The Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City) is a not-for-profit
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
operating in
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...
. It has a history of premiering cutting-edge contemporary plays and musicals that have never before been produced in the area.
History
In 1974, three
UMKC Theatre
UMKC Theatre is a graduate and undergraduate academic department of the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) that provides both educational and professional training in multiple areas of theatrical production, including acting, scenic design, ...
graduates – Rohn Dennis, Liz Gordon, and Jim Cairns - turned a rented warehouse in Kansas City's River Market area into a locally based theatre company named "Theatre Warehouse." The group's name was changed to the Unicorn Theatre in 1981, after letterhead paper was donated to the nascent company with a unicorn printed at the top. The Unicorn joined
Actors' Equity Association
The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly referred to as Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American labor union representing those who work in live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage productions without a boo ...
, the national union for professional actors and stage managers, in 1984. The theatre draws its company of actors largely from the greater Kansas City area, but its productions also frequently feature performers from regional theatre communities in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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,
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
, and various other cities across the United States.
The Unicorn moved to its current location on Main Street in 1986, when it transformed an 80-year-old parking garage into a functional, intimate theatre space with a thrust stage. The space underwent renovations in 1996 to include a new box office, lobby, rehearsal space, administrative office, and a Main Street entrance. The structure itself houses two performance spaces: a 152-seat Mainstage theatre, and the Jerome Stage, a second 122-seat theatre. A $2 million Next Stage Capital Campaign was launched in 2004 to renovate and expand the theatre, and the Unicorn opened the Jerome Stage in 2008, naming it after Norge W. Jerome, a nutritional anthropologist and former Unicorn theatre board member.
In 1981,
Cynthia Levin became Producing
Artistic Director
An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the ...
of the theatre. Levin announced at the start of the theatre's 40th-anniversary 2013–2014 season that the Unicorn will be launching a Longevity Campaign to raise the funds necessary to make the theatre the only of its kind in Kansas City to purchase and own its performance space.
New play development
The Unicorn is a founding member of the National New Play Network (NNPN), an alliance established in 1998 to support the development of new plays. As a part of their membership with NNPN, the Unicorn produces Rolling World Premieres, part of the Continued Life of New Plays Fund, to support production of a new play within a 12-month period. Since 1981, each season at the Unicorn has featured at least one world-premiere production. To date, the theatre has produced 58 world-premiere productions during the span of their 40 years of operation.
References
{{reflist
Theatres in Kansas City, Missouri
1974 establishments in Missouri