t feel bad about getting it. Charles Fugate and Lena Andrews deliver solid performances as The Senator and The Actress, in a scene that communicates the power struggle between two powerful people.

Steven Eubank’s turn as the awkward, quivering College Boy results in one of the most comical scenes of show, as he and Floyd document the clumsiness of a boy’s first time. Stefanie Wienecke as The Young Wife is excellent. In her first scene she is the guilty lover of The College Boy, woefully damning her own moral repugnance with great comedy, even as she is getting on her knees. In her second scene, however, she delivers an exquisite performance as The Young Wife details a romantic extramarital tryst with longing, passion, and regret as her mind wanders mid-coitus with her husband.

Tyler Eisenreich brings emotional depth and maturity to the character of The Young Thing, and his scenes were two of the most raw and touching of the show. The character of The Young Thing represents a departure from the all-hetero relationships of Schnitzler’s original play, and these two scenes are remarkable. In the first, an elegant dance between The Young Thing and The Husband (played with brilliant vulnerability and tentative longing by Jerry Jay Cranford) is very beautiful and very sad in its forbidden nature. The Young Thing next appears with Jones’s Writer, who is narrating his own 1970s rave and subsequent hookup. Eisenreich shifts from the chatty and confident Young Thing of his first scene to morose and disinterested in the second, which ultimately gives way to a compelling soul-baring song as he and The Writer make love.

Very few technical issues emerged in the opening night performance. The balance was outstanding, with the excellent orchestra never drowned out by overloud vocal microphones (as is sometimes a problem in the small Off Center Theatre). A few coordination issues occurred between the orchestra and the singers, mostly as they handled syncopation in LaChiusa’s complicated writing, and more harmonic purity in the duet between Jones and Eisenreich would have made the scene more confident and less uneasy. These minor difficulties in no way detracted from the experience of the show, and Hello Again is an absolute must-see for Kansas City audiences. You’d be hard-pressed to find a finer cast with better direction presenting a show that invites you to watch and consider such a provocative theater topic.

REVIEW:
Spinning Tree Theatre
Hello Again
May 9–26 (Reviewed Saturday, May 11, 2013)
Off Center Theatre at Crown Center
2405 Grand Blvd, Kansas City, MO
For tickets and more information, call (816) 842-9999 or visit http://spinningtreetheatre.com/

Kansas City premiere

November 1-17, 2013 at Just Off Broadway Theatre

The affluent, African-American LeVay family is gathering at their Martha’s Vineyard home for the weekend, and brothers Kent and Flip have each brought their respective girlfriends to meet the parents for the first time. As the two newcomers butt heads over issues of race and privilege, longstanding family tensions bubble under the surface and reach a boiling point when secrets are revealed.

“A MUST SEE. Fascinating. Arrestingly ...]]> Spinning Tree Theatre proudly announces our 2013-14 Season

Stick Fly

Kansas City premiere

November 1-17, 2013 at Just Off Broadway Theatre

The affluent, African-American LeVay family is gathering at their Martha’s Vineyard home for the weekend, and brothers Kent and Flip have each brought their respective girlfriends to meet the parents for the first time. As the two newcomers butt heads over issues of race and privilege, longstanding family tensions bubble under the surface and reach a boiling point when secrets are revealed.

“A MUST SEE. Fascinating. Arrestingly fresh.” – Wall Street Journal

“Conflict and sexual sparks. A juicy family drama.” – The New York Times

“She’s a polished playwright, creating a cast-full of dynamic characters all sitting uncomfortably on a powder-keg situation.” – Boston Globe

Stick Fly opened at Broadway’s Cort Theatre on December 8, 2011 and was produced by Alicia Keys

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Motherhood Out Loud

Kansas City premiere

February 6-16, 2014 at Crown Center Off Center Theatre

When entrusting the subject of motherhood to such a dazzling collection of celebrated American writers, the result is a joyous, moving, hilarious and unpredictable theatrical event. Anyone who is or has a mother, stepmother, foster mother or anything similar will be able to relate to and enjoy this funny and poignant piece. From adoption to surrogacy to stepmothers to gay parenting, no stone is left unturned in this hit fresh from Off Broadway.

Motherhood Out Loud opened at Off Broadway’s Primary Stages on October 4, 2011

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A Little Night Music

May 8-25, 2014 at Crown Center Off Center Theatre

Set in 1900 Sweden and inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film “Smiles of a Summer Night,” A Little Night Music explores the tangled web of affairs centered around actress Desirée Armfeldt and the men who love her. The “Send in the Clowns” musical, written in waltz time, was the winner of 1973 Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical.

“The music is a celebration of 3/4 time, an orgy of plaintively memorably waltzes, all talking of past loves and lost worlds.” – Clive Barnes, The New York Times

“Sondheim’s lyrics are often superbly witty, his music here, mostly in haunting waltz-time, far more accessible than is sometimes the case. The score positively throbs with love, regret and desire.” – The Telegraph

A Little Night Music opened at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre on February 25, 1973 and was produced by Harold Prince

Sunday, February 24, 2013 2:00-4:00pm at Californos Westport

call (816) 569-5277

or visit http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/321752

The Fantasticks, called “the most memorable night of theatre of the spring season” by theatre writer Robert Trussell (October 22, 2012, The Kansas City Star), is called “one of the most memorable productions of the year.”

words and music by Michael John LaChiusa

a Kansas City Premiere

Suggested by the 1897 play La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler, Spinning Tree Theatre’s production of Hello Again (“the best original musical of the season,” The New York Times) celebrates its 20th anniversary. This adult musical fantasy is about the search for one’s perfect lover. Four-time Tony Award nominee Michael John LaChiusa sets – physically and musically – each of ten scenes in a different decade of the 20th century. Seductive, entrancing, and darkly comical, Hello ...]]> HELLO AGAIN

words and music by Michael John LaChiusa

a Kansas City Premiere

Suggested by the 1897 play La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler, Spinning Tree Theatre’s production of Hello Again (“the best original musical of the season,” The New York Times) celebrates its 20^th anniversary. This adult musical fantasy is about the search for one’s perfect lover. Four-time Tony Award nominee Michael John LaChiusa sets – physically and musically – each of ten scenes in a different decade of the 20^th century. Seductive, entrancing, and darkly comical, Hello Again is Spinning Tree’s largest and boldest undertaking to date!

with Lena Andrews, Jerry Jay Cranford, Jacob Aaron Cullum, Tyler Eisenreich, Steven Eubank, Shelby Floyd, Charles Fugate, Seth Jones, Julie Shaw, Stefanie Wienecke

Hello Again is presented May 9-26, 2013 at Crown Center Off Center Theatre

Kansas City directing credits:  Narnia (Starlight Theatre at The Kauffman Center); Master Class, The Fantasticks, The Year of Magical Thinking, Make Me a Song: The Music of William Finn (Spinning Tree ...]]> with Michael Grayman – Artistic Director, Spinning Tree Theatre

Michael teaches acting, improvisation and musical theatre song interpretation for all ages. He specializes in preparing the young actor for Kansas City professional auditions as well as in preparing the college-bound actor for university and conservatory auditions.

For Private Coaching rates and availability:  (816) 569-5277 or mgrayman@spinningtreetheatre.com

Kansas City directing credits:  Narnia (Starlight Theatre at The Kauffman Center); Master Class, The Fantasticks, The Year of Magical Thinking, Make Me a Song: The Music of William Finn (Spinning Tree Theatre); Bugsy Malone Jr (Coterie Theatre); Variety Show 2012 (KC Variety The Children’s Charity at The Midland Theatre). Associate director: Sylvia (New Theatre Restaurant)

Upcoming directing credits: Flat Stanley (Starlight Theatre at The Kauffman Center); Shipwrecked! An Entertainment – The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As told by Himself) and Hello Again (Spinning Tree Theatre); Annie Jr (Coterie Theatre)

Broadway:  Assistant director: Translations (Directed by Tony Award winner Garry Hynes)

Broadway national tour:  Mamma Mia!; 40^th anniversary prod’n of West Side Story; The King and I

NYC directing credits:  Left Bank Bookseller (Barrow Group Theatre); Chinadoll Overdrive (NYC Summer Play Festival). Associate director: Zombie (New York Fringe Festival).

Regional directing credits:  A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Brigadoon and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (as Resident Director at The Barnstormers Theatre in New Hampshire); Part of Me Missing (McCarter Theatre). Assistant director: Mrs Packard (Kennedy Center); The Brothers Size (McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ); A Night in the Old Marketplace (Prince Music Theatre, Philadelphia).

a play by Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies

starring Charles Fugate and Jennie Greenberry

Louis de Rougemont has sailed the high seas and met exotic islanders, flying wombats, giant sea turtles and an enormous man-eating octopus. Or has he? This 3-actor, multi-character vaudevillian romp “springs to life like a theatrical pop-up book” (The New York Times). A celebration of the imagination with ...]]> NEXT UP for Spinning Tree Theatre…

2 Kansas City Premieres!

Shipwrecked! An Entertainment – The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told by Himself)

a play by Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies

starring Charles Fugate and Jennie Greenberry

Louis de Rougemont has sailed the high seas and met exotic islanders, flying wombats, giant sea turtles and an enormous man-eating octopus. Or has he? This 3-actor, multi-character vaudevillian romp “springs to life like a theatrical pop-up book” (The New York Times). A celebration of the imagination with radio theatre overtones, Shipwrecked is 90 minutes of non-stop adventure-filled fun for the entire family!

WHEN:        February 1 – February 17, 2013

WHERE:      Paul Mesner Puppet Studio   1006 E. Linwood Blvd. Kansas City, MO

TICKETS:    (816) 569-5277 or www.spinningtreetheatre.com

 ___________________________________________________________________________

Hello Again

a musical by four-time Tony Award nominee and Spinning Tree Honorary Advisor

Michael John LaChiusa

featuring Jerry Jay Cranford and Julie Shaw

Suggested by the 1897 play La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler, Hello Again (“the best original musical of the season,” The New York Times) celebrates its 20^th anniversary. This adult musical fantasy is about the search for one’s perfect lover. LaChiusa sets – physically and musically – each of the ten scenes in a different decade of the 20^th century. Seductive, entrancing, and darkly comical, Hello Again is Spinning Tree’s largest and boldest undertaking to date!

WHEN:         May 9 – 26, 2013

WHERE:      Crown Center Off Center Theatre   2450 Grand Blvd.  Kansas City, MO

TICKETS:    (816) 842-9999 or www.spinningtreetheatre.com

Vigthor Zophoniasson is back.

The 31-year-old tenor and actor, a native of Iceland, is appearing in Spinning Tree Theatre’s production of Terrence McNally’s “Master Class” at the Off Center Theatre.

And he’s standing unassisted on two feet.

In May, Zophoniasson contributed a particularly vivid footnote to Kansas City’s theater history when, on the opening ...]]> Actor returns to the stage where he tore an Achilles tendon

by Robert Trussell, The Kansas City Star

Vigthor Zophoniasson is starring in “Master Class” this fall, after an onstage injury while performing “The Fantasticks” in May.

Vigthor Zophoniasson is back.

The 31-year-old tenor and actor, a native of Iceland, is appearing in Spinning Tree Theatre’s production of Terrence McNally’s “Master Class” at the Off Center Theatre.

And he’s standing unassisted on two feet.

In May, Zophoniasson contributed a particularly vivid footnote to Kansas City’s theater history when, on the opening night of “The Fantasticks,” he was wheeled into a waiting ambulance at intermission.

Zophoniasson played the dashing, seductive El Gallo in Spinning Tree Theatre’s production of the classic musical by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt. Toward the end of Act 1 there’s a sword fight and a mock rescue of the heroine, and during the staged melee Zophoniasson heard something pop.

He had no reason to expect a tear in the Achilles tendon of one ankle, an injury that’s a distinct possibility for athletes and dancers but not so much for musical-theater actors. So he was as surprised as anyone.

“I hadn’t torn anything. I hadn’t slipped or anything,” he said during an interview in the Off Center green room. “It really snuck up on me, and I just got up off the stage and something snapped. I didn’t know what it was. I thought I had stepped on something, so we just kind of kept going.”

The producers and the audience could see that he was limping as he left the stage at the end of Act 1. The lighting designer already had ice packs waiting.

“I came in here, got the shoe off, puked and passed out,” he said with a disarming smile.

Zophoniasson was bitterly disappointed as paramedics wheeled him out of the theater. Mainly, he was disappointed in himself.

“I never felt so bad in my life,” he said. “Physical pain is one thing. But the inner pain is what I had to deal with. … This was their third production, and I ruined it, you know. It was very difficult.”

But some theatrical clichés happen to be true. Because after consulting with Zophoniasson at the hospital, Spinning Tree’s founders, director Michael Grayman and choreographer Andy Parkhurst, decided that the show, indeed, must go on.

The following Thursday, after a few days of rehearsals and reblocking, the show staged a second opening night. This time Zophoniasson performed on crutches and in a wheelchair. Grayman was a mute presence onstage. His duties included pushing Zophoniasson to his exits and wheeling him out for his entrances.

It gave the show an extra dimension that eggheads might call “meta-theatrical.” It was a show about putting on a show. Having a lead actor in a wheelchair simply made it more pronounced. All in all, it was the most memorable night of theater of the spring season.

Zophoniasson said he and his wife, soprano Ashley Wheat, who was in the audience on opening night, received support from friends and colleagues.

“It was unbelievable,” he said. “We were so overwhelmed with all the love and caring.”

For his part, Grayman said Zophoniasson’s eagerness to do the show with an injury was impressive.

“He’s very funny and has natural charisma that was perfect for the role,” Grayman said. “(In the green room) he was feeling a little faint, and we knew something was wrong. We had to take his boot off as carefully as possible. I knew the moment it happened. I could tell he was pushing through and trying to get through the pain. But he was such a trouper that he finished the act. At the hospital he was saying, ‘I want to go on tomorrow.’ ”

In “Master Class,” Zophoniasson plays a role closer to his experience: a young opera singer taking instruction from the legendary Maria Callas, played by Cynthia Hyer. Also in the cast are Natalie Liccardello, Sylvia Stoner, Tom Lancaster and musical director Tony Bernal, who plays the class accompanist.

There is no sword-fighting in McNally’s play, so the potential for onstage injuries is slight.

Grayman said he had had Zophoniasson in mind for the role of the tenor in “Master Class” ever since “The Fantasticks.”

Zophoniasson began performing theater when he was a 16-year-old student in university preparatory school, which is the Icelandic equivalent of high school plus a couple of years of college.

He performed in “Hair,” “My Fair Lady” and “The Rocky Horror Show,” all in Icelandic.

“After two years of doing shows and musicals back home, my folks said, ‘Well, if you’re gonna be an actor, if you’re gonna be on stage, you’ll want to learn how to use your voice and project and everything, so we’re gonna buy you some voice lessons,’ ” Zophoniasson said. “And it so happened that in my itty-bitty hometown there was an American voice teacher.”

The teacher, Keith Reed, began to broaden the young singer’s musical horizons.

“I started taking voice lessons, and he introduced me to classical music,” he said. “At that point classical music was something on the radio at my grandparents’ house. I mean, I had taken some piano lessons … but I just listened to rock music and such. But he opened up a whole world I had never been exposed to. Opera and musical theater are very similar. You know, it’s theater with music, just a different style of music.”

At 24, Zophoniasson decided to get into an American voice program. His teacher recommended the University of Washington because tenor Vinson Cole taught there. When Cole moved to the New England Conservatory, Zophoniasson followed him and earned a bachelor’s in music. When Cole, a Kansas City native, came back to teach at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Conservatory, Zophoniasson followed him again and earned a graduate degree.

“It’s like finding a good coach in any sport,” he said. “If it works for you, you stick to it. And I’m still working with him to this day.”

Zophoniasson said that theater is always performed in Icelandic in his home country, but there are too few translations. He was unfamiliar with “The Fantasticks,” an old chestnut in American theater, and “Master Class,” which ran on Broadway, before he worked in either.

“There’s a lot of musicals that I was exposed to when I came here that I hadn’t seen at home,” he said. “ ‘Ragtime’ hasn’t been translated. ‘Master Class’ hasn’t been translated.”

Zophoniasson and Wheat have been performing with Stone Lion Puppet Theatre, but what the long-term future holds is unclear.

“I think we’re just trying to get our foot in the door,” he said. “We’re trying to bridge the gap between students and professionals.”

Zophoniasson’s first name is pronounced “Veeg-thor.” But most people just call him Victor. “It’s simpler that way,” he said.

Zophoniasson said he has worked to tone down his Icelandic accent — in essence, Americanize it — and the process became simpler after he made a key discovery. The Icelandic language requires all facial muscles, and especially one’s lips, to be actively engaged. Not so much with English.

“You can pretty much speak English without moving your lips,” he said with a chuckle. “The less I move my mouth, the better off I am, accent-wise.”

Onstage

“Master Class” continues through Oct. 28 at Off Center Theatre in Crown Center. Tickets are $22-$29. For more information, call 816-842-9999 or go to spinningtreetheatre.com.

To reach Robert Trussell, call 816-234-4765 or send email to rtrussell@kcstar.com.