Greetings, friends!
I hope you’re following all our posts on Facebook and Twitter, where you’ll find occasional quiz games, fun facts, and season updates.
We’re very excited about the way this season is coming together.
With the INTRUST Festival of Broadway and 9th Annual Jester Awards successfully completed for this year, all our attention goes to the upcoming season.
We have an exciting partnership with Pittsburgh CLO this year. In exchange for using their beautiful set for GYPSY, they will be using our set, props and costumes for CURTAINS. This hilarious murder mystery musical is our season finale, but it plays in Pittsburgh June 22 – 27, so we need to get it ready to ship out earlier than usual.
The set designs by J Branson have been completed for a while now, and the carpenters and painters started last week to make these elements come to life.
Our costume crew has been at work for a month now, headed by the indefatigable Debbie Roberts, who is designing the costumes. She has a particular knowledge of this show, since her daughter Darcie Roberts was a member of the original Broadway cast (and will be coming here to perform in the show for us, too!).
DEBBIE ROBERTS (Costume Shop Manager) has designed costumes for many shows here, including Les Misérables, White Christmas, Thoroughly Modern Millie, High School Musical, State Fair, Funny Girl, The Most Happy Fella, On the Town and West Side Story, plus special costumes for Aida (the fashion show, in partnership with Matt Mitchell), My Fair Lady (all of Eliza’s gowns), Annie Get Your Gun, Man of La Mancha, Crazy for You, The Sound of Music, My One and Only, and various Festival of Broadway shows. A graduate of Friends University, Debbie received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance and Ballet. “I am so proud of the work that Music Theatre of Wichita does, it is always a pleasure to work each season. While California is home, work in the costume field takes me to New York each Christmas season to work for the World Famous Radio City Rockettes. It has been over 19 years that Wichita has been my summer home and I look forward to meeting new people and learning new skills each time. Enjoy the shows!”
Darcie Roberts (Georgia Hendrix in Curtains, Polly Baker in Crazy for You) is a singing-dancing actress whose credits on Broadway include Curtains, Aida, Dream – The Songs of Johnny Mercer, Crazy for You and the pre-Broadway tour of Busker Alley, as leading lady opposite Tommy Tune. She starred in the national tours of Thoroughly Modern Millie and Barry Manilow’s Copacabana, and throughout Europe in 42nd Street. A familiar face to MTWichita audiences, Darcie began here as a 15-year old, playing Maggie in A Chorus Line, with subsequent roles including Mother in Ragtime, Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, Gigi in Gigi, Martha Jefferson in 1776, Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof, Peggy Sawyer in 42nd Street and Emily Arden in State Fair. Other starring roles in regional productions include Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, Eva Peron in Evita, Cassie in A Chorus Line, and Lola in DamnYankees.
J BRANSON (Scenic Designer) For twenty years, J Branson has been a Chicago-based designer. He is proud to have begun his theatrical career as an Apprentice at Music Theatre of Wichita 32 years ago. J’s national-tour credits include The Music Man, Beauty and the Beast and Brigadoon. Original productions include both productions for The Second City Chicago’s 2007/2008 season, Shockwave (Disneyworld), Stardust, A Room With a View, The Conversation, Jungle Man and A Tale of Two Cities. Past regional work includes Thoroughly Modern Millie, Smokey Joe’s Café, Jekyll and Hyde, Chess, The Wizard of Oz (for which J received an After Dark award), Children of Eden, Rags, Assassins, Guys and Dolls and The Pajama Game. J has an array of industrial design credits and has been honored with three National Addy Awards. His designs at MTWichita have included Hairspray, The Drowsy Chaperone, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Beauty and the Beast, The Secret Garden, Children of Eden, West Side Story, 1776, and many more.