Everything's Up To Date In Kansas City...Except My Photography

Our two weeks in Fayetteville were nice, but I think most of us were ready to move on. Next up was Kansas City. Unfortunately though we move a bit further north, the hot weather stayed with us. So imagine how pleasantly surprised we were when we pulled into the hotel and discovered that it was one of those hotel and water park combos. That pleasure lasted a matter of hours though when I saw all of the children in swimming suits running amok all around the hotel. Needless to say we needed to find ways of getting out of the hotel. One of those ways was to visit downtown Kansas City as our hotel was several miles away from downtown.

I had heard good things about downtown Kansas City from various people who had been there before whether for tour or for a music industry trade show. So I got out my camera and started exploring.

There is some very cool architecture in Kansas City.

The Power and Light district is the main attraction downtown. It is the dining and entertainment district. Had our hotel been downtown, I would have spent more time there (especially the Flying Saucer!)

Now aside from wanting to reference the song from Oklahoma!, I titled my post what I did because I made a photographic blunder yet again. I left my camera set on a really high ISO setting from taking nighttime pictures, and so all of my daytime pictures from Kansas City are grainy and disappointing. I am glad to say that I have now found a way to take my nighttime pictures that will not cause this to happen again! I guess I will just have to return to Kansas City with another tour and try again.

The Competition

As I was exploring downtown Kansas City, I made a point of seeking out the theatres. Since we only had evening shows, I had hoped to see a matinee of something. Sadly nothing else was playing that week.

Kansas City Repertory is a well respected regional theatre, and of course they were producing interesting shows that I would have loved to see. Just not the week I was there.

This building is going to be the Kauffman Performing Arts Center. When it is finished it will be the home of the Kansas City Symphony, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and the Kansas City Ballet. The building looks like it is going to be pretty spectacular. I hope Beauty and the Beast plays a return engagement so that I can see it!

From the modern to the not modern, this is the Civic Center. The tours that do not have the privilege of playing outdoors in the 90 degree weather play here.

The Midland is an example of an old legitimate theatre being used for other purposes. In this case a concert venue.

I might not have noticed this little theatre had the building not been as pleasing as it is.

Starlight Theatre

So this summer was apparently about following the heat where ever we went. Starting in Albuquerque, we pretty much had temperatures in the 90s and 100s and Kansas City was no exception. To make matters worse though the venue that we played in Kansas City was an outdoor theatre. None of the other musicians had ever played the Starlight Theatre so we really did not know what to expect. I had visions of having a heat stroke during the show at the very least!

As it turns out, the musicians had nothing to worry about. When we arrived at the theatre and made our way down to the pit we discovered that it was like stepping into a meat locker it was so cold. In fact it was really too cold, but I was not complaining based on how hot it was on the stage. Since the stage was open to the elements, the air conditioning made no difference at all. I felt so bad for all the actors wearing their heavy costumes especially Justin in all of his Beast fur.

Our other big concern was the weather. As you can see the audience is completely uncovered so if it rains they get wet. Thankfully the performers are pretty well protected on the stage and in the pit. Given that it is an outdoor theatre, we only had night performances, and there was one scheduled for every night we were in Kansas City. Unfortunately the weather forecast showed rain for a couple of the days during the week. Knowing this we were told that the theatre will not cancel the show until there is lightning or dangerously high wind gusts. So one of those nights with rain forested we arrived at the theatre to find the pit opening covered with a tarp and the keyboard moved down out of the opening. It was a good thing that they moved the keyboard because it started to rain almost as soon as we began the show. Unfortunately the rain did not really let up during Act I. In fact we even stopped the show at one point when the rain was really bad. We started up again, but it was still raining and in fact there was lightning by this point too. Despite the weather, we made it to the end of Act I, and they made an announcement that the intermission was going to be held to let the weather pass. Well we waited close to 30 minutes and the weather made no signs of letting up yet we still got the signal to start Act II. We made it not much further than Wolf Chase #2, and they canceled the rest of the show. We all would have been really excited, but for the fact that given the delays we were ending the show at what would have been our normal running time anyway. After the show we learned that the theatre's policy is that they will only give refunds to the audience members if the show is canceled during Act I. Once Act II starts, then tough luck the theatre will only reschedule the ticket for a later performance date. That would certainly explain why we started Act II despite the fact that it was pouring rain and there were fairly close lightning strikes. Ah business!!

Putting the bad weather aside though, it was kind of fun to play in an outdoor venue like the Starlight Theatre. It certainly made a nice change of pace from the normal (not that I would like to make a habit of it or anything!).

Well, It Was Right There

In one of those lucky coincidences that occasionally happen to us, our hotel in Kansas City was right across the street from Kauffman Stadium home to the Kansas City Royals. Also luckily enough they played a couple of home games while we were in town so I bought a cheap ticket and some nachos and watched most of a baseball game. I say most because I really did not care about either team nor do I have the patience to sit and watch an entire baseball game by myself. I do enjoy baseball stadium nachos though!

Two Weeks In Fayetteville?!

When we got our schedule for Beauty and the Beast, one engagement stuck out as being unusual to say the least: two weeks in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Now I had played Fayetteville before with The Wizard of Oz, and while Fayetteville is a fun little college town I just could not see how Beauty and the Beast would sell two weeks worth of performances. Even worse it was in the summer so most of the college students were not in Fayetteville. But after Dallas we hopped on a bus and headed north to see what awaited us.

Well in terms of the show, it was not a sell out hit. The presenter did a curtain speech every night and talked up the fact that having a show for two weeks was a first for the Walton Arts Center. I wonder if they will ever repeat the experiment?

As for the extracirricular side of being in Fayetteville for two weeks, it turned out to be great. With our run in Hawaii coming ever closer, we all took advantage of the fantastic gym that the Arts Center arranged for us to use. Fayetteville also has miles of bike trails, and the gym just happened to rent bikes. My crowning acheivement was the day that I did RPM spinning class at the gym and then rode several miles on the trails! Also while it was not the nicest hotel I have ever stayed at, our hotel had a great pool so there were a great many calories burned in Fayetteville.


Our hotel was in Downtown Fayetteville which as it turns out was not such a bad place to be. There were many restaurants to chose from including our favorite, The Little Bread Company, above.

A view of Downtown from the campus.

With two weeks I had more time to explore the campus. By far my favorite discovery was The Center Of Excellence For Poultry Science. I mean, what?!

Now I can certainly think of other college towns I would like to have two weeks in (Bloomington or Madison to name but two), regardless I had a great two weeks in Fayetteville.

The Butterflies And The Bees

As I was exploring the University of Arkansas campus, I discovered a little garden area that was swarming with butterflies and bees. Here are some of my better pictures: