CHECK IN on Facebook!

When you check in on Facebook, before or after the show, Zona Rosa Dental donates $1 to our education programs! You can check in from your smartphone, or before or after the show at home on your computer!

Thank you to those who registered for our Little Shop of Horrors Blood Drive! 

Long before Bill Gates made nerds trendy, there was Seymour Krelborn,

a hapless florist searching for love, aided by a bizarre plant with an

insatiable appetite for human blood. With Motown-style music and true

to its original roots — Roger Corman’s 1960s black comedy film and

the subsequent Off-Broadway show — Little Shop of Horrors is a love

story about what happens when botany goes horribly wrong. Set in the

intimate Copaken Stage in downtown’s Power & Light District,

Little Shop of Horrors promises to become a Kansas City cult favorite.

Appropriate for middle school and up.

Copaken Stage Restaurant Partner

KC Star "A gleaming Cadillac of a show: a shimmering production."

InfoZine "A don't-miss event"

The Vignette "Congrats...on an A++ season"

KCMetropolis.org "It’s two-plus hours of joy."

Ashley Blanchet (Audrey) Ashley Blanchet (Audrey) KC Rep: debut! Broadway: Memphis (Felicia u/s, Ensemble, Shubert Theatre). Regional: A Chorus Line (Marriott Lincolnshire), Meet Me In St Louis, The Music Man (The MUNY), West Side Story, Mame (Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera), Evita, Beauty and the Beast (West Virginia Public Theatre). BFA in Musical Theatre from The University of Michigan where she also received the 2009 Kurt Weill award for excellence in theatre. She is thrilled to be joining the KC Rep family! Thanks, as always, to family and friends for their love and support.

Nick Cordero (Orin) KC Rep: debut. Off-Broadway: The Toxic Avenger Musical (original cast), Man of Rock (New York Musical Theatre Festival); Rock Of Ages (First National Tour). Regional: The Toxic Avenger Musical (George Street Playhouse). Canada: Equus (Citadel Theater); Blood Brothers, Evita, Chess (Theater Aquarius); Fiddler on the Roof (Manitoba Theater Center); The Last Five Years (ATCO, Brampton); Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding (Second City—Toronto). TV & Film: “Queer As Folk” (Showtime). Audio Books: The Golden Mean, An Expensive Education, Lone Wolf, Between the Lines. www.nickcordero.com; twitter @iamNickCordero.

Eboni Fondren (Ronette) KC Rep: debut. Local credits: Generation Why (Just Off Broadway Theatre); RENT (Barn Players); Little Shop of Horrors, Racing Demon, Godspell (Ottawa University); Featured Vocalist (Kansas City Jazz and Blues Festival, Coleman Hawkins Jazz Festival, Rhythm and Ribs Jazz Festival, Unity Village); Lead Vocalist (Everette DeVan Quartet, The Boulevard Big Band). Regional: Featured Vocalist, All That Jazz Gala (Salina Symphony Orchestra). Education: BA in Business Communication, Ottawa University. Ms. Fondren has sung the national anthem for the Kansas City Royals, Kansas City Brigade, and the Kansas City T-Bones. www.ebonifondren.com.  A big thank you to my mom and dad for being my number one fans. You are always there for support and I cannot thank you enough for all that you do! Shout outs to my Gown Gals and my music family too! Thank you for all your support and encouragement!

Colleen Grate (Chiffon/Dance Captain) KC Rep: Cabaret. Local credits: The Marvelous Wonderettes, Honky Tonk Angels, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (American Heartland Theatre); Footloose, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Starlight Theatre); The Music Man, The Sound of Music (The New Theatre); Crooners, Sentimental Journey (Chestnut Fine Arts Center). Education: BFA in Theatre Arts, Stephens College. www.colleengrate.com

Jennie Greenberry  (Crystal) KC Rep: A Christmas Carol, A Christmas Story, The Musical! (world premiere). Local credits: world premieres of U Bug Me, Atypical Boy, and Lucky Duck (including its New York run at the New Victory Theater), The Wiz, Frindle, Seussical, Once on This Island (Coterie Theatre); Murder by the Book for which she was named an “Emerging Artist of 2009” by The Kansas City Star Magazine (American Heartland Theatre). Regional: Footloose (Attenberry Playhouse), Leading Ladies, Godspell, Totally Red (Okoboji Summer Theatre); Babes in Arms, Fiorello!, A Chorus Line (Macklanburg Playhouse). Education: BFA in Theatre Arts, Stephens College.

Gary Neal Johnson (Mushnik) KC Rep: Artistic Associate who marks his 93rd Rep production with Little Shop of Horrors.  Other KC Rep productions include: August: Osage County, Cabaret, Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (11 seasons); Harry Truman in two extended runs of Give ’em Hell, Harry; Virgil Blessing, Bus Stop, Tom Willard, Winesburg, Ohio; Morgan, The Drawer Boy;  Pizarro, The Royal Hunt of the Sun; Gallimard, M. Butterfly; the Professor, Oleanna; Caesar, Julius Caesar; George, Of Mice and Men; Gloucester, King Lear; Oberon, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Squeers, Nicholas Nickleby. Additional local credits:  Starlight Theatre, American Heartland Theatre, New Theatre, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, and The Unicorn Theatre.  Regional theatre credits: George Booth, The Voysey Inheritance (KC Rep co-production with American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, Dean Goodman Award for best supporting actor); Prince Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing and Antonio in Merchant of Venice, Utah Shakespeare Festival; Ensemble, King Lear (Goodman Theatre, Chicago and Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington, D.C., performing the title role as standby for Stacy Keach.) www.garynealjohnson.com

Michael James Leslie  (Audrey II: Voice of the Plant) Michael James Leslie (Audrey II: Voice of the Plant), Michael is a Cornell Law School Graduate who left law for the profession that made him truly come alive.  This is his KC Rep debut.  Other credits:  Broadway: Revival of Hair, The Wiz (Lion), Senator Joe, Little Shop of Horrors (2003 Revival).  National Tours: Beauty and the Beast, Little Shop of Horrors.  Off-Broadway: Romance in Hard Times, The Butterfingers Angel, Warren G, Little Shop of Horrors, Mowgli, American Heroes.  Regional: The Wiz (Muny Opera, Kansas City Starlight), Little Shop of Horrors (Dallas Summer Musicals), Once on This Island (St. Louis Rep, Lincolnshire Marriott), The Happy Elf (First Children’s Theater of Milwaukee), A Christmas Carol (Norfolk Stage), The Hot Mikado (Westchester Broadway Theatre), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Pioneer Theatre), Call Me Madam, Little Shop of Horrors (Paper Mill Playhouse), Man of La Mancha (Barter Theatre), Sweeney Todd, Guys and Dolls (Theatre of Virginia), Boys from Syracuse (Olney Theatre), All About Us (Westport Country Playhouse), Shout Up a Morning ( La Jolla Playhouse), My One and Only (Cape Playhouse).  Concerts: Kristina (Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, London, released on Decca Records), Home for the Holidays (Key West Pops Orchestra), The Gig (York Theatre, released on Jay Records), An Evening with Tim Rice (Holder’s Festival, Barbados), Music of Andrew Lloyd Weber (Scandinavia), Peter Nero and the Philadelphia Pops (Guest Artist). Television: “Cupid”, “Conan O’Brien Show”, “Tonight Show with Johnny Carson”.  Awards: BTA of Chicago Nomination 2010, Best Featured Actor in a Musical or Review for Once on this Island; 2005 Denver Post Ovation Award Nomination, Best Supporting Actor Touring for Little Shop of Horrors.

Joseph Medeiros (Seymour) KC Rep: debut. Broadway: Wicked, West Side Story, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, Guys and Dolls, Grease, Big. Off Broadway: A Minister’s Wife (Lincoln Center Theater); Yank! (The York Theatre); The Blue Flower (Second Stage); Anyone Can Whistle (City Center Encores). Regional: Cats, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (The MUNY); The Secret Garden (Stages St. Louis); Over the Tavern (San Jose Repertory Theatre); The Gershwins’ An American in Paris (Alley Theatre); Crazy for You (College Conservatory of Music). Film: Hairbrained, Vivace!. Education: BFA in Musical Theatre from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.

MARY R. HONOUR (Production Stage Manager) MARY R. HONOUR (Production Stage Manager) Kansas City Rep stage management: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (including its New York run at The New Victory Theatre), The History of Kisses, Peer Gynt (including the coproduction at La Jolla Playhouse), Circle Mirror Transformation, Harriet Jacobs, Bus Stop, A Flea in Her Ear, Winesburg, Ohio, The Glass Menagerie, Radio Golf, The Drawer Boy, A Marvelous Party!, A Christmas Carol, Doubt, Two Pianos, Four Hands, The Syringa Tree, Love, Janis, Jitney, The Trip to Bountiful, Man and Superman, The Voysey Inheritance, Little Women, The Front Page, Incognito; assistant stage management includes: Hank Williams: Lost Highway, The Pirates of Penzance, Liliom, Metamorphoses, Indian Ink, Saint Joan, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. She has also stage managed the Rep’s annual fundraising event A Fearless Fête. Additional local and regional credits: The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Starlight Theatre, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Arizona Theatre Company, and Northwestern University.  "For Eric and Emily, who make it all possible."

KYLE HATLEY (Director) is an actor, director, playwright, producer and the Associate Artistic Director of the Rep, where he has directed The Borderland, Broke-ology, the 30th anniversary production of A Christmas Carol, and Circle Mirror Transformation. For the Rep’s 2011-12 season, he was the Associate Director for August: Osage County. Also at the Rep he was the assistant director on Clay, A Christmas Story, The Musical!, Into The Woods, Radio Golf, The Glass Menagerie, and Saved and performed as “Caleb” in The Whipping Man and “The Gentleman Caller” in The Glass Menagerie. Also in Kansas City, he has directed The Darwin Project at the Kauffman Performing Arts Center for Kansas City Friends of Chamber Music, Carousel at The Living Room Theatre, Hamlet for TwoThirds Theatre and Ben Franklin’s Apprentice at Coterie Theatre. For Kansas City Fringe Festival, he wrote and directed Watering The Grave, The Death of Cupid and Head and is currently writing a new musical called People Fall. He is also the artistic director and co-founder of Chatterbox Audio Theater, a non-profit, web-based theatre company that produces fully soundscaped audio plays for free streaming or download, where he has written and directed The Dead Girl, which won the Silver Ogle Award for excellence in Horror and Fantasy for audio theatre in 2008; Six, Surfacing, an adult adaptation of Pinocchio, which features some of Kansas City’s finest actors, and most recently he created and directed a new series called The Human Experience. In 2009 he was named Best Director in Kansas City by The Pitch, was a 2011 Man of the Year nominee for KC Connect and was recently named a 2011 Charlotte Street Foundation Generative Artist Fellow. He received his degrees in Theatre from Rhodes College.

Anthony T. Edwards (Music Director, Conductor/Keyboards) KC Rep: Cabaret (Music Director/Conductor/Pianist), Orchestra Contractor, Into the Woods (Assistant Music Director and Conductor). Local credits: Resident Musical Director for American Heartland Theatre, Starlight Theatre, Unicorn Theatre, All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, Epic Entertainment. Additional Local: New Theatre, Quality Hill Playhouse, Coterie Theatre, Theatre in the Park, Late Night Theatre, Musical Theatre Heritage. New York: New Victory Theatre. Regional: Red Barn Theatre, Waterfront Playhouse (Key West). Mr. Edwards has served as musical director for theatres across the country including the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and is Adjunct Faculty for UMKC. Upcoming shows include Once Upon a Mattress (Coterie Theatre); Bingo the Musical (American Heartland Theatre); Aida (Starlight Theatre at the Kauffman Center).

Meghan Raham (Scenic Design and Costume Design ) KC Rep: Circle Mirror Transformation, Venice (sets and costumes)—world premiere (and at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles), Broke-ology, Clay, The Borderland. New York: Clay (Lincoln Center Theater LCT3). Regional: The Wings of Ikarus Jackson (Kennedy Center); Eric Rosen’s Wedding Play (About Face Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company); FRANKENSTEIN (The Hypocrites at the Museum of Contemporary Art); Fedra (Lookingglass Theatre Company); A Big Blue Nail (Victory Gardens Theatre); Moby Dick—costumes, Noir—production design, Wagner’s Ring Cycle (theatrical adaptation)—production design (The Building Stage Theater Company, company member). Upcoming: S/he is Nancy Joe (Zero Point Festival, Prague; Embassy of the Czech Republic, D.C.). Awards: Princess Grace Theatre Honorarium, 2009. Education: MFA Northwestern University. Ms. Raham is a professor of stage design at American University in Washington, D.C. http://meghanraham.com.

Jason Lyons (Lighting Design) KC Rep: Clay, A Flea In Her Ear, A Christmas Story, the Musical! (world premiere), Saved. Broadway: Rock of Ages (also Toronto, Australia, London and national tours); The Threepenny Opera, Barefoot In the Park, Good Vibrations, Uncle Vanya (Classic Stage Company); Clay, Broke-ology (Lincoln Center Theater). Regional: Bring It On, The Musical (National Tour and Alliance Theatre); Toxic Avenger, The Musical (Alley Theatre); So You Think You Can Dance Tour 2011, White Noise (New Orleans and Chicago); Golden Age (Kennedy Center); 2 by Pinter, Scarcity, Body Awareness (Atlantic Theater); Fault Lines (Naked Angels Theater Company); The Piano Teacher (South Coast Repertory); Vigils (Goodman Theatre); Evil Dead, The Musical (NYC and Toronto); The Field (Irish Repertory Theater); Once Around the Sun, Kiki & Herb: Coup de Theatre (Cherry Lane Theatre). Ten years with The New Group, including: Marie and Bruce, The Starry Messenger, Groundswell, Mourning Becomes Electra, Rafta Rafta, Two Thousand Years, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Abigail’s Party, Hurlyburly, Aunt Dan and Lemon, Comedians. Faculty: Purchase College. www.jasonlyonsdesign.com

Joshua Horvath (Sound Design) KC Rep: Trip to Bountiful, Clay, Winesburg, Ohio, Around the World in 80 Days, Venice, Saved. Off Broadway: Clay (Lincoln Center). Regional credits: The Goodman, Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare, Court Theatre, Lookingglass, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf, Centerstage, Illinois Shakespeare, Milwaukee Shakespeare, Milwaukee Rep, Madison Rep, Great River Shakespeare, Center Theatre Group, and California Shakespeare. Awards: Four Joseph Jefferson Awards, an L.A. Ovation Award (Venice). Upcoming and current shows: Angels in America, Parts 1 and 2 (Court Theatre); The Verona Project (American Musical Theatre Project). Mr. Horvath is a lecturer in sound design for theatre and film at Northwestern University, an artistic associate of Lookingglass Theatre Company, and co-owner of Aria Music Designs, LLC. www.horvathsound.com

Richard J. Hinds (Associate Director) KC Rep: Cabaret (Choreographer), A Christmas Story, The Musical! (Associate Choreographer). Local: The Sound of Music, All Shook Up, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Pump Boys and Dinettes (New Theatre). Other Credits: Fame (Macau International Music Festival); Associate/Assistant: Newsies (Broadway); 9 to 5 (1st National Tour); The First Wives Club (The Old Globe); Pippin (Center Theatre Group and Deaf West); High School Musical (Disney’s National and international tours); A Wonderful Life (Paper Mill Playhouse); The Pirate (Prince Music Theatre); Grease (Lenape Regional PAC); Broadway Under The Stars (NYC & Company); Frankenstein (37 ARTS, Off-Broadway). Drama Desk Awards. Education: graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy. Upcoming: National tour of Jekyll and Hyde. www.richardjhinds.com

Megan Turek (Associate Costume Design) KC Rep: August: Osage County, Circle Mirror Transformation, Saved, Venice (assistant costume designer)—world premiere (and at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles), A Christmas Carol. Local credits: Grey Gardens (Unicorn Theatre); Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Sorority House of the Dead, Little House on the Prairie, Maul of the Dead, U:BUG:ME (Coterie Theatre); Master and Margarita, The Country Wife, Three Sisters (UMKC Department of Theatre). Education: BS in Theatre Design and Technology from the University of Wisconsin; MFA in Costume Design and Technology from UMKC.

Eryn BATES Preston (Assistant Music Director) KC Rep: A Christmas Carol (Music Director); Cabaret (Assistant Music Director); A Christmas Carol (Additional Music). Local credits: Carousel (Music Director, The Living Room); original music for Head (by Kyle Hatley); original score for The Human Experience and Pinocchio with Chatterbox Audio Theater. United Kingdom credits: Into the Woods (Oxford Playhouse); Iolanthe (New Theatre Oxford); accompanist for The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Oxford University (Oxford, UK); solo performer at Blenheim Palace, Oxford University, Holywell Music Room (Oxford, UK). Education: MBA from University of Missouri- Kansas City; BA in Oxbridge Music from William Jewell College.

Grace Hudson (Designer & Engineer, Audrey II) KC Rep: props artisan since 2007, creating the giant eyeball and the 14’ cat eyeglasses for Into the Woods, the Gnome for Broke-ology, the matching carved headboards for A Flea in Her Ear and many other memorable projects. She began her career in theatre in 2005 as a paint intern for Stages St. Louis and was a painter in New York before moving to Kansas City. Education: BFA in Sculpture from Northern Michigan University.

Nick Uthoff (Puppeteer) Nick is very excited to be the puppeteer for Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors. He has been a technician and production assistant for the K.C. Rep for the past 5 seasons and has loved every minute of it! He has had the pleasure to work on most of director Kyle Hatley's shows in that time. You might have seen Nick on stage the past two seasons of Christmas Carol as a Caroler. As well as the Living Room production of Carousel where he played Jigger. He was also in Kyle's Fringe Festival original play Head at the Unicorn in 09. As a Kansas State graduate of Theatre Performance Nick has had to great privilege to work as a technician for The Heartland, Unicorn, Egads, Fire Designs, The Living Room and many Fringe Festivals in his 5 years living in K.C. He would like to thank his family and friends for their continued love, support and understanding. GO CHIEFS!!!!
 

KYLE BROWN (Drums) is a versatile percussionist playing a wide range of music from jazz to orchestra to experimental. He has received several outstanding performance awards from the Wichita Jazz Festival and the UNC/Greeley Jazz Festival.  Along with performing, Kyle also maintains a studio where he teaches all ages of percussionists.  Education: Bachelor’s of Music degree in Percussion Performance from Fort Hays State University where he specialized in keyboard percussion and drum set. 

RY KINCAID (Bass) has played bass for many professional theatre productions in Kansas City.  His original plays have received two “Best of The Pitch” awards and have been performed internationally.  Pilgrimage—a Canterbury Tales rock musical for which he wrote the book, music, and lyrics will premiere this July in Kansas City. Education: MFA in theatre from UMKC.   www.rykincaid.com

JOHN WIRT (Guitar) John Wirt (guitar) is pleased to be making his first appearance at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre for Little Shop of Horrors.  A Kansas City native, he has played with many artists, bands, and several touring acts including The People's Liberation Big Band, Apollo 13, The Band That Saved The World, and Bixby Lane.  John’s past theater credits include: A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline starring Gail Bliss, The Marvelous Wonderettes (American Heartland Theatre), Honky Tonk Angels (AHT), Big River (Musical Theater Heritage), Kiss Me Kate (MTH), Women of Brewster Place (Unicorn Theatre), and Oh, What a Lovely War! (KCAT, UMKC).  John holds a B.M. in Performance and Audio Engineering from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and can also be found playing regularly with Los Angeles based singer/songwriter Julia Othmer and the modern jazz quintet Killer Strayhorn.  www.johnwirtmusic.com

ERIC ROSEN (Artistic Director) is a nationally-recognized playwright, director and producer and the fourth artistic director in the 47-year history of Kansas City Repertory Theatre. He is also co-founder and former artistic director of Chicago’s acclaimed About Face Theatre, where he developed nearly 30 world premieres in his thirteen seasons there. Rep credits include direction of Metamorphoses (also Australia and regional tour) and The Trip to Bountiful prior to his appointment, and direction of Clay (prior to N.Y. premiere at Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3, winner of Chicago’s Jefferson Award and nominee for the Drama Desk Award in N.Y.); Winesburg, Ohio (for which he also wrote book and lyrics, winner of the Jeff Award for Best New Work and Philadelphia’s Barrymore Award for Best Musical); the world premiere of A Christmas Story, The Musical! (transfer to 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle); the world premiere of Venice, a new musical he co-wrote with Matt Sax (co-production with CTG in Los Angeles, Fall of 2010; currently in development for a N.Y. premiere in 2012, named Best Musical of the Year in TIME magazine) and the acclaimed hits Cabaret, August: Osage County and The Whipping Man. He recently directed The Fairy Tale Lives of Russian Girls at Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. Other plays include Dream Boy (Jeff Award for best direction and production, produced nationally) and Wedding Play (Jeff nomination for best new work, produced at Steppenwolf), Dancer from the Dance, Whitman and Undone (About Face). Other directing credits include the world premieres of M. Proust by Mary Zimmerman (Jeff nomination for best new play) and Theater District (Jeff Award for best new play), and the Chicago premiere of Take Me Out, all in About Face/Steppenwolf co-productions. Regional credits include work at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles; Steppenwolf, the Goodman, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago; the Prince Music Theater; Hartford Stage; Cincinnati Playhouse; Repertory Theatre of St. Louis; 7 Stages in Atlanta; and workshops at the Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, the O’Neill, and Sundance Theatre Lab. Rosen produced the pre-N.Y. premiere of Doug Wright’s play I Am My Own Wife, winner of the Tony Award for best play and the Pulitzer Prize; Eleven Rooms of Proust created by Mary Zimmerman; and was dramaturg for Frank Galati and Stephen Flaherty’s Loving Repeating at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Moisés Kaufman's One Arm at Steppenwolf Theatre and Kaufman’s Tony nominated 33 Variations at Sundance Theatre Lab. Rosen earned his Ph.D. in performance studies from Northwestern University, and held a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)/Theatre Communication Group (TCG) Career Development Fellowship for Directors. He has twice served as a theatre panelist for the NEA and has participated in the TCG/Pew Charitable Trusts’ National Theatre Artists Residency Program. Rosen has taught at Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Brooklyn College and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, his alma mater.

Press Login Here. If you are a member of the press and would like to download high resolution images, please log in or sign up here. For more information, please contact Laura Muir at muirl@kcrep.org.

Little Shop of Horrors Preview

Little Shop of Horrors Sneak Peek