home > our season > 2009-2010 > Broke-ology

 

Buy Tickets Online

Meet the Company

Read a preview story from BroadwayWorld.

See this show as part of a season package

Groups of 10 or more

Teachers! Bring your students to a student matinee

Pre- and Post-show Events

Watch videos about Broke-ology

 

 

Broke-ology

Part of the Sprint Series at

Copaken Stagedf

February 19-March 21, 2010

 

Written by Nathan Louis Jackson
Directed by Kyle Hatley

Corporate Sponsor

 

 

As the Rep grows in national stature, we are also growing deeper roots in our city. A new initiative will tell the stories of our city by artists from our region. This season, we are proud to present two productions that explore Kansas City from two decidedly different points of view, Broke-ology and Bus Stop.

In this emotionally powerful new work, Kansas City, Kansas playwright Nathan Jackson — trained at Juilliard but true to his Kansas City roots — has turned to his hometown as the setting for this absorbing family drama. Meet the King family, an African-American family living in a lower middle class neighborhood in KCK. The King family is used to being broke, but when their father is diagnosed with a serious illness, sons Ennis and Malcolm must clearly decide where their loyalties lie. Malcolm is the first in his family to attend college, a testament to his mother, who died when the boys were young but not before passing on her ambitions for them to have a better life. Ennis, who stayed behind, has become a scholar of “broke-ology,” the study of being broke and staying alive. Now, with his father sick and his brother urging him to stay, Malcolm struggles to decide whether it is best to stay or go. This powerful new play by a brilliant young writer brings new perspectives on the struggles of the next generation in our city.

“thematically rich, structurally deft, and emotionally complex.” – The Boston Globe

Contains Adult Themes.

 

KYLE HATLEY

Kyle Hatley is the Assistant Artistic Director of Kansas City Repertory Theatre. Having previously worked in Chicago, where he was the assistant director and script supervisor for Moisés Kaufman, Emily Mann, Gary Griffin and Eric Rosen for About Face Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre and Chicago Children’s Theatre. Mr. Hatley’s directing credits include And Baby Makes Seven, Third, No Exit, Seascape, Oliver!, Death and the Maiden, The Laramie Project and Romeo and Juliet, among others. In Kansas City, Mr. Hatley wrote and directed Watering the Grave and Six at the 2008 KC Fringe Festival and The Death of Cupid at the 2009 KC Fringe Festival, Hamlet (Studio 116 at UMKC), co-directed Desperate Times-Desperate Measures at Off Center Theatre with Ron Simonian. Last season at the Rep he directed The Borderland at Copaken Stage and performed in The Glass Menagerie as “The Gentleman Caller”. He is the artistic director of Chatterbox Audio Theater and recently won the Silver Ogle Award for excellence in audio theatre for his original series The Dead Girl. His new audio series, Surfacing, released its final episode in July. He holds a degree in theatre from Rhodes College.

Watch videos from Director Kyle Hatley and Creative Director Eric Rosen: