Painting tucked away in Iola bank vault could be worth $500K by RICK DANLEY // May 29, 2018 In January of 1922, nearly thirty years after swapping his native Sweden for the rolling plains of central Kansas, the painter Birger Sandzén received his first one-man show in New York City. To this day, that exhibition at … Continue reading Hidden History: Sandzen in Kansas
by RICK DANLEY // May 4, 2017 Every play should have at least one character who describes another character as smelling “like a bucket of hot links” — but only one play does. The Allen Community College theater department delivers another knockout in their production of “Dearly Beloved,” an exuberant wedding comedy set in a gossipy … Continue reading ‘Dearly Beloved’
by RICK DANLEY // April 4, 2019 Perhaps the most immaculately acted theater event you’ll see this year, Iola High School’s musical version of “The Wizard of Oz” runs tonight and tomorrow at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center from 7 to 9 p.m. I’ll spare you the plot. “The Wizard of Oz” rests with such … Continue reading A Whiz of a Wiz if Ever There Was
by RICK DANLEY // September 27, 2017 To the list of classic movie quotes — “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” (“Gone With the Wind”); “We’ll always have Paris” (“Casablanca”); “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse” (“The Godfather”); “You’re going to need a bigger boat” (“Jaws”) — I’d nominate another. … Continue reading The Bloody Benders
by RICK DANLEY // November 10, 2016 The stage direction for Thornton Wilder’s 1938 play “Our Town” are simple: “No curtain. No scenery.” Wilder believed that the theater of his day had become too obsessed with spectacle. Directors loaded the stage with period furniture and elaborate costumes and realistic set design — what Wilder called the … Continue reading ‘Our Town’
by RICK DANLEY // November 18, 2016 Aleksander Sternfeld-Dunn, a professor of music at Wichita State University and an amiable evangelist for the importance of the arts in public education, appeared before a small crowd in the recital hall at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center on Wednesday to make, as the title of his lecture … Continue reading Arts Ed
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