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Support for a case locally produced programs has been provided in part by Matthew and Cheryl McInerney of Kansas City Missouri and by Sprint providing innovative telecommunications solutions. I am really amazed that this is the exhibition hall at municipal auditorium and it's being transformed into Victorian England for the dickens holiday festival that's coming up these next two weekends. We'll take a little look around later but first here's what's coming up this week on our show. The Nelson Atkins museum they turned 60 this year. Well look at some of the ways they're celebrating that milestone. Also Miss Jackie for years that's how Kansas City kids have known this writer and performer Casey by design heads north to look over park colleges Mackay hall and will head south to catch some seasonal silliness at the Martin city melodrama. Plus I'll have some front row recommendations for the weekend all coming up in the next half hour on marquee. The intersection of a hundred and thirty fifth of the homes means food to a lot of us.

Because of all those great restaurants out there like just in gyms Keegan's smokestack BBQ. But you know it's also a year round a hotbed of singing dancing and bad puns. Thanks to the Martin city melodrama vaudeville company had just opened her 50th show out there a sort of three ring holiday exist rather Ganz of that as always goes way beyond your basic bad guy with a mustache and Black K for. His. Nose. The. Way the this melodrama is not like any other melodrama and most melodrama theatres because there are many many in Colorado and there's a lot in California. Our kind of theater that attracts tourists so they don't necessarily change their material as often or under the pressure to create new material all the time. Whereas this is a city militar

aamod and you're not going to have Mr Smith from Raytown come out and see the drunkard 18 times. You know there are these people in town they want to see you know new show every seven or eight weeks in the week. We are not your government. The. Fracturing fairytales is a tradition out here as part of their Christmas show they brought back Mother Goose's nursery crimes wherein Jeff Bienne gives the residents of goose down farms plenty to sing about. Truly impressive It took all the. Familiar like some rock'n'roll tense but mostly classical opera. Things that people now well it's our Beethoven stuff and somehow mixing it all together it sounds great. Count. This musical city home where it's

just the right thing. Let's go now to meet. You. And so you. Know it's always a family sort of show out here. It's no alcohol is served at the melodrama. They have to put even more effort into milking all the silliness out of a character like beef jerky. We try very hard to tell the story in that particular melodrama or in the opera because if you just made it all funny people are going to zone out they don't you know you've got to have a point to it. And we try and make sure that our humor comes from truth because if we just had people slamming into walls or slipping on banana peels like it's very old so your bets and your shtick. Have to have to come from truth.

I'm a really believer you know with Newman down there it was right. Yes it was started with loads of clothes you know. Over the years the stage cancer as a launching pad for some of the city's most visible actors and actresses Jeannie says you have to be a triple threat to work out here or at least make two of them really well because of the nature of the beast. There may be more improvisation in collaboration up here than in any theatre in town. We don't know. You know I know and many things get written along the way even right up to opening night. So with it being original material that's what I think what's exciting about it so now we don't use a book script that's already been done we were doing it for the first time right here. You know it's constantly a challenge out here it's a challenge with the original and it's a challenge to do something you've never done before. What you don't always get to do in every theater. A lot of times you're hired for what they know you can do but it's what you can you know you can't do that we find very exciting out here

things you never thought you could do but you can't. Playing a water glass would be a good example of that. Every year since the melodrama began they've included a water glass symphony in the holiday vaudeville. This year Terry Lawrence says the job of tuning the glasses that's new tour. But then again being classically trained so is most of this. There's people right next to you. You can hear him talking and you can see them and it's kind of this. Was kind of a strange feeling that it was a lot of fun I like to have the audience hear this audience in fact was the first one to sample the whole show the day right after Thanksgiving. We had roughly two hours they got a short melodrama based on an old Eskimo folk tale the nursery crimes murder mystery as well as the water glasses and other short vaudeville bits like Barney meeting Santa Claus and a song about the joys of fruit cake all on the sawdust covered floor that is a part of the melodrama tradition families love it.

You know when yeah and we have good audiences and it's nice people calm especially some people want to come on opening night and they like it like that and some people come opening night and come later to see how it's progressed because you know I think it gets better here. Just let me get it for me. Right. Right. Son was Well it's interesting because people you know kind of go all well the audience doesn't get it because they're done that isn't it. I feel if they don't get it it's our fault as a performer or it's the fault of the script. If they didn't get some wacky thing we put together it's because we did not make it clear enough to them. And it's so interesting like when we open a show like even this afternoon there's a few things that people didn't get its because we need to make it clear to them it's our job to make it clear to them. I. Was. Little.

Easy by design producer Dave Burkhardt was particularly impressed with the fact that McKay Hall

was built largely with the help of student labor. They hauled a lot of the rocks up the hill and even did some of the door and window work themselves. McKay Hall has been in continuous use since 1893. The decorations by the way are a part of part feels big Christmas by the river a celebration that's going on there this weekend. Well still to come on this edition of marquee a look at how the Nelson Atkins museum is celebrating their 60th anniversary down here for the Missouri Repertory Theatre is still working on getting through year number one of what they hope will become a big annual event like ones that have been going on in other cities like Galveston. It's the dickens holiday fare. And by Friday this place should be teeming with colorful costume characters helping celebrate Christmas past. Meanwhile back at the theater they'll be doing their perennial favorite Christmas carol. That's a show that a lot of us remember watching on TV when we were tiny. A lot of us also remember kids shows like 40 One Tree House Lane. That's a program that Kansas City and Jackie Silbert used to appear on regularly as marquees

done a palette of shows as Miss Jackie as she's known is still reaching out to a whole new generation of Kansas City kids. It's time for the music box. With. Miss Jackie. And little blue. Boys and girls I'm so happy to see you today whether you know or from our numerous area television performances beginning in the 70s or from recent book signings and concerts at the borders for kids you know the name as jazz is synonymous with children and music. And I knew that music develops halogen the more you sing with your child the better your child will feel you can also also read it starts with the. Clock you. Clot. This show recorded in 1972 was a pilot for future Miss

Jackie programs. She became a regular on channel 41 41 treehouse lane in the mid 70s and then hosted a children's show for several years on tell a cable was called Just Kids and that was my own show. Forty one house claim was not I was just a part of a show there. I did all the music and you know I did some of the puppets and things like that Jackie went on to get a master's degree in child development and wrote a series of books for parents. I wrote a book to play the toddlers and one of the things I've done with both of these books is that none of these. I mean all of these games have been tried out. You know they've all been done with children. What is your name. You know I teach classes through Johnson County Community College cum music mom dad and me at there on Tuesday mornings and I don't know if you can come or your wife could come but he's the perfect day for it. And that starts I think the end of Jan or sometime these classes what really kind of inspired me because as we go we do stuff like I

started out you know I would do certain things or places and I'd see that little infant six months old would just love that see those stars. Ready. And what was lost to the inspiration for this Jackie's books many people know are best for. Your shopping malls and schools over the years like Shawnee Mission Norton. Where she's performing for kids. It's 1970. At least. I think you. Were saying. They used to do it record times a year. I couldn't tell you. Children have a temper that. What's now a yearly event is also a chance for Miss Jackie to introduce kids to the instruments played by the Shawnee Mission North string orchestra. OK another something else on the below that we didn't talk about. That's on the violin. Would like.

These little kids maybe one or two of them will remember this day and they remember going to shine to me and I want to play the violin when I grow up and and a lot of them do amazing or nothing. There are kids who will come up later and said You know I saw this Jack in concert. That's where I learned about the violin and. It's been a good inspiration to high school kids they think become a little jaded you know they get a little cynical and you know as a 14 15 16 year old kids will do and it's very refreshing for them to see these little little bitty kids. They can't believe someone asked the. Violin and they have to. Perform I think. It isn't needed. Miss Jackie also writes children's music. Recently her music and lyrics were

recorded cultural album joining hands with. You know I write books but I often write children's music not only to record but I write for people. And they did an educational unit in the schools and it was for self-esteem so they wanted that. A song titled You are super The way you are. And then it goes on you say you are super The way you are. So that's all that I did. Ms Jackie is also in demand as a speaker and workshop facilitator around the country to manage all these activities. She heads of the Miss Jackie music company with the help of her assistant PJ The other I just I think really cares about children and I do very sincere about that.

Boys and girls we've had such a wonderful books and tapes by Miss Jackie are available at a number of local bookstores and as mentioned she will be teaching a course next semester at Johnson County Community College. Well last spring we came up with our series The jewels of the Nelson to help the Nelson Atkins museum celebrate its 60th anniversary. The year is almost over so they're planning a big party for December 11th. But in the meantime producer Mike Murphy has been looking in on some of the activities they've planned to coincide with turning 60. It is amazing how much of the power these last 60 years have been defined by those first few years and the decisions that those trustees made at the time. Principally Mr. Nichols It was their idea for the building that this large neoclassical building was their idea for the elaborately beautifully planted grounds and as Fat Matter of fact there's an exhibition on display right now about their intentions and they were even more grandiose more elaborate than what actually was realized there was to be a huge reflecting pool

that was basically as long as the distance between Midwest Research Institute and 47 street. And so they were big dreamers and that's what I like about them they were great dreamers. They had confidence it was unbelievable confidence in themselves. They truly thought that they could do a better job build a better art gallery a better art museum than anyone else. And they set out to do that and they did a heck of a job. Actually it went up quite quickly. The museum was designed in a relatively short time and the construction only lasted well roughly from 1931 through the spring or so of 1930 to the shell of the building one quite quickly finishing the interior took off. If anyone should know about the nuts and bolts of putting this list together it's SCOTTER because. You not only curated this exhibit about the Nelson's beginnings he also helped Michael churchmen write a book about it. A comprehensive history called high ideals and aspirations.

Those were clearly different times with very different concerns and architects Thomas and William white faced new questions everything from the type of lighting to use electrical or natural to the best protection against airship crashes. But perhaps their biggest innovation was the layout of small cell like rooms as opposed to large expansive gallows. Then thought to be a contributing factor to the dreaded museum for to when they designed this building they wanted to include this for example or materials that were easy to walk on the entire you out and rows of court was really the centerpiece of preventing museum fatigue. It was seen as kind of a grassy retreat. So if you became too overwhelmed by going through miles and miles of Arches I think we have Jason Nichols put you could go to Roselle court and. You'd walk in there originally was open and had grass and still have the fountains and you'd go in and that would soothe the effects of these EMT and early drawing once called for two interior courtyards.

But along the way just like the large reflecting pool to the south the plan was scaled back. Even then money was a consideration but Herb's thinks that Kansas City was in no way shorted. Oh I think it's an exceptional building. The budgets that today's architects have to work with you. You can't put in the amount of imported marble and stone work and murals sculpture panels on the outside giant bronze doors. You do kind of have to walk around with your head up all the time or your head down all the time. Otherwise if things go right past you but there are some wonderful bits and pieces to look at. Service is quick to point out that putting the show together just two years ago would have been a lot tougher. That's before archivist Chuck Hill came on board to tackle the task of sorting through the Nelson's archives more than 500 cubic feet of materials that had been languishing in cardboard boxes. But that's typical with the archival material it kind of gets put to the side and you don't really think of it as history until many many years later. I mean things that we produce today we don't think of necessarily as history. So it just gets filed away. Some of the most interesting

material we've run across actually has been in Mr. seconds personal papers which he left in his estate. He left and they were calling card from the Emperor Puyi you'll be looking through a file and all of a sudden a letter is signed by Vincent you kind of wonder who Vinson is. And it turns out to be Vincent Price. You don't really know sometimes where things came from They'll just be stored in in a box someplace and here's a passport. For Mary at Cannes. Although I'm trained as a historian I probably know less about the history of the museum than some of the other people who work there because my job really is to make material available for research not really to research what. We really believe that you know art can and should be part of everybody's life and we need to find ways to make to open those doors so that people who don't use them also now feel more comfortable about coming. Make it a user friendly place more accessible so if I go through this place

that it's easier for me to understand them. The newest example of that commitment to greater accessibility can be seen back here in the West Wing. We're even now work is taking place towards finishing two more galleries in time for the 60th anniversary. Yes the world looks so different than it did about well as recently as six months ago. Of course because the ceiling has been completely outfitted with this lighting system that you can see so the room finally for the first time probably since it. It was originally opened and I to 48 has a really modern attractive lighting system. The some of you remember this room was the old Spanish chapel. So when it reopens for the 60th anniversary It will house the museum's collection of European sculpture from the end of the Roman Empire to the late Gothic world complete with new labels and interpretive materials that should make for a better viewing experience. There's other changes in the works too. You probably won't even recognize what was commonly known as the Tudor room. It had a flavor. But again wasn't an

architectural or interior space of any particular distinction. And with this rearrangement of all the sculpture it was so weird lay out of sequence and we so badly needed a place to display the Cure collection of medieval enamels and small sculptures which is one of the most important in the world been on loan here for 10 years now and it's going to remain for quite a long time that it was decided to transform this room. I will rip it out. And and transform it into something resembling a medieval Treasury. Yet another image of the past that's also had a facelift is the Nelson's Handbook which had gone without an update since 1973. As you can probably imagine trying to select twelve hundred pieces from a collection of 30000 was no small task. Often daily Yes a lot of arm wrestling went on to do to determine the composition of the book and if ever if ever empire or arbiter was needed it was always left a mark to throw throw a coin or or pull up

a straw. That sort of thing. But everybody did participate in it. In terms of selecting what was going to be an and helping myself and Patricia fit what works in my department and with 20 years go by a great deal as you know was added to the collection and also then just the whole idea of what may be important to what is a curator can change over a period of time something that never changes however is good food. And this year the Nelson put out its first ever cookbook cull unary masterpieces. Maureen gamble oversaw this massive volunteer effort which included compiling judging and even triple testing all the recipes for the money for the project will go to the museum and we hope it will go for educational programs in the community so that people that buy the book in the community will basically will be giving. Me. The funds back. Through the educational program to. Co-ops. You know the designer Mary Lou Crowe said when when she really had the idea in her mind for the design and she tried to convey that to us she said I think it should be like the

museum. It should be timeless. Inspiring. And pretentious. And I think that it is I think it's a film that. Go really nicely. So in case you're keeping track that's one cook book. One hand book. One history book. One exhibition. And two gallery renovations all coming together at once a daughter of the Nelson act and 60th anniversary. Which leads me to one last birthday question do you think that we have Raphael Nelson Americans would recognize their dream today they were here. I think it's turned out much better than they could have ever dreamt in fact I know from reading the early correspondence that they neither of them could have imagined an institution that has been so successful in realizing their dreams an institution that is really a powerful artistic and educational force in this entire nation this is not just Kansas City I can say is very proud of the Nelson should be. But no other city of this size has a museum like this. So can cities really fortune it's almost a kind of miracle

that this exists. But we have to remember that even though we live in Kansas City this is an institution that belongs to me. So it is a really original institution that plays from time to time. National role and. A world class. Organization. Well this will be the third big anniversary that Mark Wilson has been in on at the museum. He was around for the 40th has a vivid memory of putting out a fire in the birthday cake at the 50th. Now you know if you haven't gotten one of these you are still invited to pop on down to the big party on December the 11th. All the music food and fun you can handle though the price tag is a bit steep 60 bucks and will close out as usual with some front row recommendations. Take care Kansas City is an AIDS awareness project involving a number of local galleries and organizations. You can see the artist Coalition for one has an ongoing exhibition by Jeffrey Colby.

They'll be taking part in an Art Crawl on Friday evening so you can see what's in their space and a number of others around town. That's Friday from 6:00 to 9:00 so you still have plenty of time afterwards to catch a couple of sets by Duke Robel art at the Grand Emporium. He's the former guitarist for a Roomful of Blues on Saturday night world class met so Soprano Fredricka Vonn Stata will be performing at the music hall that's part of the William jewel fine arts program. And on Sunday night the Black Expo which has been going on all weekend will end up with a rousing gospel night finale. Since we're going to taking a break for a few weeks I want to point out a few other things coming up further down the road. December 12th the Hartland Men's Chorus will be performing at the folly the weekend of December 17th through the 19th the Kansas City Symphony and their chorus will do Handel's Messiah and Deborah Amos who can't Barnard are coming back again with these simply Cole Porter revue. It is a simply wonderful show that they'll be doing at unity on the plaza weekends through January 2nd beginning on Friday December 8. Now all that talk about music weaved nicely into my movie picks for this week from Australian director Jane

Campion It's called the piano. She says I want to. That's Holly Hunter as a mute mysterious woman who ends up stuck in the wilds of New Zealand with her daughter a cold and distant husband and an equally mysterious white man who lives among the Aborigines played with surprising tenderness by Harvey Keitel. We we you know. This week how are you. You know. The piano is one of those movies that keeps coming back to you and little fragments of days after you've seen it. Women in particular seem to find it very romantic and erotic so who am I to argue. Certainly it is one of the least committee made films you'll see in 1993. Jane Campion really does find ways to say a lot with very few words

and that's all the time we have this week. As I mentioned we will be taking a short break so if you've got some ideas on things we should be covering please let us know. Till January then the name of the show is marquee already Mason. Thanks for watching. Support for Casey locally produced programs has been provided in part by Matthew and Cheryl McInerney of Kansas City Missouri and by Sprint providing innovative telecommunications solutions. O. O. O O. O. O rā and. Lastly. Let me. Just say my.