Artspeak Radio with Kevin King, Jonathan Doram, Cesar Lopez, Samantha Haan, & Mandi Strange

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, April 10, 2024, 9am -10am CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes artist/curator Cesar Lopez, Samantha Haan curator, Mandi Strange collector, playwright/producer/founder of Whim Productions, Kevin King and musician/writer Jonathan Doram.

KEVIN KING & JONATHAN DORAM-Whim Productions is dedicated to creating challenging and evocative queer theater. Our mission is to produce works written by LGBTQ+ writers with narratives that center queer characters. We are committed to sharing the diversity of queer lives with Kansas City audiences and providing a platform for LGBTQ+ theater artists to tell their own stories.

Join us for an evening of seven short plays written by members of Kansas City’s LBGTQ+ community!
All plays are presented at each performance. You’re in for a treat!

Advance tickets are $20.
Walk-up: $23
Select performances will have Pay What You Whim pricing. *PWYW pricing is not available for every performance.
Performance Dates:
Fri. Apr 12th 2024, 8:00 pm
Sat. Apr 13th 2024, 8:00 pm
Sun. Apr 14th 2024, 3:00 pm
Mon. Apr 15th 2024, 7:30 pm
Fri. Apr 19th 2024, 8:00 pm
Sat. Apr 20th 2024, 8:00 pm
Sun. Apr 21st 2024, 3:00 pm

Kevin King (he/him) is the founder and Producing Artistic Director of Whim Productions. He graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in Creative Writing. Kevin is a playwright-in-residence at the Midwest Dramatists Center, former playwright-in-residence in the Charlotte Street Foundation Studio Residency program, and a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Kevin has directed many of Whim’s shows to date, including Swimming in the Shallows (2019) and Film Classics Presents: Heaven So Far (2011). He also directs shorts in Alphabet Soup: Stories from Queer Voices. Kevin has also directed for Fishtank Theatre’s production of Every 28 Hours and Kansas City’s Project Playwright competition (2015).
His plays have appeared in the Kansas City Fringe Festival, The Barn Players’ 6×10 Short Play festival (2018), Midwest Dramatists Conference (2018), One-Minute Play Festival (2016), Fishtank Theater’s 12 Plays of Christmas (2014), and others. His short play Debating was a semi-finalist for the 2021 Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival. The Swallows, another of Kevin’s short plays, was selected for the 2019 William Inge Theater Festival New Play Lab. His work ranges from campy to slice-of-life realism, portrayed through a quirky, queer lens. You can check out his work at New Play Exchange.

Kevin’s acting credits include Whim’s Bad Auditions series (2014, 2015, 2016), Snowed Inn (2017), Whim’s production of After Orlando (2016), and Tradewinds Arts’ #ResistanceMatters (2019).
He lives in Kansas City, MO, with Calliope, his cat, who dislikes everyone but him.

Jonathan Doram is a Kansas City musician and writer. He is the Assistant Conductor for the Heartland Men’s Chorus and made his conducting debut at the Kauffman Performing Arts Center in June 2023. He won the KC Literary Lens Fall 2023 Poetry contest and one of his choral works will be performed at the 2024 Kansas Music Educator’s Association convention. He wrote the Alphabet Soup play “The Rainbow on Trial,” which Kevin King directs. “Three people – one gay, one bi, one trans – walk into a courtroom – charged with the moral decay of society.” 
Kevin King’s,” Welcome to Herbalicious” – “Chaos ensues when a gay couple refuses to sell pot to a right-wing television host.”
King will chat about all 7 plays being presented, and about the developmental workshop process involved in getting the plays from submission to stage.

Here’s what’s coming up at Whim Productions;
Seven Polaroids of Men’s Bottoms – A Cautionary Tale by John Adams
Gideon’s on a mission to recover some coveted items that belonged to his grandmother. A midnight meet-cute is all that stands in his way.



The Logs by Haz Cady 
A man travels back in time to visit himself as a teen, opening a world of possible possibilities.

The Rainbow on Trial by Jonathan Doram
 Three people – one gay, one bi, one trans – walk into a courtroom, charged with the moral decay of society.

Welcome to Herbalicious by Kevin King
Chaos ensues when a gay couple refuses to sell pot to a right-wing television host.



Salve Femina by Grace Laughton
Sister January and Sister Nadia face an uncertain future when their “particular friendship” is discovered.



Potluck Promises by Kale Marie Michael
As Mother’s Day approaches, Celeste and her mother reconcile how Celeste’s troubled sister has impacted their relationship.



Tickle Monster by David Whitner
 In an unconventional therapy session, Paris confronts their childhood tormentor – the dreaded tickle monster!

Whim performs at Whim Space 415 Prospect, KCMO 64124
www.whimproductions.org

CESAR LOPEZ
United Colors (formerly Curiouser KC)
611 N 6th St Kansas City, Kansas 66101
Friday April 19th 5-8PM
April – May 2024 @unitedcolors.gallery

The 5M Collection is a heartwarming family legacy rooted locally in Kansas City, consisting of global, regional, and local art while highlighting works created by women artists and artists of color. Matt Strange, who started the collection, was exposed to art early by visiting museums with his mother. When the time came, Matt transitioned from an art spectator to an active art collector. Today’s 5M Collection is a family legacy co-created by Matt and his wife, Mandi Strange, referring to the five “M”s in the name of Matt, Madie, and their three children.

Unlike many commercial collectors who treat artwork as currency, The 5M Collection
follows a “no flip, no sell” rule. Each collected piece stays at home: on display, constructing a meaningful sanctuary for the meaningful art created by each artist and those living, breathing, and growing with the pieces. May it be the comfortable, cozy, casual relaxation portrayed in “Sunday Kinda Love” by Robert Pterson, but also the self-indulging-fulfillment in Zéh Palito’s ““Meu quintal é maior do que o Mundo (My backyard is bigger than the world)” or the frustrated, clustered, distorted identities of under-represented communities interpreted by abstract assemblages, the collection treats these heart-strutting subjects with neither over-sentimental tokenization nor over-analytical apathy. Breaking elitist qualifiers and exclusive standards, 5M returns art collecting to its most fundamental rule: an innocent pursuit after a special sense of belonging, inspiration, and upliftingness. You collect because a piece of art struck your soul.

@the5Mcollection

Contact [email protected]
@unitedcolors.gallery
www.unitedcolors.gallery
(by appointment)

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