ESU Festival Group Night - The Tempest 6-27-23

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ESU Festival Group Night
Tuesday, June 27, 2023

The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival's 31st season brings to Kansas City audiences a fantastical production of The Tempest. From the very beginning scene, you are drawn into a story that features exotic creatures, conjuring, comedy, a love story, live music, and beautiful language. The Tempest is one of Shakespeare's most popular plays and our outdoor setting is a perfect place to bring it to life. 

If you are ready for a tantalizing play of betrayal, love, and forgiveness, or just a beautiful evening in the park sharing with friends and family, then plan to join fellow ESU members and friends to experience the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival's The Tempest, Tuesday, June 27, 2023.

This promises to be a spectacular production with lavish stage sets, colorful costuming, and featuring an all-star cast including our favorite actor, Bruce Roach as Prospero. This is a must-see, spectacular production directed once again by Sidonie Garrett.

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A Bourbon Tasting: Evan Williams Virtual Bourbon Experience

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Join our next ESU Happy Hour

A Bourbon Tasting: Evan Williams Virtual Bourbon Experience

Hosted by The ESU Kentucky Branch
with Co-Host Kate Nitzken

Hosted by The ESU Kentucky Branch with Co-Host Kate Nitzken

Save the Date:
Wednesday, June 7, 2023 at 3:00 PM CT

Join us on Wednesday, June 7, 2023 at 3:00 pm CT to learn about the history of Evan Williams and Louisville, Kentucky. We will taste 3 award-winning bourbons from the Evan Williams family of products—Evan Williams Signature Black Label, Evan Williams 1783, and Evan Williams Bottled-In-Bond. We will end by making an Old-Fashioned cocktail using a recipe from another famous Louisvillian, Tom Bullock. One of our award-winning Bourbon Educators from Kentucky will be leading you through this historical tasting and cocktail demonstration! ESU Happy Hour programs are online, free, and open to all members, and the public. Registration is required. Please register here.

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Gypsy Musical Book Club & Film Screening

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You're Invited to Our Next Book Club
And Film Screening of GYPSY the Musical

The Music Theater Heritage (MTH) at Crown Center is presenting the musical Gypsy, regarded by many as the finest musical ever created. The celebrated score by Stephen Sondheim and Jule Styne boasts a continuous barrage of musical theater hits—tunes like "Everything's Coming Up Roses," You Gotta Get a Gimmick," "Let Me Entertain You," and more! Set when vaudeville was dying and burlesque was born, Gypsy is the ultimate tale of ambition and mother's love.

MTH, The English-Speaking Union, Kansas City Branch (ESU), and the International Relations Council are co-hosting a special Book Club. ESU members and Friends of ESU are invited to be part of this Book Club where you will meet with other book and musical theater enthusiasts to discuss Gypsy Rose Lee's memoir. The Book Club will meet in-person on Wednesdays beginning June 7, 14, and 21 at 6:00 pm at the Music Theater Heritage, upper level of Crown Center Shops, 2450 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, MO. Each of the three Book Club dates will focus on specific chapters in the memoir. ESU will be part of a discussion panel during each of the Book Club dates. ESU members and guests are welcome to attend the Book Club discussion groups. The Book Club events are free, but registration is required. Read more.

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Flora Macdonald: Scottish Heroine, American Loyalist, and My Namesake

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ESU Happy Hour

Flora Macdonald: Scottish Heroine, American Loyalist, and My Namesake

Guest Speaker: Flora Fraser

Save the Date:
Wednesday, May 17, 2023 at 3:00 PM CT

Join our next ESU Happy Hour on Wednesday, May 17, 2023 at 3:00 pm CT hosted by ESU Chairman Dr. Quinn Peeper. Dr. Peeper will be introducing Flora Fraser, a historical biographer specializing in 18th-century women. Fraser invites you to raise a Highland Whisky or whisky-less sour to Scottish heroine, Flora Macdonald, the subject of her latest book.

The author grew up in the Highlands and was named, like many there, after this Scottish heroine. When Bonnie Prince Charlie was a fugitive in the Western Isles in 1746 after the disastrous defeat of his Jacobite army at Culloden, Flora Macdonald and he escaped from Hanoverian redcoats "O'er the sea to Skye". Author Flora Fraser will share with you, historical images of the Stuart prince dressed as Flora's Irish maidservant and of the heroine herself, painted by leading London artists.

Flora Macdonald's fame justly endures to this day, in poetry, song and dance, in Outlander, and on Walker's shortbread biscuit tins. She was not born into wealth or great rank, nor did she have a superior education. Nevertheless, she managed to negotiate civil war on either side of the Atlantic and receive, in her final years on Skye, a Royal pension from a Hanoverian prince too! Flora Fraser hopes you will enjoy surveying with her this remarkable life. ESU Happy Hour programs are online, free, and open to all members, and the public. Registration is required. Please register here.

About Flora Fraser

Flora Fraser is a historical biographer, based in London, specializing in archival research on women of the eighteenth century in Europe and in America. Her books include Beloved Emma: The Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton, The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline, Princesses: The Daughters of George III, and Venus of Empire: The Life of Pauline Bonaparte.

Her recent book, The Washingtons: George and Martha, won the 2016 George Washington Book Prize. Her new life of Scottish heroine, Flora Macdonald is available in the UK as Flora Macdonald 'Pretty Young Rebel' (Bloomsbury) and in the US as Flora Macdonald: "Pretty Young Rebel": Her Life and Story (Knopf).

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Pierre Madlangbayan Wins First Place in 2023 People's Choice Award

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Pierre Beatrix Madlangbayan, a junior from Garden City High School, Garden City, Kansas, won First Place in the People's Choice Award. Pierre won First Place in the ESU Kansas City Branch Semi-Finals. The People's Choice Awards were announced by ESU Chairman, Dr. E. Quinn Peeper during the ESU National Shakespeare Competition Finals held at Lincoln Center in New York City, April 25, 2023. 

Out of the 41 students who entered the National Shakespeare Competition's People's Choice Award, Pierre received the most votes from her classmates, friends, and relatives, both in Garden City, Kansas, and the Philippines for her performance of the character of Mark Antony from the play Julius Caesar and reciting a Shakespeare sonnet.

(Left) Bill Kennedy, President of the ESU Cleveland Branch, presents People's Choice Award to Pierre, a student from the ESU Kansas City Branch.

The People's Choice Awards are granted to the three students who receive the most votes from classmates, friends, and relatives after watching their Shakespeare video monologue performance and sonnet recitation.

Three awards: First Place winner receives $1,000 (generously provided by the ESU Cleveland Branch); Second Place winner receives $500 from ESU National; and Third Place winner receives $250 from National.

The three People's Choice Award winners and votes are:

• First Place: Pierre Beatrix Madlangbayan, ESU Kansas City Branch—565 votes 
• Second Place: Tucker Claremont, ESU Naples Branch—475 votes 
• Third Place: Victoria Salazar, ESU San Francisco Branch—365 votes 

Ben Martin, President of the Kansas City Branch, sent congratulations to Pierre, "On behalf of all ESU Kansas City members and our board of directors, we are excited that you won First Place in the People's Choice Award. Your friends and family have supported you all the way during the ESU National Shakespeare Competition. Congratulations!"

Nearly 8,000 people from around the world voted for this year's ESU National Shakespeare Competition's People's Choice Award. 

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