History

• Company History
• Performance History

•  

  Kansas City Repertory Theatre, the professional theatre in residence at UMKC, continues its four-decades long tradition of presenting works that are compelling, passionate and imaginative.

  The Rep was founded in 1964 by Dr. Patricia McIlrath, a tireless crusader for excellent theatre. Her vision was to establish a training program where theatre students could work side by side with professional actors, designers and directors. Within a few years of its founding, the Rep became affiliated with Actors’ Equity Association and formally took the name Missouri Repertory Theatre.

  James Costin also played a vital role in the growth and success of the theatre and served as its longtime administrator from its founding until his retirement in 2000. George Keathley was appointed artistic director after Dr. McIlrath’s retirement in 1985 and served until 2000. That same year, Peter Altman joined the Rep as producing artistic director and he served for seven years. Eric Rosen was appointed artistic director in November 2007 and 2008-09 was his inaugural season.

  The Rep moved into the Helen F. Spencer Theatre in the new UMKC Performing Arts Center (now designated the James C. Olson Performing Arts Center) in 1979; that same year marked the not-for-profit incorporation of Missouri Repertory Theatre. In 2004, the Rep’s Board of Directors voted to rename the company Kansas City Repertory Theatre to better reflect its identity, location and audience.

  The Rep’s long-held dream to establish a second, smaller theatre was realized in 2007 when Copaken Stage opened in downtown Kansas City, expanding the theatre’s performance options and further establishing the Rep as a leader in Kansas City’s arts community.

  For a comprehensive history about the founding of the Rep, please visit http://cas.umkc.edu/theatre/about.shtml

• Performance History

  1964-65 The Corn is Green Private Lives 1965 Twelfth Night Tartuffe Candida The Lady's Not for Burning	1981-82 The Three Sisters Talley's Folly Picnic The Good Person of Szechwan A Christmas Carol The Royal Family Loose Ends Crown of Thorns Macbeth	1997-98 Blithe Spirit A Christmas Carol Later Life The Comedy of Errors The Gospel at Colonus Les Liaisons Dangereuses
  1966-67 Marat/Sade She Stoops to Conquer Crime on Goat Island Camille	1982-83 Antony and Cleopatra Hay Fever The Magnificent Yankee Terra Nova A Christmas Carol The Innocents Translations The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby	1998-99 The Royal Hunt of the Sun A Christmas Carol The Last Night of Ballyhoo The Miracle Worker Laughter on the 23rd Floor WMKS: Where Music Kills Sorrow The Shorts Fest
  1967-68 The Physicists You Can't Take It with You The Importance of Being Earnest Richard III	1983-84 Sea Marks The Importance of Being Earnest The Dresser The Speckled Band A Christmas Carol Life with Father Retro Trio The Taming of the Shrew	1999-2000 Picasso at the Lapin Agile A Christmas Carol Inherit the Wind Gross Indecency The Sea Gull Master Class
  1968-69 Oedipus Rex The Miser Aegina Philadelphia, Here I Come! The Glass Menagerie The White House	1984-85 Strider True West Come Back, Little Sheba Fifteen Strings of Cash A Christmas Carol Romeo and Juliet Crimes of the Heart Masters of the Sea Peter Pan	2000-01 Major Barbara Sisters Matsumoto A Christmas Carol Machinal Blood Wedding Company
  1969-70 The Father Our Town A Flea In Her Ear Look Back in Anger The Taming of the Shrew J.B. Blithe Spirit	1985-86 Agamemnon Foxfire Side by Side by Sondheim A Christmas Carol Fallen Angels Master Harold.and the Boys Othello	2001-02 The Philadelphia Story Morning Star A Christmas Carol The Winter's Tale Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright Joe Turner's Come and Gone
  1970-71 The Skin of Our Teeth Harvey Indians Exit the King The Tempest Arms and the Man Spoon River Anthology	1986-87 Brighton Beach Memoirs Equus Fool for Love A Christmas Carol A Class "C" Trial in Yokohama And Miss Reardon Drinks A Little The Glass Menagerie	2002-03 Incognito Saint Joan A Christmas Carol Guys and Dolls The Triumph of Love Indian Ink 2 Pianos, 4 Hands
  1971-72 Measure for Measure The Subject Was Roses The Waltz of the Toreadors The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail The School for Wives An Enemy of the People See How They Run	1987-88 Dracula Educating Rita End of the World A Christmas Carol All My Sons The House of Blue Leaves The Curious Adventures of Alice	2003-04 Front Page A Christmas Carol Metamorphoses It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues Liliom Living Out
  1972-73 Murder in the Cathedral Cat Among the Pigeons Barefoot in the Park Long Day's Journey into Night The House of Blue Leaves Borstal Boy Angel Street Tartuffe	1988-89 The Great Sebastians The Emperor Jones The Immigrant A Christmas Carol Tons of Money The Road to Mecca The Tempest A Midsummer Night's Dream	2004-05 Pirates of Penzance A Christmas Carol Two Trains Running Little Women A Young Lady From Rwanda The Voysey Inheritance Carter's Way
  1973-74 Straight Up Pygmalion One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Othello Hedda Gabler Jabberwock Charley's Aunt The Fourposter	1989-90 Jekyll! Absent Friends Woody Guthrie's American Song Love Letters A Christmas Carol Born Yesterday Of Mice and Men Amadeus	2005-06 Man and Superman A Christmas Carol Give 'Em Hell, Harry A Raisin in the Sun Hank Williams: Lost Highway The Trip to Bountiful Room Service
  1974-75 The Rivals Peg O' My Heart That Championship Season A Midsummer Night's Dream Peer Gynt Androcles and the Lion The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds	1990-91 Our Town A Moon for the Misbegotten A Christmas Carol Billy Bishop Goes to War Fences Richard III The Boys Next Door	2006-07 Jitney A Christmas Carol King Lear Love, Janis Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure The Syringa Tree Under Midwestern Stars 2 Pianos, 4 Hands
  1975-76 Born Yesterday The Cherry Orchard Much Ado about Nothing The Last Meeting of the Knights of the White Magnolia A Streetcar Named Desire Well of the House Dear Liar I Am Black	1991-92 King Lear I'm Not Rappaport A Christmas Carol The Lady from Maxim's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill A View from the Bridge The Cocktail Hour	2007-08 Bad Dates Doubt A Christmas Carol A John Denver Holiday Concert To Kill a Mockingbird A Marvelous Party Gee's Bend The Drawer Boy
  1976-77 The Rainmaker The Morgan Yard The Drunkard Don Juan of Flatbush The Great White Hope The Heiress Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Once in a Lifetime	1992-93 Romeo and Juliet Broadway Bound A Christmas Carol Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Rough Crossing The Death of a Salesman The Fantasticks A Midsummer Night's Dream	2008-09 Clay Radio Golf A Christmas Carol The Glass Menagerie The Arabian Nights Winesburg, Ohio The Borderland A Flea in Her Ear
  1977-78 The Glass Menagerie The Orphans The Misanthrope Old Times Mary Stuart The Hostage The Morning Star Purlie Victorious The Imaginary Invalid All My Sons	1993-94 M. Butterfly La Vie, L'Amour: Piaf A Christmas Carol The Foreigner Julius Caesar The Gin Game Whisper in the Mind	2009-10 Into the Woods Palomino A Christmas Story, the Musical Around the World in 80 Days Broke-ology Bus Stop Venice
  1978-79 Julius Caesar Light Up the Sky The Shadow Box The Sea Gull Rashomon The Happy Hunter Bus Stop The Little Foxes	1994-95 Dancing at Lughnasa The Deputy A Christmas Carol If We Are Women The Imaginary Invalid Paul Robeson Treasure Island	2010-11 Saved Harriet Jacobs A Christmas Carol Another American: Asking & Telling Circle Mirror Transformation Cabaret Peer Gynt
  1979-80 Hamlet Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead The New York Idea The Chalk Garden Oh Coward! The Visit Twelfth Night Hamlet Look Homeward, Angel	1995-96 A Delicate Balance A Christmas Carol The Belle of Amherst Almost September Antigone Cat on a Hot Tin Roof	2011-12 August: Osage County The History of Kisses A Christmas Carol The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Great Immensity The Whipping Man Little Shop of Horrors
  1980-81 Medea What Every Woman Knows The Learned Ladies Catsplay Lady Audley's Secret Night of the Iguana Wings A Perfect Gentleman	1996-97 The Misanthrope A Christmas Carol Oleanna Three Tall Women Oedipus the King All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten	2012-13 Pippin The Mystery of Irma Vep (A Penny Dreadful) A Christmas Carol Death of a Salesman Clay Waiting for You On the Corner of [13th and Walnut] Carousel American Buffalo
  		2013-14 The Tallest Tree in the Forest The Foreigner A Christmas Carol The Santaland Diaries Romeo and Juliet When I Come to Die Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike A Little More Alive