Lawrence Business Magazine 2019 Q2

2

3

4

2019 Q2

Publisher: Lawrence Business Magazine, LLC Ann Frame Hertzog & Steven Hertzog Editor-in-Chief: Ann Frame Hertzog Chief Photographer: Steven Hertzog

Left to Right: Richard Renner, Margaret Weisbrod Morris, Martika Daniels, Deja Brooks, aka Brandon Eisman, Sarah Bishop, Derek Kwan Photo by: Steven Hertzog

Featured Writers: Dr. Mike Anderson Anne Brockhoff Julie Dunlap Bob Luder Emily Mulligan Patricia A. Michaelis, Ph.D. Tara Trenary Liz Weslander Copy Editor: Tara Trenary Contributing Writers: Courtney Bernard

Contributing Photographers: Patrick Connor Rachel Pincus John Clayton Mariah Seifert Ann Dean Nick Spacek Katy Ice of Allayne Thornton Katy’s Photography Leilani Tuttle Jeff Jacobson Ryan Waggoner Jerry Jost Todd Zimmer INQUIRIES & ADVERTISING INFORMATION CONTACT:

info@LawrenceBusinessMagazine.com

www.LawrenceBusinessMagazine.com Lawrence Business Magazine, LLC 3514 Clinton Parkway, Suite A-113 Lawrence, KS 66047 Lawrence Business Magazine, is published quarterly by Lawrence Business Magazine, LLC and is distributed by direct mail to businesses in the Lawrence & Douglas County Community. It is also distributed at key retail locations throughout the area and mailed to individual subscribers.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reprinted or reproduced without the publisher’s permission. Lawrence Business Magazine, LLC assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials.

Statements and opinions printed in the Lawrence Business Magazine are the those of the author or advertiser and are not necessarily the opinion of Lawrence Business Magazine.

5

6

2019 Q2

Contents Features:

9

Lawrence in Perspective: The Kansas State Musical Jubilee

by Patricia Michaelis, Ph.D.

19 Non-Profit: View The World

by Julie Dunlap

24

Making Your Business Fun

by Anne Brockhoff

32

Food for Thought

by Liz Weslander

36

It’s All in the Details

40

Festival Frenzy

51

The Power of Sports

58

Party in the Streets

65

Music in the Middle

by Emily Mulligan

by Bob Luder

by Dr. Mike Anderson

by Tara Trenary

by Bob Luder

Departments: 13 LMH Health 16

Professional Spotlight

Michael Davidson, eXplore Lawrence

72

Local Scene

76 Newsmakers 78

Whose Desk?

Mission:

Lawrence Business Magazine: Telling the stories of people and businesses making a postive impact on Lawrence & Douglas County. /lawrencebusinessmagazine

@LawrenceBizMag

SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION: LawrenceBusinessMagazine.com/SUBSCRIPTIONS

7

8

LAWRENCE & DOUGLAS CO [IN PERSPECTIVE]

Let the hills and Vales resound: The Kansas State Musical Jubilee

by Patricia A. Michaelis, Ph.D., Historical Research & Archival Consulting photos courtesy of the Kansas State Historical Society, kansasmemory.org

Music filled the air at Bismarck Grove on August 18 and 19, 1881. A massed chorus and soloists entertained audiences during the Kansas State Musical Jubilee. The event was the brain child of Charles E. Leslie, a musician, composer, music publisher, and entrepreneur, from Chicago, Illinois. Professor Leslie recruited choral directors from across the state to help train the musicians that would perform at the tabernacle in Bismarck Grove. Today, Bismarck Grove is located on Lyons Street between East 1550 Road and East 1600 Road. From East 1550 Road, take a right on Lyons Street. It curves north and then back to the east. Bismarck Grove is north of Lyons Street as it curves back east.

Leslie organized the first local chorus in Salina in May 1881. More than 200 people participated. He described his intentions as follows: hold a musical convention for one week in each town; three sessions a day. The morning lesson for beginners—teaching the theory and practice of note-reading; the afternoon lesson—a step in advance of the morning study; the evening session—voice culture, musical elocution and the practice and rendition of the choruses to be used at the four grand concerts of the jubilee.

Leslie planned to organize six groups each week, and he chose more than 20 directors/conductors to continue to lead the groups in practice until the August gathering. He claimed to have organized groups in 73 communities, with the choruses

totaling more than 10,000 participants. Lawrence had organized the largest chorus, with 630 voices. Leslie hoped the choruses in the various Kansas towns would become permanent organizations to continue to practice and perform.

Many of the performers gathered on the evening of Aug. 17, 1881, for a rehearsal, the first time the groups trained across the state had a chance to sing together. Each day of the jubilee featured an afternoon and an evening concert, with approximately 20 numbers per concert. The chorus had approximately 6000 members with 1800 sopranos, 1600 altos, 1200 tenors and 1400 basses. In addition to the songs presented by the massed choir, several professional but not well-known musicians employed by Leslie performed solos.

Each concert was divided into two parts, and at the end of each part, the audience joined the chorus in a well-known song like “America” or “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.”

Two Chickering grand pianos provided accompaniment to the singers.

A description of the events of Aug. 19 was provided by the newspaper. A light rain had settled the dust, and the crowd on the second day was believed to be twice the size of the first. The Times contained the following description of the activities at Bismarck Grove: Bismarck to-day presents much the appearance of fair week. The immense throng of people surges to and fro about the grove; the bands play, bells ring, the peanut and lemonade peddlers push themselves about, loudly crying their wars, and mixed with the strains of melody from the concerts rises the shrill whistle of the “merry go round” and the shout of the lung-tester man. All day the people continue to arrive at the Grove, not only on trains, but in buggies and wagons and on foot, farmers for miles around coming in to hear the great jubilee.

One of the bands playing for the crowds was the 10-piece Wamego Silver Cornet Band.

In addition to being a fairgrounds and a place for temperance meetings, Bismarck Grove was also a campground.

The Ellis County Star, published in Hays, Kansas, described the scene in its Aug. 20, 1881, issue.

Up from the plains and valleys, out from the cities and towns they come, until the Grove was one living mass of humanity, all was bustle and confusion, and at first the accommodations were insufficient, baggage of all kinds was thrown about indiscriminately, tents were hastily improvised and erected, and soon order was brought out of chaos, for you must know that Kansas never does things by halves, and Bismarck is the “hub” just now, around which all other things revolve. A small town was soon built. There were the myriad

lights of booths and lunch stands, the shooting galleries, swings, prize-package man and other nuisances, all presenting a scene not easily described.

These descriptions help us understand how so many people could be accommodated since Lawrence had a limited number of motels. We also think of camping for recreation as a recent phenomenon, but it did exist in the 19th century.

In addition to horse-drawn vehicles, regular and special excursion trains brought people to Bismarck Grove, which had its own tracks near the regular line. The largest structure at the Grove was the Tabernacle. For the jubilee, the seats were removed, and the musicians stood on the remaining tiers for their performances. The audiences listened to the chorus from outside the building.

The Hays newspaper also contained descriptions of the performances of the soloists, as well as documented the attire of the female singers. For example, it noted that Emma Mabella had a “rich contralto voice—one of those mellow voices that have both power, pathos and sweetness.” The account indicated she was popular with the audience and was encouraged by them to provide numerous encores.

She was described as being “robed in pink silk, court train, real lace flounces, pale crush roses in her hair and corsage is quite fleshy, had black hair, dark blue eyes, and is very pleasing in her manners.”

The performers included “Mademoiselle” Zerline Mantey, a violinist. She was said to have played with skillful execution and was called upon to do a number of encores. The description of her appearance was quite vivid: “She is large but finely formed; had black eyes and hair—a German. She wore on one occasion, a cream silk princess dress, with cardinal polka dots, draped with heavy cord tassels, short white lace sleeves, red crush roses; at another time black Spanish lace, with water lilies.”

The descriptions of the male soloists concentrated on their vocal skills. George Broderick was a baritone whose voice had “profound depths, and wonderful power. It was reported that he was engaged to Miss Mabella (they did marry at a later date). Charles Knorr, a tenor, was able to reach to “the height and depth of musical excellence.”

As is possible in most events, technology caused some problems. Electric lights were used in the evenings, but they were not reliable, Emergency lights were provided. When they were working, the lights contributed to the atmosphere of the Jubilee as follows: “The scene was beautiful beyond description, the vast ocean of faces, the beautiful costumes of varied hues, the lamps sending their glittering shafts of light like arrows, piercing the darkest nook, and throwing their opal phosphorescent rays over all, making the trees look unearthly and the people like disembodied spirits.” This reporter, at least, was enchanted by the effect.

While words can describe what happened at the Kansas 11

Graduation is over, no more unpaid internships!

Call Express...

YOUR FUTURE AWAITS.

State Musical Jubilee, it is impossible to reproduce the music made by thousands of musicians and heard by more than 10 thousand audience members. The success of this jubilee indicated there was a great interest in the art of musicmaking, and listeners at Bismarck Grove heard compositions ranging from classical music to more popular tunes. C. E. Leslie accomplished what he set out to do—forming a massive chorus. He gave his wife, Allie, great credit for making it all possible. The Kansas State Musical Jubilee was believed to be the largest event in Kansas history at the time. p

State of Kansas Registration #13-116214

12

A Community Treasure LMH Health Foundation celebrates 50 years of philanthropy and transformation.

by Courtney Bernard, Development Coordinator, LMH Health Foundation photos courtesy of LMH

1969. It was a year of peace and love, tumult and change.

A year of gritty determination and giant leaps for mankind.

In 1969, five leaders came together in support of their community hospital: Dr. Monti Belot and Dr. Ralph Reed were internists; Dr. Phillip Godwin, an anesthesiologist and family physician; Dr. Laurance Price, a pathologist; and Anne “Petey” Cerf, a well-known and generous community member.

These were the five original founders of LMH Endowment Association, now known as LMH Health Foundation. The foundation has provided LMH Health with strong philanthropic support from its beginning.

“Since its inception in 1969, LMH Health Foundation has played a vital role in ensuring exceptional health care in Lawrence and the surrounding communities,” says Jason Hoover, LMH Health Foundation board president. “Our anniversary year is a time to honor all that donors have made possible in creating this extraordinary institution.”

From the first Penny Jones Open Golf Tournament in 1982 to the record transfer of support of $3.5 million to LMH Health in 2018, LMH Health Foundation remains committed to serving the hospital and local residents.

Rebecca Smith, LMH Health Foundation executive director, says community hospitals are evolving and becoming more integrated into their communities.

“Our founders created an avenue for our community to invest in its own health and well-being,” Smith says. “This year is an opportunity to celebrate their role as catalysts. We also know that the role of the community hospital is evolving.

LMH Health has grown to serve a much larger purpose, asking what it means to be a healthy community and finding new ways to be a true partner in lifelong health.”

In 2018, Lawrence Memorial Hospital became LMH Health, a change meant to recognize the expanding role the hospital plays in creating a healthy community. LMH Endowment Association followed in 2019 by rebranding to LMH Health Foundation.

13

Nationally and locally, hospital leaders are looking at a dramatically changing health-care landscape.

Russ Johnson, LMH Health president and CEO, explains: “We now see data such as the discrepancy of eight years in life expectancy in two adjacent zip codes in Lawrence as part of our work in health-care equity. It was there before, but now we are expanding our role in the community. LMH Health is moving toward the broader determinants of health into areas like behavioral health, housing and food scarcity.”

LMH Health Foundation is evolving to remain aligned with LMH Health in addressing community issues. This year, the foundation is expanding its Help & Healing Fund—typically used to assist patients with medication and durable medical equipment—to address food scarcity, health screenings and transportation.

Richard Orchard, M.D., Lawrence ophthalmologist for 33 years, has watched LMH Health and the foundation transform over the years. Before his retirement, Dr. Orchard served as chief of staff at LMH Health and as a member of the LMH Health Foundation board of directors. He currently serves on the LMH Health Foundation finance committee, a role he has held for the past 12 years.

Dr. Orchard and his wife, Georgia, say they support LMH Health to help purchase equipment and attract quality doctors and nurses.

“We’re lucky to have a top-notch hospital in Lawrence,” Dr. Orchard says. “Many people—physicians, community members, and business owners—have invested in LMH Health over the years, and that has made all the difference. It truly is the community’s hospital.”

At its annual meeting in February, LMH Health Foundation kicked off its 50th anniversary by announcing a record amount of support to LMH Health. As part of the continuing celebration, the foundation will hold several events.

The LMH Health Foundation 50th anniversary celebration will be June 22 at the Forum at KU’s Burge Union. It promises to be a fun, 1969-themed bash complete with ’60s- and ’70s-era décor and live music. The foundation will honor and thank those who have made LMH Health what it is today. To purchase tickets, contact Amy Addington at 785-505-5005, or email Amy.Addington@LMH. org.

“Our 50th anniversary provides an opportunity to honor the past and the evolution of the organization,” Smith says. “Rooted in Elizabeth Watkins’ thoughtful example, LMH Health Foundation celebrates how far we’ve come.

To ensure our hospital is the best it can be, we still have a lot of work left to do, and we will need our community’s help along the way. “ p 14

Oct. 22, 1969

Lawrence Memorial Hospital Endowment Association (LMHEA) is incorporated.

1975

• •

LMHEA received its first two major gifts: The Lawrence Women’s Club gave LMHEA its unused building and property on the northwest corner of 20th and Massachusetts streets.

The Combest family left LMHEA half of a 160-acre farm through a bequest.

1975

First fund drive

1982

First annual Penny Jones Open Golf Tournament, the foundation’s first and longest-running fund-raising event. The tournament was named in honor of Dr. H. Penfield Jones, a longtime Lawrence physician.

(The 2019 tournament is scheduled for Sept. 6.)

1992

LMHEA assets grow to $1 million, a long-awaited goal.

1999

LMHEA hosts the first biennial Hearts of Gold Ball.

2003

Hearts of Gold Ball raises $440,000 to build the Bob Billings Cardiac Evaluation Center, honoring the popular Lawrence developer and philanthropist who served as an LMHEA Board of Governors president.

2007

LMHEA raises more than $8 million, completing its first capital campaign to support a $45-million expansion project at LMH.

2011

KU basketball legend Mario Chalmers cuts the ribbon to open Mario’s Closet at LMH, a specialty shop for cancer patients made possible by a gift from the Mario V. Chalmers Foundation.

2016

Fourth Floor Rehabilitation renovations are completed with $12 million in support from LMHEA.

2017

LMHEA commits $1.2 million toward enhancing the cardiac catheterization lab. The renovated lab, the first of its kind to be implemented in a community hospital in the United States, opened in spring 2019.

2019

LMH Endowment Association formally becomes LMH Health Foundation and announces a record amount of annual support for LMH Health, totaling $3.5 million in 2018. The foundation will celebrate a half-century of community and philanthropic support through a series of events.

PROFESSIONAL [ SPOTLIGHT ]

We track six (6) Key key performance indicators, including:

• • • • • •

Hotel Revenue Transient Guest Tax Revenue Website Visits Social Media impressions Impressions Hotel leads Leads and bookingsBookings Stakeholders contactsContacts

How many people does eXplore Lawrence employ?

eXplore Lawrence has a staff of six (6) full-time and two (2) part-time employees. El EL focuses on four activities:

• • • •

Marketing and Communications Sales Visitors Services Community Engagement

MICHAEL DAVIDSON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR eXplore Lawrence What is your organization’s most importance important commodity or service?

eXplore Lawrence (EL) serves as the destination management organization (DMO), bringing together diverse community stakeholders from local government to trade and civic associations to individual businesses to attract visitors to Lawrence and Douglas County.

By creating a tourism brand for the community, and all our local tourism tourism-related entities, we strive to get our destination into the public’s consciousness, creating an awareness of and demand for our local tourism products.

What is your organization’s most important priority?

We see our role as the lead organization responsible for driving economic development through tourism. Our focus is to increase business, leisure, and sporting-related travel, which benefits the community in terms of visiting spending, state and local taxes, and job creation. We also believe that tourism creates a sense of local pride for Lawrencians.

What has have been some of the most important aspects of your success?

eXplore Lawrence has moved beyond the traditional role of a Sales sales and Marketing marketing organization to taking take a more holistic approach to enhancing the visitors’ experience. This includes creating marketing campaigns that are data driven and delivering a significant return on investment, and,as well as investing in the newest technologies.

16

How do you and your organization make a positive impact on the Lawrence Community?

The $265 265-million local tourism industry supports 2,853 jobs while generating $25.3 million in state and local taxes. The Transient Guest Tax supports such local initiatives as:

• Downtown beautification Beautification projectsProjects

• The Transient Guest Tax grant Grant pro• •

gram Program (-a A $150,000 grant program that supports local events) Sister Cities programProgram Downtown Master plan Plan

What is do you see as your personal responsibility and your organization’s responsibility to the community?

On a personal level, I have always strived to be a person of integrity and honor. Since arriving in Lawrence in 2016, I have joined the boards of the local chapter of the American Red Cross and Theatre Lawrence.

For EL, we want to be recognized as the premier visitor and convention destination in the State state of Kansas by fostering partnerships amongst area tourism facilities and businesses contributing positively to the local economy and environment.

17

What would you change about doing business (or working with businesses) in Lawrence?

As part of our role as the local DMO, I would like to see us do more in the area of product development to create more reasons for people to visit Lawrence. To achieve this, we need to continue to think outside the box to encourage the creativity of local stakeholders.

As an example, by partnering with the Watkins Museum, we were able to develop two new historical exhibits at our Visitors Center. The newest exhibit focuses on the 1937 National Corn Husking Contest, held in North Lawrence.

Why did you become involved/What inspired you?

Is there a specific thing, person or incident?

As a young child, I discovered the concept of Tzedakahtzedakah, which is the Hebrew word for philanthropy and charity. It is a form of social justice in which donors benefit from giving as much or more than the recipients.

Following Tzedakah tzedakah has led me to supporting a wide range of social issues. I am proud to be a regular blood donor, and most I have become a sustaining member of RIP medical Medical Ddebt, a 501(c) (3) charity that has eliminated $635 million in medical debt for nearly 200,000 Americans.

What is the biggest challenge you feel eXplore Lawrence faces?

Moving forward, there are two issues — one local and one industry wide — that keeps me up at night.

With well over 90% of our funding coming from the local TGT, how do we keep the tourism dollars flowing into Lawrence?

On an industry wide issue, the continued Weaponization of Travel –, The the effect of discriminatory legislation hasve on health of the local tourism efforts.

What do you forces foresee as being the biggest challenge for the future of eXplore Lawrence? And how are you addressing or preparing for it?

EL, as well as the tourism industry in general, have been turned upside down by ever ever-changing technologies as well as sharing economic platforms. For example: consumer Consumer-generated content (CGC) photos has have proven to be a valuable tool for destinations to showcase the visitor experience. Recent changes in privacy rules by companies such a twitter Twitter and Instagram has have hampered our ability to access these images.

The sharing economic platforms (e.g. Airbnb and Uber) has have increased downward pressure on the profitability and continued viability of the hotel and taxi industries. p 18

NON- [ PROFIT ]

View the World

Through Art and Artifacts Enjoy the world’s past and present without leaving the comfort of town with the many offerings found right here in Lawrence.

by Julie Dunlap, photos by Steven Hertzog

Escape the heat this summer while seeing the world on a budget thanks to the innovative and expert care given to the millions of international treasures, specimens and artifacts right here in Lawrence.

Spencer Museum of Art Established in 1928 as the University of Kansas Museum of Art, the Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art stewards more than 45,000 works of art from six continents and 5,000 years of human history.

“The Spencer Museum is a small but mighty full-scale art museum that is famous for its international capacity,” explains European and American art curator Susan Earle. “We work to bring in objects and artists from all over the world right here to Lawrence’s doorstep.”

In addition to the multitude of pieces on display, the building itself is a worthy and magnificent work of art. A recent renovation transformed the 40-year-old neoclassical building into an airy, inviting space with gathering and education spaces, and increased accessibility.

Entering from Mississippi Street through the main entrance (third floor), visitors are greeted by a light, open lobby—even on a cloudy day—with the welcome desk immediately to the left and the Central Court directly Top to Bottom: Spencer Art Museum at night. Students and public visitors view the art inside the museum Photos of Spencer Museum of Art by Ryan Waggoner

19

ahead. The north and south fourth-floor galleries can be seen from the Central Court and accessed by stairs or elevator.

The main-floor’s exhibition space typically rotates every six months, housing through late June the current exhibition, “The Power of Place: KU Alumni Artists.” This installation, featuring works by 30 artists who earned degrees at the University of Kansas (KU), explores the concept of “place,” whether it be a physical location or a sense of belongingness, or a lack thereof. The exhibition actually begins outside along Mississippi Street with an installation by Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds. Inside, it features soaring artwork scaling the walls, growing from the floor, hanging from above and enclosing visitors as well as smaller pieces that draw in and ignite the imagination of even the most casual observer of art.

The fourth-floor galleries have both rotating exhibition spaces and longtime favorites from the museum’s massive collection. Visitors can find everything from centuries-old international artifacts and works to the modern American “Politics, Race, Celebrity: Photographs from the Esquire Collection,” featuring original photos from the famed magazine (on display through July 7).

Earle estimates curators typically plan 18 months to three or more years for each new exhibition and points out that the museum’s collection is grouped by theme rather than by geography or time period, providing visitors with a look at the ways a common inspiration or idea has been interpreted through art over time and location.

“People can make those connections and contrasts for themselves,” Earle says of this unique concept for arrangement.

More than 100,000 people from all over the world, including local and regional school children and KU students from every discipline, visit the Spencer Museum of Art annually.

Free group tours for five or more people may be arranged; self-guided tours, art activities, scavenger hunts and audio tours are available on-site, with iPads and signage coloring in the history and origins next to the works on display. A free app is also available, Spencer Museum of Art - KU, for smartphones.

“Entertainment on your own schedule,” Spencer Museum communications manager Elizabeth Kanost says with a smile. “We want people to engage with art in whatever capacity they feel most comfortable.”

WHERE: 1301 Mississippi St. WHEN: Tues, Fri, Sat: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Wed, Thurs: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Sun: noon to 4 p.m.

COST: Admission is free; donations are accepted.

MORE: www.spencerart.ku.edu 20

Watkins Museum of History For a more local tour through time, check out the Watkins Museum of History, on the northwest corner of 11th and Massachusetts streets.

The stately 131-year-old building is, in itself, a story of the growth of Lawrence. In 1888, when local entrepreneur J.B. Watkins built the multistory building to house his bank and mortgage company, people questioned why he would erect such a grand structure so far away from downtown. At the time, Lawrence’s Downtown district only bustled to about Ninth Street, but Watkins, a successful land spectator and mortgage lender, knew the city would continue growing south, and he wanted to be ready for it.

Watkins’ widow, Elizabeth Miller Watkins, donated the building to the city in 1929. It was used as City Hall until 1970 and reopened as what is now called the Watkins Museum of History in 1975 by the Douglas County Historical Society. While the building has been renovated for each use, original tile, lighting, wood floors and accents remain, preserving the body and spirit that drove Watkins’ vision for Lawrence.

Guests entering from the Massachusetts Street entrance step onto the landing of the grand staircase leading down to the firstfloor meeting spaces and up to the second-floor exhibit and office spaces, where the original marble mosaic notes the location of the Watkins National Bank. Inside the second-floor exhibit space, a time line depicting the changes and growth in Douglas County wraps around the southern wall with exhibits featuring an Eldridge family chair, a historic Old Sacramento Cannon and an original pike used by John Brown’s insurrection.

Up another flight of beautiful wooden stairs, guests can immerse themselves in Lawrence history with a collection that includes an antique electric car, James Naismith’s desk and J.B. Watkins’ former corner office space and bank vault door. Children are welcome, too, and can enjoy exploring an 1878 Victorian playhouse in the southwest corner of the third floor.

Watkins Museum of History, housed in the iconic 1888 Watkins Land Mortgage and National Bank Building in downtown Lawrence

Exhibits on both floors highlight infamous and unknown slices of regional history on a rotating basis.

“We tell the stories of county history,” Watkins’ public engagement coordinator Will Hickox says of the museum’s connection to the formation and development of the region. “The stories we tell are often about struggles for freedom.”

The Watkins Museum of History partners with other organizations, including Haskell Indian Nations University, the Spencer Museum of Art, KU’s Natural History Museum and the Wakarusa River Valley Heritage Museum, to tell these stories through exhibits, events and activities throughout the year.

“We encourage people to come in for film screenings, book talks and music events,” Hickox says of the different ways to learn about local history from this precious resource.

WHERE: 1047 Massachusetts St. WHEN: Summer Hours:

Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Thurs: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Sun: 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

COST: Admission is free; donations are accepted.

MORE: www.watkinsmuseum.org 21

KU Natural History Museum If the Watkins History Museum is a step back in time, the KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum is a fluxcapacitor-fueled catapult. Housed in the stunning Dyche Hall on Jayhawk Boulevard, the KU Natural History Museum has compiled and cared for its natural history collection for more than 150 years, a collection that now includes more than 10 million species and artifacts.

“We combine education and entertainment in telling the grand stories in the life of the planet from 3 billion years ago to the present,” says Biodiversity Institute director Leonard Krishtalka.

More than 50,000 visitors explore this physical time line of the world each year at the museum, with self-guided tours, school and group tours, and special events and exhibits available. The museum offers 15 scavenger hunts within and outside of the building from the “Something Bigger Than Me” and “Museum Quest” hunts for kids and families to the adults-only “Sexy Science” and “Sexier Science” scavenger hunts for those whose interests are more provocative in nature.

Visitors entering through the main doors off of Jayhawk Boulevard will find the museum gift shop to the left, a mosasaur circling above and the infamous and awe-inspiring panorama wrapping the body of the fourth-floor exhibit space. The panorama has fascinated viewers for well over a century, providing a nearly 360-degree look at nature throughout North America.

22

One floor up, guests are invited to Explore Evolution, with interactive displays highlighting the variances in DNA that create the mass diversity in the natural world.

The sixth floor was recently renovated to feature a microbial exhibit rivaling any art museum for color, movement and beauty even though the subjects themselves (viruses, bacteria and other microbes) may act in harmful ways at times.

Live animals and colorful displays of the natural world line the cases in the main space, and a live bee tree buzzes in the sixth-floor entry for close-up viewing.

Down below the main entrance, the third floor awaits with fluorescent rocks and fossils glowing colorfully in a dark room, while mammal and reptile fossils—including dinosaur fossils—line the halls like a millennia-old zoo. Down the hall, the long-beloved Bugtown intrigues young visitors. Near the center of it all, a relatively new exhibit provides sunshine and lushness year-round. The Paleo Garden (often called the “Please Touch” garden by schoolchildren drawn to its hands-on nature) features live plants thriving under growth lights alongside their fossilized relatives.

“The natural world is inherently interesting,” associate director of public programs Teresa MacDonald says, “and people are inherently curious.”

Krishtalka agrees, adding that he hopes all visitors will “enjoy and be dazzled” by what they see and continue to ask questions about the world around them for years to come. p

Exploring Kansas wildlife, viewing mammal skulls and fossils, and touring The Panorama inside The KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum

WHERE: Dyche Hall, University of Kansas, 1345 Jayhawk Blvd.

WHEN: Tues through Sat: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Sun: noon to 4 p.m.

COST: Admission is free for members and KU students, otherwise a $7-per-adult and $4-per-child contribution is requested.

MORE: www.biodiversity.ku.edu

‘

’

If there’s one good thing to be said about opera, it’s that it makes a man appreciate all other forms of entertainment so much more.

– Mark Lawrence, Prince of Fools

Lawrence’s growing range of interactive entertainment options are a boon for retailers and the community.

by Anne Brockhoff, photos by Steven Hertzog

It’s one thing to relax by throwing axes or shooting paintballs. It’s another to turn those activities into a business.

But entrepreneurs who focus on creating shared experiences are a dynamic part of Lawrence’s economy, in large part because people just want to have fun—and they’re willing to pay for it.

“That’s the sweet spot we play into,” says Matt Baysinger, cofounder of Blade & Timber Axe Throwing. Sharing that spot are Breakout Lawrence, Laugh Out Loud Family Zone, Epic Fun Center, Drop Zone Paintball Park and The Drag24

on’s Hoard Games and Hobbies. Their popularity doesn’t just benefit their owners; it’s a boon for retail neighbors.

Indeed, a 2019 survey by the International Council of Shopping Centers showed entertainment is the main reason more than 60 percent of shoppers head to brick-and-mortar destinations. Customers visit more frequently when shopping centers and downtowns offer non-retail entertainment and dining options, stay longer and spend more, Baysinger explains.

“There’s this whole behind-the-scenes thing happening with retail in America that we are a part of,” he says of the inter-

Breakout at 727 Mass Street Blade & Timber at 809 Mass Street Top to Bottom: Morningstar Care Homes take their staff for a day off of group fun and entertainment at Breakout.

Breakout employees monitor the rooms their customers are attempting to Breakout from

active entertainment sector, also known as retailtainment or entertainment retail. “There’s a real shift in retail spending.”

Baysinger’s been at the forefront of that shift since 2014, when he and his friend, Luke Thompson, created Mass Street Soda. (Thompson bought him out in 2017.) Soon, Baysinger added another idea to the mix: live-action escape rooms.

Inside Blade & Timber Kian Foster celebrates his 13th birthday with friends and family learning to throw Axes

He and another buddy, Ryan Henrich, launched Breakout KC in 2015. Their company, Swell Spark, followed with locations in Lawrence, Leawood and Honolulu, and added Get Out: Omaha and the Get Out Games Mobile Escape Room. Swell Spark opened and later sold a Breakout site in Columbia, Mo., and then, in late 2018, sold Breakout Lawrence to Brad Boullear.

“It was a great fit with Brad,” says Baysinger, who continues to develop other concepts at Swell Spark. “We really loved him and wanted it to go to him.”

Boullear retained Breakout Lawrence’s general manager, Zach Koehn, and 10 part-time employees, and plans to contract with Swell Spark to maintain brand consistency. He’s working to analyze sales data to improve repeat visits and is expanding online marketing efforts: Adding promo codes and boosting posts on Facebook, and working with Downtown Lawrence Inc. to create push notifications for events like the Kansas Craft Brewers Expo have proven especially effective. New signage created by Luminous Neon Art & Sign Systems will improve visibility. Networking at Unmistakably Lawrence events and developing collaborative relationships with nearby restaurants and retailers is also key.

“I love being part of downtown Lawrence,” Boullear says.

25

Baysinger’s equally committed to Lawrence, where he still lives even though Swell Spark is based in Kansas City, Kansas. Its first Blade & Timber Axe Throwing opened in Kansas City in 2017, followed by Lawrence, Leawood, Wichita, Seattle and Honolulu. The company plans to expand further into Minnesota, Oregon, Florida and Arizona.

Lawrence is its smallest storefront, with 1,200 square feet, four lanes and eight employees. Guests can buy snacks and soft drinks, and there are leagues, tournaments and special events—they even help Girl Scouts work toward their axethrowing badges. The main goal though? To connect people with each other and with downtown Lawrence.

“It’s really exciting for me and my company to be a part of (Lawrence) and add value to the town,” Baysinger says.

Growing Families, Growing Lawrence Christie and Charles Peterson feel much the same about Laugh Out Loud Family Zone, which they opened downtown in 2012. It wasn’t an easy decision. The couple owned an experiential education company at the time, and Christie was pregnant with their second child. Nor was her market research encouraging: It suggested that activity centers are generally successful only in communities with 100,000-plus residents.

“The reality of this business is it is a very tough financial market,” Christie Peterson says. “We went into it with our eyes wide open.”

They believed local families needed something like LOL, as it’s called. So the Petersons wound down their company to work full-time on the business during its first two years. Charles Peterson now works elsewhere, but he still volunteers 10 to 15 hours a week doing facility cleaning and maintenance. Suzanne Baur, Christie’s mother and a retired certified public accountant, contributes five to 10 hours toward accounting and other tasks.

“Without my mom and my husband, we couldn’t do this,” says Christie Peterson, who also has 10 to 15 part-time employees.

Not that she’s complaining. Christie Peterson loves being downtown, and LOL benefits from its proximity to local events and family destinations, including Sylas and Maddy’s Homemade Ice Cream, The Toy Store and the Lawrence Arts Center.

They built out their high-ceilinged site mostly by themselves, and it now sports a multilevel play structure, jump pillow, climbing wall, imaginary play areas and other features that provide kids from ages 1 through 12 with a mix of physical, creative and artistic play.

It’s buzzy and noisy whenever school’s not in session, but about 70 percent of the time, LOL is quiet, with only a handful of parents playing with their kids or taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi to study or work. The Petersons offer memberships, a Music & More class taught by Sunflower Music and a kids’ 26

5th graders from Cordley Elementary School enjoy a few hours of playing laser tag and arcade games at Epic Fun in the Malls Shopping Center

Providing solutions for your business and personal insurance needs.

• Workers Compensation • Property • Contract Bonds • Life • Umbrella

BIG CITY

ABILITY

with hometown values

1540 Wakarusa Drive, Suite D • Lawrence, Kansas 66047 phone 785.856.5100 • fax 888.900.4599 www.IntegrityMidwestIns.com

• General Liability • Business Auto • Professional Liability • Home and Auto • Group Benefits

volunteer club. The food menu offers requisites such as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, as well as more grown-up paninis and rice bowls. LOL occasionally holds special events, but the real draw is birthday parties.

“That made it a bigger benefit for parents,” says Terry Jacobsen, who opted to sell pizza, popcorn, candy and bottled drinks instead of adding a full kitchen. “You can go through a lot of quarters with kids in an arcade.”

“It’s what drives us,” Christie Peterson says. “That’s the backbone of our business plan.”

Travis Jacobsen managed the business when it opened in 2016 but then stepped back last year to pursue other opportunities.

Terry Jacobsen took over, balancing Epic’s needs against his responsibilities as coowner of Printing Solutions, in North Lawrence.

Birthday Boom Parties are also key at Epic Fun Center, in The Malls Shopping Center. College students prefer late-night ones, and Epic offers team-building options for daytime.

But birthdays rule. Epic hosts six to eight every Saturday, plus more on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons, mostly for 5- to 12-year-olds.

“The party rooms, the arcade, the laser tag—that’s really exciting to them,” owner Terry Jacobsen says.

It’s the kind of family entertainment center Terry Jacobsen wanted for his own kids (he has seven) but couldn’t find in Lawrence. When his son, Travis, graduated from the University of Kansas, they decided to start one.

Travis Jacobsen crafted a business plan, found the 10,000-square-foot space and renovated it with the help of his wife, Ellen Jacobsen. Changes like removing a dropped ceiling, building party rooms and tiling the floor were self-financed, but the family took out an SBA (Small Business Administration) loan to buy equipment.

It was a significant expense, Terry Jacobsen says. Laser tag vests cost about $3,500 each at the time, and Epic needed 30. The family also purchased arcade games instead of renting, enabling guests to pay by the hour rather than by the game.

Ken Farris, owner of Drop Zone Paintball Park plays Disc Golf with his team on the Centennial Park Disc course

28

Terry Jacobsen’s nephew, Gabriel Johnson, now oversees daily operations and manages Epic’s six employees. Travis Jacobsen still repairs arcade and laser tag equipment, which saves Epic hundreds of dollars every time something goes wrong. But Epic’s biggest challenge? Getting the word out to local families.

Early advertising efforts didn’t yield the hoped-for results. More effective has been Epic’s school fund-raiser program. The business partners with parent-teacher organizations and other groups to bring families in, then donates 50 percent of the entry fee back to the organization.

“I’ve always had a big place in my heart for the education system and schools,” Terry Jacobsen says. “It made sense for me to use Epic in that way. It’s actually good advertising for us.”

Thanks for 48 Years!

Stop and See Our New Pre-Owned Location.

CHEVROLET

BUICK

GMC

2018 GMC Terrain

CADILLAC

www.dalewilleyauto.com

2018 Chevrolet Traverse

Locally Owned & Operated Since 1970 2840 Iowa St

•

Lawrence, KS 66046

•

785-843-5200

29

Forging a Paintball & Disc Golf Connection

Come Check Out Our Wonderful Selection of MIKE SAVAGE ICONIC PRINTS Great Gifts & Beautiful on Your Walls

Mario’s 3-Point Shot

The Hawk

Staying relevant is another challenge for any interactive entertainment business, and it’s one Ken Farris, owner of Drop Zone Paintball Park, is well-placed to meet. Farris opened the 89-acre park on the Douglas-Franklin county line in 1988 just as paintball was taking off. Players back then preferred owning their own equipment, so he added a retail store in Olathe in 1998 before expanding to Topeka and Gladstone, Missouri. The company became the national service provider for Tippmann Sports, a leading manufacturer of paintball gear and accessories, and in 2002, located a central distribution site in Lawrence.

The market shifted, however. Lighter-weight equipment became more popular, as did smaller, low-impact paintballs. Players increasingly preferred renting equipment, and Farris closed his three out-of-town stores. He still sells paintball guns, paintballs, clothing and other supplies at his Lawrence location, but customers can just as easily purchase it on the Drop Zone web site, eBay or Amazon—Farris has set up systems to streamline inventory and distribution regardless of which platform shoppers use.

The game has matured, but it still has wide appeal. Drop Zone’s park is open year-round to anyone over age 8 who can wear the required safety equipment, although it’s reservation-only from December to February. Each course is routinely inspected for safety and to make sure towers, bunkers and other obstacles on the well-defined courses are in good repair.

A few of Drop Zone’s 10 to 13 full- and part-time employees work at the park, but most are based in Lawrence, where the company’s also expanding into the surprisingly robust disc golf market. The Professional Disc Golf Association claimed 46,457 members in 2018 and counted 8,108 courses nationwide, including those at Centennial Park, Riverfront Park and Clinton Lake in Lawrence, and two in Ottawa.

“Our big push is to grow disc golf. That’s where we see growth,” Farris says.

Johnny’s North

The Wheel

www.framewoodslawrence.com

819 30 Massachusetts St | Lawrence KS 66044 | 785.842.4900

In disc golf, or Frisbee golf, players throw a high-tech disc at a target trying to score in as few throws as possible. Players use a variety of discs, and DZ Discs has an inventory of 14,000 available. Farris focuses on retail sales, both in-store and online, as well as on developing relationships with suppliers and a national presence among players. Toward that end, he formed Team DZDiscs, something of a social support club for about 200 players in various states that helps them feel a part of the larger disc golf community.

“They are our evangelists,” Farris says. “They tell people about us.”

There are disc golf leagues and tournaments, but friends can just as easily get together to play on a public course. The sport has much in common with paintball, Farris says, particularly in the way they both bring people together.

“We don’t work with individualized sports that you completely do on your own,” he says. “We’re all about connecting groups.”

Board Games Captivate Customers That’s also at the heart of The Dragon’s Hoard, a tabletop game shop D. Cooper, Anne Cooper and Gage Buffington opened in east Lawrence in 2018. The store stocks Warhammer, Lords of the Waterdeep and other games, as well as the accessories that go along with them, but D. Cooper knew they couldn’t compete against the internet on sales alone. They had to create a community of the sort each of the owners had enjoyed in other cities.

“One of the things we focus on is just having a place for people to come and hang out,” says Cooper, who grew up playing games like Magic: The Gathering and has informally consulted with other shops in the Midwest.

“They don’t feel pressured to buy anything. They can just have fun.”

The Dragon’s Hoard offers open tables where anyone can play any game, as well as demo days, tournaments and other events. There’s also a demo shelf so customers can play before they buy. The store operates most days until 10 p.m. On “late nights,” five to eight tables continue playing after the cash register closes. Soft drinks and packaged snacks are available, and customers are allowed to bring in food.

Some are groups of friends who’ve arranged to meet; others are drop-in players, and the numbers are growing. That’s why game-making company Games Workshop opened one of its Warhammer stores (named after the company’s leading game) in 2018, offering another local outlet for both games and events.

“It’s a growing area,” James Bell, Games Workshop marketing specialist for North America, says of Lawrence.

Cooper hopes that growth will continue. The Dragon’s Hoard has yet to turn a profit, and all three owners still have full-time jobs elsewhere. But the store has broken even every month since it opened—something that still comes as a surprise to Cooper.

“People want this in Lawrence. I just didn’t know they wanted it so much,” he says. p

31

Food for Thought

Lectures and learning with thought provoking ideas and conversations.

by Liz Weslander, photos by Steven Hertzog

Counter clockwise from below: Marie Grace Brown, Maria Hinojosa, and Walter Mosley speaking at the Hall Center for the Humanities.

Photos by Ann Dean

On a recent chilly April evening, Jesmyn Ward, author and National Book Award winner, stood on the stage at Liberty Hall in front of a crowd of eager attendees. She talked solemnly about the intersection of race and parenting in her own life, and how storytelling is part of what helps people heal from the pain that comes from living in the world. When she finished, the audience asked questions about the fate of various characters from her novels, the state of racism is the U.S., and what books she would recommend for high school students.

Ward’s talk was part of the University of Kansas (KU) Hall Center for the Humanities Lecture Series, an annual series of five to six speakers that has been taking place in Lawrence since 1947. The lecture was a reminder that, while sometimes it’s nice to just sit back and be entertained, leisure activities that provide food for thought are also an important component of a thriving community. Whether the subject is literature, science, politics or even simply how to best utilize local resources, Lawrence provides a feast of opportunities for those looking to feed their minds. Even better, a lot of these opportunities, including the Hall Center Lecture Series, cost nothing to attend.

Sarah Bishop, associate director of the Hall Center for the Humanities, says 32

‘

Real writing is about changing lives for eternity rather than entertaining a life for a moment.

– Craig D. Lounsbrough

’

Ward’s lecture exemplified what the center looks for when selecting speakers for the series.

focus of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University.

“When we are selecting a speaker, we are looking for someone who will help us think critically about the issue that they are speaking about,” Bishop says. “We are also always looking for people who not only represent diversity in ideas and thought, but can appeal to diverse audiences. Jesmyn is a creative writer, but her work certainly speaks to contemporary politics, as well as environmental and social issues.”

“The humanities are so important for thinking about the ways that humans live and create culture,” Bishop says. “By having a critical eye toward the culture we are creating, we can also look to the future and ask what we can do to improve our human societies and culture so that they are more equal and fair and just.”

Another lecturer in this year’s Hall Center for the Humanities lecture series was Maria Hinojosa, an Emmy award-winning news anchor and journalist, who spoke on the unique challenges that Latinx women face during immigration and how journalists can represent immigrants more justly in the media. Last November, the center brought in the popular fiction writer Neil Gaiman, who drew a crowd that filled the 2,000-seat Lied Center.

In November, Emmy Award-winning actor, writer and director Alan Alda will speak about the ways in which people can use the humanities and storytelling to better communicate detailed and innovative scientific discoveries, which is the

In an effort to broaden the reach of humanities programming, the Hall Center recently launched a new initiative called Humanities in the Wild that will occur every final Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Sunflower Outdoor & Bike Shop, 804 Massachusetts St. “The idea behind it is to bring humanities scholars to Downtown Lawrence and get them engaging our community in conversations about the humanities’ relationship to nature and wilderness, and how we can use history, literature and communications, and other traditional academic disciplines to open our eyes to our relationship to nature and the wild,” Bishop says.

33

A recent presentation featured local naturalist Ken Lassman, talking about how people can look and listen for nature in unlikely places, such as Downtown Lawrence. And, on Friday, June 28, University of Kansas associate professor of film and media studies Germaine Halegoua shares interactive cycling crash maps of Lawrence that she has created. In addition to engaging information, the Humanities in the Wild event features free beer from Free State Brewery.

Another local entity offering programming meant to spark critical thinking is the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics. Director Bill Lacy says the Dole Institute takes a bipartisan and philosophically balanced approach when developing the various lectures and forums presented throughout year, and all of its programming has the underlying mission of fostering civility when discussing politics.

Above: Guest speaker Major Garrett, Chief Washington Correspondent, gives a talk and a Q&A moderated by the Director of the Dole Center Bill Lacy Representative Barbara Ballard introduces Major Garrett to a full house

“We are just trying to train young people and convince adults to keep an open mind, to listen to the other side and to understand why they believe what they believe rather than just getting up everyday, reading some assigned talking points and going out and parroting those to the world,” Lacy explains.

While bipartisanship is always important, he says it is especially critical to have programming that fosters this ideal given the nation’s current political climate.

Let us manage your Lawrence investment property!

Affordable rates. We handle the daily details and send you the money by direct deposit each month.

www.HomesForLease.org

www.HedgesRE.com

1037 Vermont Street, Lawrence, KS 66044 Office 785-841-7300 ext 1 | Toll-Free 800-883-0412 Equal Housing Opportunity. If you have a brokerage relationship with another agency, this is not intended as a solicitation.

L-R: Academy Award winning writer and filmmaker Kevin Wilmott speaks to an audience at the Lawrence Public Library C.J. Janovy, author of No Place Like Home speaks to an audience at LPL At a business event, Pawsh Wash owner Amber Nichols speaks with Adam Handshy of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce

“It’s probably the worst that I recall in my experience,” Lacy says. “You can go back to the ’60s, when there was a lot of controversy and a lot of disagreement on issues like Civil Rights and Vietnam, but those issues were not always cleaving by party. Right now, everything is just split on party lines, and we have reached the point where we don’t even want to talk to the other side; it’s very bitter.”

The Dole Institute’s programming, which is all free and open to the public, covers more than just contemporary politics, Lacy says. History, business, journalism and leadership are also common topics. He says the majority of the Institute’s events follow an interview format rather than a straight lecture style.

“We find that both the speakers and attendees love the interview style,” he explains.

“The speakers love it because they don’t have to prepare remarks and are not on the hook to get up and talk for 50 minutes. Our attendees love it because they get to hear from the speaker about a variety of subjects.”

The 2019 Dole Lecture, which occurred in April, featured former presidential candidate and Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who shared reflections and leadership lessons gleaned from her long career in both for-profit and nonprofit settings. The Dole Institute also just finished up a Spring Book Series that included journalist Major Garrett, who has covered four presidencies for three news outlets and currently serves as the chief Washington correspondent for CBS News. Garrett was promoting his latest book, “Mr. Trump’s Wild Ride,” and spoke to a standing-room-only crowd about the Trump presidency and other highlights of his journalism career.

Lacy says another unique aspect of the Dole Institute’s programming is that although it often brings in well-known names, it does not pay honorariums to speakers.

“The people who come here do it because they want to interact with students, or they want to give back to KU, or they just like the opportunity to share their thoughts with other Americans, and we are very proud of that,” Lacy says.

When it comes to free and informative entertainment, the Lawrence Public Library (LPL) is also full of options. Regular author talks, film screenings with discussions, and the ongoing Diverse Dialogues series—a partnership with KU’s Langston Hughes Center that explores topics surround issues of race and culture—are just a few of the examples of events that regularly fill the library’s calendar.

“The author events tie in to the library’s overall mission of promoting literacy, not just children’s literacy but adult literacy and leisure reading,” says LPL events coordinator Kristin Soper. “The Diverse Dialogues is a partnership that has worked out very well for us in sparking some of those kind of difficult community discussions in a safe place.”

In addition to the literature, cinema and social justice programming, the library’s Information Services Department also works to provide a variety of news-you-can-use events.

“The mission of our department is to connect people to information they need, so we try to keep track of things that are happening in the community and current events to guide our programming,” Information Services coordinator Melissa Fisher Isaacs says. “Another part of our mission with our programming is to connect people to community resources, so we help provide a platform for other organizations to raise awareness of their programming and resources.”

In recent months, the library’s information-driven programming has addressed subjects ranging from digital privacy, fake news and small business tax basics to beekeeping, houseplant care and cooking on a budget. A past civics series featured speakers from the city, state and federal levels of government who all spoke about how citizens could get involved at each of those levels.

“The thing that we’ve learned is that people have lifelong learning needs,” Fisher Isaacs says. “I think Lawrence is really special in that there is so much expertise here, and we are an avenue of sharing that to a larger audience without people having have to pay tuition or commit to a degree program. They can come to the library and continue grow, develop and connect with community.” p 35

James Diemer, Technical Director at Theatre Lawrence works on building the set for a TL production

It’s It’’s All in the Details Behind the scenes, technical theater professionals are the ones who bring the entire production to life.

by Emily Mulligan, photos by Steven Hertzog

Yes, actors and spotlights and sound are critical elements of any live theater production—after all, they command our attention most directly from the opening moments.

But the costume details, the variety of scenery, the colors of the lights and the clever props all make audiences feel and sense the story, characters and setting, even on a subconscious level. It is that ethereal experience that people who work in technical theater, or “behind the scenes,” specialize in creating.

In addition to being mostly physical in nature, theater jobs do not keep normal workweek hours. Even when working behind the scenes and creating the scenes, technical theater professionals work a lot of evenings and weekends at rehearsals and performances. Along with the physical energy required to pull off a performance, technical theater professionals must possess almost endless creative energy.

Four local technical theater professionals—two from The University of Kansas’s (KU) University Theatre and two from Theatre Lawrence—illuminate the process by which they craft the story through scenery design, lighting, props and painting. Rana Esfandiary is visiting assistant professor of scenography for KU Theatre, where she designs sets for the University Theatre’s productions. Ann Sitzman is theater technical coordinator for KU and designs lighting for productions. Mary Ann Saunders is Vintage Players director and does set and scenic painting, as well as hair/wig styling for Theatre Lawrence. Marilyn Brobst is the volunteer props mistress who finds or makes all of the props for Theatre Lawrence.

36

For all four, the process for any given show begins with reading the play. Esfandiary and Sitzman say their first read-through is to take in and digest the story as a whole, barely beginning to visualize how it might look on the stage.

Saunders and Brobst have a more fine-toothed comb approach to the first reading: Saunders looks for specific mentions of colors and hairstyles in the scenes, and Brobst highlights every mention of a particular item that will be needed as a prop. Esfandiary and Sitzman typically do a full second read-through to search for specific references and stage directions they will need to incorporate into their designs.

“When I’m reading a play, I’m thinking about each character.

I think about how they are seeing their houses and the world they live in,” Esfandiary says. “I always go inside out. I see the world from inside the character’s mind rather than from the audience at first.”

Once they have an understanding of the story and characters, the collaborative process of theater begins. They meet with the director to understand what his or her vision is for this particular version of the play. Questions like time period and place are usually at the forefront of these meetings, as well as any story points or characters the director might want to highlight, especially to achieve a certain feel for the play on the Lawrence stage.

“When you have a really good collaboration between designers and directors, it is so rewarding. We can maybe affect people’s lives with the show, which is what theater is all about,” Sitzman says. “What is it that is going to make the audience walk away feeling something? What can I do to make this story more encompassing for the audience?”

After meeting with the director, the next step is research. Esfandiary may need to study a particular style of architecture or landscape design. Sitzman spends time researching the lighting colors that will evoke the desired emotion and setting of each scene, and the lighting angles that will best help achieve those emotions.

Brobst researches time periods and what the characters’ possessions should look like from that time, whether she will retrieve something from Theatre Lawrence’s shop or create it herself.

Saunders looks into what colors would have been found on the walls, floors and furniture of that era, and calls on her knowledge of colors to evoke the mood of the show, whether it’s a comedy, drama or musical, or any combination thereof.

“We have to understand the play, the audiences and the community. These affect the design so much. We think about the show architecturally, politically, psychologically, socially. At some point, we have to stop ourselves,” Esfandiary says.

Once the designers are armed with their research and the director’s plans for the show, they can begin creating. For Saunders and Brobst, creating is a hands-on process. They start by taking an inventory of what the well-stocked Theatre Lawrence shop has for paint colors, pieces and props. What doesn’t exist, they typically make themselves.

Instead of purchasing expensive wood, Saunders uses color and texture to create wood grains, such as the large “wood” floor she painted for the recent production of “Lend Me a Tenor.” She also paints walls to look like wallpaper and gives walls and floors a vintage or well-worn look, as needed. As for hairstyling, which she learned in college from a former boyfriend who was a stylist, she draws on the theater’s wig collection and experiments to create looks that match the time period. She is also careful to choose wig colors that complement the actor’s costumes and natural complexion.

“I don’t know what it is, but I think color is my strongest visual aptitude. If I look at the set and know what the show is about, I use my color instincts to decide,” Saunders says.

Brobst can reuse furniture from previous productions—often with a painted facelift from Saunders—and many items like candleholders and plastic dishes also carry over well. Some of her biggest challenges, and hence most creative moments, come from food and the natural world. “Church Basement Ladies” from 2017 required meatballs. Using real food is impractical for many reasons, so Brobst fashioned “meatballs” out of sawdust, glue and paint. In “Little Mermaid,” the jellyfish needed to dance under the sea, so she made jellyfish puppets out of clear umbrellas, pink bubble wrap and lights. Conceptualizing props that are both eyecatching and practical is challenging.

‘

’

A day without laughter is a day wasted.

– Charlie Chaplin

“I sometimes don’t sleep at night because I have a lot of ideas going around in my head,” she says.

For Esfandiary and Sitzman, designing the sets and lighting inTop to Bottom volve employing theater-specific computer software to create acMarilyn Brobst, “Props Mistress” at TL curate renderings.

Mary Ann Saunders, “Master Set Painter” and assists with hair & makeup “Renderings are labors of love for me. They help me figure out for TL Ann Sitzman, Lighting and Set Designer at the KU Theatre department what I’m trying to achieve and exactly what I’m thinking,” Sitzman Rana Esfandiary, Director and Set Designer at the KU Theatre department says.

Theatre Lawrence actors put on their make up at the final dress rehearsal for Lend Me A Tenor.

Glynn Sheridan, Market President and Regional Director for Sunflower Bank

Left to right: Bob Newton, Sound Designer and a member of the TL Board of Directors, mics up Julia Peterson, one of the leads in Lend Me A Tenor.

Terrance McKerrs, Director for Lend Me A Tenor Sherri Soule, volunteer Sound Operator and a member of the TL Board of Directors.

Esfandiary sketches her concept using the Cinema 4D program, which presents a 360-degree picture for the director. Once the design is approved and she reconciles it with the budget, she builds a physical model of the set. “The model helps me understand my sketch better,” she says. She then does all of the drafting for the shop of how the set will be built, piece by piece, and then construction begins. Communication is a continuous two-way flow between the designer and the director as the set takes shape. “When we design something, we tell the director what the limitations are for blocking the show. We also plan entrances and exits to and from the stage through the set,” Esfandiary continues.

For each show she designs, Sitzman must design the lights with angles, colors and textures; hang the lights; focus the lights; then cue the lights during the actual show. To design the lights, she uses the scene renderings to create lighting renderings in Photoshop for the director and other designers. Then begins a series of paperwork to track information such as where each light is hung, electrical grids and number assignments for lights on the light board. The “magic sheet” is the final piece of paperwork, and it is a visual representation of every light system and how each light is focused to the stage. The lights are ready to focus once they are hung, circuited and patched—as the master electrician, Sitzman does all of this herself. “Lighting can either destroy the set and the costumes, or make it come alive. The audience may not realize it’s happening, but they’ll see it, and they’re going to feel it,” she says.

The designers see their vision and their world of the show come together before the actors take the stage at tech rehearsals. As visual experts, they feel like they already live in the story, and the actors are sharing in it, much like the audience does.

“Theater is a lot of collaboration to come up with the end product that supports the play. I think that theater is the ultimate team 38

sport. We need to be able to work together to produce this thing that we feel like is living, and it’s the show,” Saunders says.

They all hope the audience’s memories from and experiences with the show last long beyond the final curtain.

“I have learned that we should not underestimate our audiences. We try to make the show open up a discussion about the issues of society and try to have a conversation with the audience instead of teaching them,” Esfandiary says.

Saunders says people who do not work in theater, especially behind the scenes, have no point of reference for all of the effort, teamwork and creativity that come together to make a show happen.

“Some people think we just order a set shipped in for each show and put it together. That is not at all how we do it. Everything is done in-house. We build it, paint it and make the doors work. We all do what we do because we love doing it,” Saunders says.

The hours are less than ideal, and they don’t get to be the ones standing on the stage accepting the ovations; yet these designers are passionate about what they do.

“I decided early on that this makes me happy in a way nothing else does,” Sitzman says. “It is ephemeral in nature; shows only last a certain amount of time. Every show is different and has its own life and own characters. It moves me.”

The actors aren’t the only ones who have strong emotions when the curtain rises to open the show.

Esfandiary says, “It’s magical for me when I see my work in the theater. It’s goose bumps.” p

3400 South Iowa | Lawrence KS | 785-843-7700

CrownAutomotive.com

F estival

Whether the focus is music, art, film or something similar, festivals of all kinds have recently become a major influence on today’s culture.

by Bob Luder, photos by Patrick Conner

by Bob Luder, photos by Steven Hertzog

During the last 15 to 20 years, it seems as though the United States— and really the world—has contracted a huge case of festival fever.

It’s an epidemic that shows no symptoms of slowing down anytime soon. Wherever or whenever you look, a new festival—mainly music, but also arts, film, food and, most recently, craft beer and wine—is popping up or an established fest is hosting its latest iteration.

Out of 318.9 million U.S. citizens, 32 million attend at least one music festival per year, according to 2017 statistics compiled by Billboard. Add to that another 10 to 20 million film and food/beverage festival attendees, and you have one-fifth of the population attending festivals. Statistics also showed that 14.7 million millennials attend U.S. music festivals each year, and those fest-goers travel an average of 903 miles, racking up significant economic impacts.

In short, festivals have now become a major influencer on our culture. Younger generations, particularly millennials, appear less materialistic and more into experiences. There’s also the power of social media, which gives festivals of all sizes massive opportunities to show potential attendees what they have to offer. Each festival offers unique experiences on set schedules with built-in breaks, the perfect weekend getaway to relax and enjoy life.

Lawrence certainly has not been immune to the festival craze.

Just about any weekend during a typical year, especially during the spring and summer months, one can find an event that offers something of interest and entertainment.

40

F renzy ‘

Pure entertainment is not an egotistical lady singing boring songs on stage for two hours and people in tuxes clapping whether they like it or not.

It’s the real performers on the street who can hold people’s attention The Free State Festival at the and keep them from walking away.

Lawrence Arts Center – Andy Kaufman

’

Photo by Ann Dean Transformation Charity Gala 2019 photo by Katy Ice

Kansas Picking and Fiddling Championships

41

More than a program, our award-winning Bridge to Rediscovery™ lifestyle helps our residents experience success, by focusing on the strengths they have now. At Brandon Woods, your loved one will enjoy our Five Star services and amenities and award-winning care, all at an affordable monthly rate.

OUR SIGNATURES • Montessori-based Dementia Programming – to help residents function at their highest possible level.

• Environment – designed to support exploration in a secure and enriching setting.

• Customized Care Plans – based on the Comprehensive Life Story.

• Dining & Nutrition – to support socialization, independence, and the familiar customs of family meals.

Tour our Assisted Living neighborhood and discover the benefits of our award-winning memory care.

The behemoth of all Lawrence festivals was the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival, which drew tens of thousands to Clinton State Park for two to three days each summer between 2004 and 2008 before moving to Arkansas. But a large number of diverse festivals remain.

Coming up on Memorial Day weekend, the 12th annual Busker Festival, featuring street performers both local and international, will hit downtown streets. Strictly music festivals include the Lawrence Field Day Fest in July and the Kansas State Fiddling and Picking Championships in August. There’s the Food Truck Festival on the first Saturday every May, the Kansas Craft Brewers Exposition every March, Transformations every January, the Haskell Indian Art Market and the Free State Festival.

All in all, something for everyone.

“All the festivals in Lawrence are so unique, and they’re all different,” says Marlo Angell, director of new media at the Lawrence Arts Center and coordinator of the Free State Festival. “They give the city a more national presence. It’s a great way to build up community togetherness.”

42

LEFT: Martika Daniels (top) and Sara Kunz- The Flyin Hawaiian (bottom) perform at the Lawrence Busker Fest 2019 Cate Flaherty aka Cate Great performs to her audience at the 8th St Pitch during the 2019 Lawrence Busker Fest

Elizabeth Keever, executive director of the Just Food food bank and organizer of the Food Truck Festival, adds, “Festivals are a great opportunity to tell the community what we’re all about and what we’re doing, while also having a great time. Lawrence is always up for a good time and a good cause.”

Here’s a closer look at some of the more prominent festivals in Lawrence.

Lawrence Busker Festival The word busker conjures images of lone guitar players standing on street corners, guitar case open at their feet, accepting the occasional dollar or coinage tip. But as organizer Richard Renner says, the Lawrence Busker Festival, which takes place each year over Memorial Day weekend, is much more than that.

The Busker Fest is a three-day free celebration of street performing artists of all types. Twenty different acts will perform on five “pitches,” or performance areas, around downtown. For the first time in its 12-year history, the fest will feature strictly female performers. They include Strong Woman Mama Lou, a six-time world record-holder as recognized by Guinness, Cate Flaherty, known as Cate Great, an international performing acrobatic juggler, Sara Twister,

a contortionist, and Flyin’ Hawaiian Sara Kunz, who performs acrobatic acts involving hula hoops.

One of the local performers will be Martika Daniels of Kansas City, Mo., who regularly performs her circus-show stunts like sword swallowing and walking on glass in the area. When she’s traveling and performing outside the region, she says she still hears from a lot of her peers about the Lawrence Busker Festival.

“Knowing my home pitch is so well known … it’s really cool to be able to say this is where I’m from,” Daniels says. “I travel a lot, so it’s nice to carve out a little time for something so close to home.”

She says it’s also a nice opportunity for family and friends to travel over to Lawrence and see what additions she’s made to her act.

“This festival is also about how the audience treats the buskers,” says Daniels, who’s on the official fest schedule for the second year. “It marks all the boxes of what buskers are looking for.”

Other acts include jugglers, stand-up comediennes and, yes, musicians.

“We’ve been voted best festival in Lawrence each of the last five years in the Lawrence Journal-World Best of Lawrence,” Renner says. “We’re very proud of it. It’s been wonderful.”

43

Kansas Craft Brewers Exposition The Kansas Craft Brewers Exposition is a collaboration between the Kansas Craft Brewers Guild and Downtown Lawrence Inc., and is the oldest craft beer expo in the state. Coordinator Phil Bradley explains the event is “put on by brewers for customers.” The expo, held every March at Abe & Jake’s Landing, strives to keep ticket prices low and holds two tasting sessions on a single day, limiting ticket sales so as to avoid overcrowding.

The expo has master brewers on-site from almost all Kansas breweries, as well as those from neighboring states and even the odd brewery from far away.

“Tickets go on sale on Kansas Day (Jan. 29),” Bradley says. “We usually sell out in minutes.”

That adds up to approximately 600 craft beer lovers tasting the beer of upwards of 50 breweries represented.

“It’s not just people who want to fill up,” Bradley says, “but people who want to talk about beer.”

Transformations Charity Gala The original inspiration behind the Transformations Charity Gala eight years ago was that of a one-time female impersonator benefit show to raise funds to send its creator, Brandon Eisman, to compete in the Miss Gay America pageant. What it’s grown into is one of Lawrence’s most prominent annual charity fundraising events for non-profits people normally don’t think about or consider.

“We decided to do it for local charities as a way for us to give back to our community,” says Eisman, who performs under the stage name, Deja Brooks. “What started as a fun event to benefit me became this great charity event to raise money for charities no one knows about.

Lawrence has almost 600 non-profits, and it’s easy for some of them to get lost in the crowd.”

The first six editions of Transformations were made up of women working with female impersonators to dress up in evening gowns and compete in a talent show and win money for their charities.

“It was a way for women to step out of their comfort zones and be their glam selves,” Eisman says. “We wanted to create a greater feeling of appreciation and empowerment to women and people of all walks of life.”

44

Top to Bottom Kansas Craft Brewers Exposition photo by Allayne Thornton Transformation Charity Gala 2019 The winning prize money of $10,000 photo by Leilani Tuttle Putting make up on at Transformations photos by Katy Ice

Providing state of the art care continuously and exclusively in Lawrence since 1990.

Curtis R. Brown, M.D., Michael L. Mulhern, M.D., Ph.D., and Mary Pat Lange, M.D.

JUNE IS CATARACT AWARENESS MONTH Laser Cataract Surgery and Minimally Invasive Glaucoma Surgeries Performed in Lawrence.

Ask your provider to call Drs Lange, Mulhern and Brown for your eye surgical needs.

1112 W 6th Street, Suite 214, Lawrence KS 66044 785-841-2280 www.lawrenceeyecare.org

Cheech Marin at the Free State Festival 2019, photo by Ann Dean

Transformations raised its game a notch two years ago when it switched to making over men. Last January at Liberty Hall, 10 men became female impersonators, competing in an evening gown competition, talent category and answering an on-stage question.

“Each year is crazy,” says Eisman, who produces and directs the annual show. “When we made the transformation to men, that was a totally different experience from women as the contestants.”

“It’s really cool when men, straight or gay step up to represent a charity while dressing in drag. We had teachers, doctors and everything in between.”

Eisman says Transformations sells out every year. In fact, the VIP section for this year’s show sold out in two minutes.

General admission sold out in 1 ½ months.

The Transformations winner receives a prize of $10,000 to go their charity of choice.

A film crew from Los Angeles, fluid.tv, also shot a documentary in 2018 about the event: Transformations The Film.

This documentary has screened at the Free State Festival, DOC NYC, San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, Irvine International Film Festival and won Best Documentary Short at the Kansas City LGBT Film Festival.

“What we thought was going to be one fun night has grown into something we never thought would last this long and be so popular,” Eisman says. “I never thought we’d last five years, let alone eight.”

46

Kansas Food Truck Festival to benefit Just Food

Free State Festival What started as a small weekend film festival in 2011 has expanded to film, live music, art and comedy at numerous locations around Lawrence, including the Lawrence Arts Center, Liberty Hall and even smaller downtown restaurants such as The Burger Stand.

“We’ve made it a total community event as much as possible,” the Arts Center’s Angell says.

Attendance for the festival averages around 3,000, and many event venues fill to capacity. But Angell says she’s just as proud of the many smaller events, such as a short-film showcase and outdoor puppet shows, which are just as important to the growth of the community.

“We started the festival because I’m a fan of film,” she says. “You can really get a cultural vibe of the city. And it gives festivalgoers a chance to explore Lawrence. It’s such a wonderful place.”

Angell says the next Free State Festival is not scheduled until the summer of 2020.

Kansas Food Truck Festival The 6th annual Kansas Food Truck Festival was just held earlier in May in the Warehouse Arts District, at Ninth and Pennsylvania streets.

In its six years of existence, the festival has grown from five food trucks and a couple hundred attendees to this year, when 33 trucks drew crowds that approached 4,000.

Tickets cost $10 for adults with children 12 and younger free. All proceeds from the Kansas Food Truck Festival benefit Just Food, the Douglas County Food Bank.

Like many festivals that sound specialized on the surface, the Kansas Food Truck Festival is much more than just a line of food trucks serving 47

HEATING & COOLING

Sales

Sevice

Installation

up delicious cuisine. Two stages hosted live entertainment that ranged from musicians to Hula-Hoop acrobats. There were other fun kids’ activities such as face painting and inflatables.

Then there are the food trucks, which offer foods from around the world: Brazilian, Jamaican, Cajun, Greek, Mediterranean, barbecue and grilled cheese.

“We have predominantly regional trucks,” Just Food’s Keever says. “But I know this year, we had one that came from Fayetteville, Arkansas.”

She says last year’s Kansas Food Truck Festival raised $55,000 for Just Food, the Douglas County Food Bank, and she was hoping to surpass that total this year.

48

Nurturing the Intellect and Spirit of Children

Kansas State Fiddling and Picking Championships

Kansas State Fiddling and Picking Championships The oldest festival in Lawrence just might be the Kansas State Fiddling and Picking Championships, which will hold its 39th annual event from noon to 5 p.m. August 25 in South Park. It is free.

Widely known as the Pickin’ Festival, it actually is a competition in numerous string music categories that vary from year to year. Typically, categories include adult fiddle, youth fiddle, adult flat-picking, harmony, banjo and mandolin, among others.

The event annually resembles a reunion as musicians form circles jamming under trees throughout the park. There also are four bands ranging from local to touring acts booked to play between competitions, and many times, former contestants return as professional performers. Many of the competitors are the second and third generations of their families to perform there.

Food trucks are also on hand, as well as beverages from Free State Brewing Co., artists and other community organizations.

“Attendance largely depends on the heat, but we usually average between 2,500 and 5,000,” says Tim Metz, senior vice president, commercial lending at Central Bank of the Midwest (a sponsor) and coordinator of the event. “We just want people to come out and support the competitors.”

49

Haskell Indian Art Market The 31st annual Haskell Indian Art Market will take place Sept. 7 and 8 on the campus of Haskell Indian Nations University, in the southeast corner of the city. The market features original, handmade artwork crafted and designed by Native American artists that include pottery, jewelry, paintings, drawings, basket weavings, rug weavings, sculptures, beadings, carvings and more.

Admission to the two-day event is free, and it typically attracts thousands of art lovers throughout Lawrence and the surrounding areas.

Lawrence Field Day Fest The 8th edition of the Lawrence Field Day Fest is scheduled for July 18 through 20 on multiple stages across the city. The fest, put on for the first time this year by I Heart Local Music, showcases the best in local music talent, with dozens of bands tucked in every nook and cranny throughout downtown and beyond.

And per I Heart Local Music’s policy, all shows for this year’s Field Day Fest for the first time will be free and all ages.

Some of the more popular bands to check out at this year’s fest include Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds, The Sluts, Vedettes, Oxford Remedy, Shoebox Money, NuBlvckCity, The Band That Saved The World, Serene Fiend and The Midnight Devils. The venues to be used this year are the Granada theater, Lucia Beer Garden and Grill, The Bottleneck and the White Schoolhouse.

Lawrence Go Fourth Lawrence Go Fourth - 4th of July Festival on the River - put on by a group of citizens, vendors, sponsors and volunteers that combines elements of many of the other major festivals around town.

Held in Burcham Park, on the banks of the Kansas River, the festival includes food and drink from local restaurants, bars and food trucks. There will be a handful of bands and DJs performing live music. Buskers will present performance art. There also are face-painters, Hoop Mamas, balloon art and inflatables for kids. And of course, the evening culminates in the largest fireworks display in town at 9:30 p.m.

The event, presented by the Granada theater, is free.p

50

Kevin Romary, sports anchor for Midco Sports

‘

I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.

’ SPORTS – Walt Disney

THE POWER OF

In this community, these sports journalists focus on what the people want: entertaining local coverage.

by Mike Anderson, photos by Steven Hertzog

When it comes to this community, it’s not hyperbole to claim that sports is king. To use a sports analogy: Watching, talking and listening to college and high school sports in Lawrence is par for the course. I’d be willing to bet you a plate of Merchant’s brussels sprouts that more of the Douglas County population could recognize the names, faces or voices of the people in this article than those of the current mayor, city manager, county administrator or local state politicians.

cover these local sports. These entertainers aren’t talking much about the Royals, Chiefs or national news. They know people will turn to Kansas City stations or ESPN for that. So how can they be different? Being informative is important, but more than that, they need to be entertaining and interesting to get people to watch and listen. They all focus on KU sports and/or local high school sports to bring in viewers, listeners or subscribers to their platforms. And in this community, we’re interested in what they have to say.

Take Tyler Jones, for example. Tyler is a student at KU with a golden voice who hosts a weekend sports talk show on KLWN. He also cohosts one of its morning sports shows from 6 to 8 a.m. Tyler has close to 7,000 followers on Twitter. While talking with him, he received a notice on his phone from ESPN. The person on the other end wanted to know if they could use the video Tyler shot of KU football coach Les Miles dancing on stage at the Rick Ross concert that followed the annual KU spring game. At that time, it had been retweeted more than 200 times.

OUR SPORTS ON TELEVISION

That’s the power of KU sports, and no one knows that better than the entertainers, journalists and broadcasters who

Let’s begin with the person who has been here the longest, Kevin Romary. He has been with Channel6/Midco Sports Network since 1997. During the majority of that time, he has served as sports director. He’s been to five Final Fours, countless tournament games and even more KU games.

“Safe insanity” is how Romary describes the experience of covering KU basketball. “I’ve been to other places and seen games there, and it’s different. I’ve been to Final Fours and tournament games, and seen other fan bases, and this is a one-of-a-kind experience,” Romary explains.

51

KU basketball for him is always a beloved story, but what is really important are the personal experiences and telling the individual stories of some of the KU and high school kids who have a rare talent. Instead of trying to work his way to the front of a media storm to ask Coach Bill Self a question, Romary stays behind to tell the stories of a kid in one of the Olympic sports that is blowing up. He remembers getting a phone call from then KU golf coach Ross Randall about Gary Woodland. He then found himself doing a story with Gary at the Alvamar driving range. “In hindsight, that is pretty cool. 15 years later, he’s one of the top 25 golfers on the planet. Think about that for a minute. We’ve had a lot of great basketball players come through like Joel Embiid. But I don’t know if he’s one of the top 25 players in the world.

There are world-class athletes just roaming around Lawrence, Kansas,” Romary explains.

Currently, Romary focuses a lot of his time on high school sports. This includes hosting a Monday through Friday 30-minute television sports show and doing the play-byplay for high school football, basketball, baseball, softball, swimming, wrestling and volleyball. Romary and his team believe high school is underrepresented in terms of coverage. “When you look at social media now, it kind of confirms what we already knew. You should see how many views the high school sports get compared to KU sports.

The response we get on calling the city showdown, regardless of the sport, is huge,” he explains.

■ ■ ■ ■

John Magnuson Your Local Agent

3300 CLINTON PARKWAY CT STE 110 LAWRENCE, KS 66047 JMAGNUSON@FARMERSAGENT.COM

Restaurants Retail Apartments HOA's

“LET'S TALK INSURANCE, I'M JUST AROUND THE CORNER.” https://agents.farmers.com/jmagnuson

Restrictions apply. Discounts may vary. Not available in all states. See your agent for details. Insurance is underwritten by Farmers Insurance Exchange and other affiliated insurance companies. Visit farmers.com for a complete listing of companies. Not all insurers are authorized to provide insurance in all states. Coverage is not available in all states.

52

Romary’s mentor was Tom Hedrick, the guy who wrote the book on sports broadcasting, literally. Hedrick taught Romary to never try to be somebody else. So that’s what Romary has done. His style focuses on keeping it light. “As I get older, I just want to have a conversation. Different topics.

It doesn’t have to be even sports related, because we are so inundated with so many different channels and avenues where we can get that stuff.”

Romary uses the word fun and funny to describe what he wants to do. “And that’s changed. When I was younger, the thought was, ‘oh you want to take it so seriously.’ ” Romary doesn’t mind if people need to laugh with him or at him. He just hopes they don’t think it’s too serious. He gets to know the audience here more than bigger markets. The audience often thinks they know the people on TV and news, and here, that is true.

Romary’s entertainment plays out in a journalistic way.

“Ours is not an opinion show. That’s the difference between media today as opposed to 25 years ago. There weren’t many opinion-based shows. It’s important to divide commentary and opinion from actual news and sports reporting,” Romary says. He hopes people look at his show as a credible and informative way to catch up on local sports. So if people want to know if their neighbor’s kid is going to be the next Chief, Royal or KU athlete, they can turn to him for the answer. “I think that’s our niche here.”

Nick Schwerdt hosts Rock Chalk Sports on KLWN

SPORTS TALK RADIO Nick Schwerdt hosts the afternoon Rock Chalk Sports Talk on KLWN. He has been the host for four years and understands the pressure of being one of the main people KU fans listen to about Jayhawk sports. For alumni of KU or fans outside of Lawrence, his podcast and KLWN might be the only source they can listen to for KU sports. At a recent KU game, a fan went up to Schwerdt to let him know he lives in Chicago and listens to the podcast. Another fan from Las Vegas told him he listens to the podcast everyday. “It is pressure. I’m the only person talking about KU basketball for three hours a day. There’s a huge responsibility to give them a product they could be proud of.”

40 YEARS EXPERIENCE

+

CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY

Schwerdt, Jones and all the hosts at KLWN know the task is to keep people engaged. During the summer months, especially when KU is not in session, originality and entertaining become key. “There is a bit of a responsibility not to be cookie-cutter but at least try to shift the conversation and start new conversations. Trying to find a new perspective when you’re doing 15 hours a week,” Schwerdt says.

His goal is not to convince but to think about a different perspective. He considers himself part entertainer and part journalist.

“I take the job seriously,” Schwerdt explains. “But I don’t take myself seriously.” For him, originality is important. It’s a blend of giving people a new perspective while also having quality substance. As he says, “You have to be passionate.

You have to be 100 percent on it, or the audience will check

GET LYNN ON THE LINE! 758-843-LYNN ELECTRIC • • • • • •

Commercial Industrial Multi-Family Design Build Design Assist Remodel

SERVICE • • • • • •

24-Hour Service Commercial Industrial Residential Parking Lot Lighting Panel Upgrades

725 N 2nd Street, Suite K, Lawrence KS 66044 Tyler Jones hosts multiple shows on KLWN

www.LynnElectric.com

53

Brian Hanni at the Rock Chalk Choice Awards, in a Back to the Future themed event.

Photo by Rachel Pincus Brian as the Master of ceremonies at the hanging of the jerseys for KU basketball All-Americans Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins. photos by Jeff Jacobson

cal of young athletes, and sometimes, it’s Schwerdt’s responsibility to be the voice of reason, to mellow things out after a big loss. “If the freak-out is justified, then I’ll join them in that; but the issue with that is with college, a lot of times the freak-out is over the decisions made by a kid.” But voicing criticism of the coaches or administrators is a different story. “I’ve never been afraid to voice my opinion on that, because there is a real responsibility there. That’s the only part of me that feels like a journalist.” out. A lot of people will say that sports radio should sound like you and your buddies on the couch, but it’s more than that; it’s the best version of you and your buddies on the couch.”

For radio hosts like Schwerdt, the job isn’t to just report.

People are tuning in to hear their opinion. These sports talk radio hosts all agree they are more entertainers than journalists. But sometimes, that is tough in a community that values college and high school sports involving amateur athletes who are often teenagers. Traug Keller, who oversees all aspects of ESPN radio, has publicly told his onair hosts that if you’re not getting in trouble once in awhile, you’re not pushing things enough.

That line between being interesting and being critical can be tough at KLWN. As Schwerdt explains, “If so and so has a bad game for KU, I can’t really come on the air and be like, ‘They need to bench this kid, he’s a bum, he’s talentless.’

I’m like, ‘He’s a kid.’ And that’s a balance to walk, because if you’re not being critical, how are you going to be interesting?” But at the same time, Schwerdt explains people don’t want him to use cookie-cutter language like, ‘Oh, he’s young, don’t worry, he’ll get better.’ It can be hard to be criti54

PLAY-BY-PLAY BROADCASTING Perhaps no one understands the pressure to entertain in this town more than KU athletics director of broadcasting Brian Hanni. By the end of this 2018-2019 KU athletics season, Brian will have called around 90 games, emceed roughly 100 charitable events and hosted roughly 30 Hawk Talks. The basketball broadcasts he conducts with cohost Greg Gurley have been in the Top 3 in the nation for basketball on the TuneIn app. His reach is great. With the use of social media, Hanni knows the days radio guys are only heard not seen are long gone. It’s a wide-reaching but also highly visible position. Hanni can’t just be an average playby-play guy. He explains, “It’s incredible the fan response and how engaged they are and how much they want any extra insight they can possibly get their hands on about KU sports. And it’s way different than what I was used to when I lived in Lubbock and trying to be an ambassador for Texas Tech. And I mean that respectfully to all other places, I’m just saying this place is different.”

During the KU season, Hanni strives to entertain the KU

faithful by trying to be as rich and diverse as possible with the terms he uses. Mixing metaphors and highlight calls are important to him. “You want to be informative, engaging and entertaining, yes,” he says. “But as a play-by-play guy first and foremost, it’s about the action on display in front of you.

It’s your job to paint the picture. How beautifully and artistically you paint it is where the entertainment side comes in.

Always remember the picture itself is what sells, the picture itself is why they are listening.”

Hanni points out the sport itself is the “meat and potatoes.”

The announcers should be considered the side dish that adds to the meal. One of his goals for every game is to let his personality shine in a way that adds to the game instead of taking from it. “I try to be a wordsmith that puts the right descriptors on those highlight plays and use my vocal inflection to capture the excitement in the Phog of 16,300,” Hanni says. The ability to know how and when to elevate one’s voice is crucial for any broadcaster.

THE PREPARATION FOR THESE SHOWS The level of preparation and practice to be a sports reporter, broadcaster, journalist and entertainer is incredible. (Not to mention the amount of time needed to attend games that normally take place at night or on weekends.) On an average night, morning show cohost Jones will go to bed at midnight and get up at 4:15 a.m. He tries to nap in between his morning show, classes and doing the needed research for the show. He also spends plenty of time reevaluating the show. “My parents listen, and they aren’t afraid to tell me when I had a bad show,” Jones explains.

“To me, preparation is a 30,000-foot view,” Schwerdt says.

For his afternoon Rock Chalk Sports Talk radio show, he and his producers will prepare 30 minutes for every 15-minute segment. Which means a three-hour show will require close to six hours of preparation. “The worst feeling in the 55

world, and it doesn’t happen very often, is going into a show and being like, ‘Oh I don’t know what we’re going to talk about right there. I got 15 minutes to fill?’ Fifteen minutes is a lot longer than you think when you’ve got a live mic in front of your face. Brian Hanni drilled into my head the preparation aspect, and that’s something that never left me,” Schwerdt explains.

Preparation is paramount if you want to be the voice of the Jayhawks. Being the Jayhawk broadcaster is certainly a hustle. It’s a 10-month grind with two months in July and August to relax. Hanni shows up two hours before the game and stays anywhere from one to three hours after.

And sometimes games don’t get over until late. “The hours would sound overwhelming if it wasn’t something so exciting or thrilling,” he explains.

But the work and preparation for the next broadcast is far from over. Hanni charts those for each broadcast to see what he uses when and how often. He listens to and charts every game he calls. And for a season like 2017-2018, when the Jayhawks were making almost 400 three-pointers, it’s tough to have enough different descriptors so as to not repeat them in the same game. The day after the game, he listens to his performance for redundancies, banter with his analyst, his vocal inflections and whether he was able to weave in his preparation to make sure it added and did not distract.

Practice is also important in this profession. When Romary first got to KU, his professor sent him to a Lawrence High football game. For a college kid, that’s not exactly what one wants to do on a Friday night. But he took a recorder, sat on the stands and called the game. “I felt like an idiot the first

FREE TASTINGS EVERY SATURDAY

Ask aBout Our

WINE CLUB Memberships

for you & as Gifts 4821 West 6 Street, Suite N & 900 New Hampshire, Suite C th

www.CITYWINEMARKET.com

56

time; I’m up there in the stands holding my roster and my recorder. But that’s how you get started,” he says. “You have to listen to yourself, because you’ve got to change. It’s not like dunking a basketball where you can or can’t. Anybody can work on their voice, work on their speech, work on their delivery and work their way into being good enough to get on a radio and/or TV station. When you hear yourself and you hate it, be OK with it and try to change it.”

THE CONNECTION All of these entertainers are there own worst critic, constantly analyzing everything about their performances. “I’ve come to this conclusion like most people do: You’re always way more critical of yourself than anybody else. And once you get to that point, it helps,” Romary says. But that selfcriticism leads to a great deal of self-analysis and growth.

All these sports broadcasters agree. They are sitting on a gold mine being able to cover sports in this community, but fans here expect them to be interesting, engaging and entertaining as they talk about their beloved teams. Perhaps it is no surprise, then, that all these sports entertainers in Douglas County are connected. Romary and Hanni were both mentored by the same person, Tom Hedrick. While he was the sports director at KLWN, Hanni hired Schwerdt, who works on the sports team with Jones.

Proprietary Nanotechnology • Nature Enhanced By Science •

So, let me put it like this – Jones is the John Harbaugh who works with Schwerdt. And if Schwerdt is the Andy Reid to Hanni’s Mike Holmgren, and Romary is Dennis Green, then Tom Hedrick is their Bill Walsh. How about that for a sports analogy? p

The Midco sports studio control room during a broadcasting of Kevin Romary’s sports show

57

‘

I’m still passionately interested in what my fellow humans are up to. For me, a day spent monitoring the passing parade is a day well-spent.

– Garry Trudeau

’

PARTY IN THE STREETS Events on Mass Street have become a staple in Lawrence, a community that really likes to have a good time.

by Tara Trenary, photos by Steven Hertzog

Known to many as one of the most beautifully vibrant main streets in America, Lawrence’s “Mass Street” is the heart of the city and not only renowned for its shopping, restaurants and robust arts scene, but also its extensive and eclectic entertainment locale. The city of Lawrence offers big-city amenities with a small-town feel. Its strong sense of community and diverse population, as well as its rich history and varied culture, are key to Downtown Lawrence’s popularity.

Named one of the “best lil’ college towns” by Rolling Stone and noted as the “most vital music scene between Chicago and Denver” by The New York Times, Downtown Lawrence has become one of the most popular spots in the Midwest for tourists. Massachusetts and its surrounding streets are constantly abuzz with people, music and art. Day and night, its more than 300 shops, galleries, boutiques, restaurants, cafes, pubs and live-music venues (many of which are locally owned and quite unique) offer a distinctive selection not found anywhere else.

“Something Lawrence is known for: We like to have a party,” says Sally Monahan Zogry, executive director of Downtown Lawrence. “Downtowns like ours are few and far between.

Welcoming, exciting, vibrant. Events add to that vibe.”

58

Caleb Hull, marketing assistant with the City of Lawrence, says anyone can create and hold an event downtown if they follow protocol, starting with submitting a Street Event Permit application. Approval of an application requires the applicant to submit all the necessary items, and it must pass through administrative review with all concerns being addressed.

Each Street Event Permit is reviewed, he says, and approval is determined on a case-by-case basis. Denials would include events that could lead to significant health or safety risks, or if necessary documentation is not received.

These events “keep the downtown area interesting and bring unique bands, groups and artists to Lawrence that we might otherwise not be able to host,” he continues. “I enjoy being able to help bring events to Lawrence and downtown that have become traditions for people to attend and making sure those events happen in a way that people can safely enjoy them.”

From park concerts to parades to performances in the streets, the many lively events held downtown are a huge attraction to locals and visitors alike. More than 60 are held every year, each a unique addition to the already robust energy of Massachusetts Street.

Concerts in the Park, 1863 One of the oldest traditions in Lawrence, put on by one of the oldest municipal bands in America, the Lawrence City Band (LCB) holds a summer concert series on Wednesday evenings from late May until mid-July at William Kelly Bandstand, in historic South Park. Now conducted by Paul Popiel, the first official concert was held on Aug. 20, 1863, the night of Quantrill’s Raid. Several band members were killed, and others went on to perform as members of Union military bands. The band continued to perform in various civic and military capacities up to and including the 20th century, when the weekly concert became the norm.

Associate conductor and chairperson of the board of directors Marion Roberts explains the mission of the LCB from inception has been to “provide entertaining, motivational and educational opportunities for all Lawrence and area citizens, along with high-level entertainment in one of the major landmarks of the beautiful city of Lawrence.”

Free to the public, Roberts says the concert series’ excellent musicians are members of the community who simply want share in one of its longest traditions. The band and a crew from Lawrence Parks & Rec work together to make this event come alive.

Each concert requires its band members to spend many hours preparing, all for a common goal: “The Lawrence City Band is a Lawrence tradition,” Roberts says. “It has maintained the appeal of the 19th century through the 20th and into the 21st century. It is one of the events in our city that brings together our citizens of all ages to perform and enjoy the music in a beautiful, historical setting.”

St. Patrick’s Day Parade: 1988 Every March 17, no matter what day of the week, if you head downtown, you’re likely going to run into a bit of a party. Begun in 1988 by a few Irish friends sitting in a local pub enjoying a pint, a longstanding tradition likely to continue for years and years to come was born. Now 32 years later, the Lawrence St. Patrick’s Day Parade is one of the most popular parades held downtown.

Art Tougeau Festival/parade Photo courtesy Lawrence Arts Center

The main event is preceded by several fund-raising events aimed at covering the cost of the parade itself, in addition to sponsors and donations.

“We strive to raise more funds than we need for just the parade, because it has become a tradition to choose beneficiaries every year that receive the funds after the parade,” explains Sarajane Scott, St. Patrick’s Day Parade treasurer and board member. “These beneficiaries are local children’s charity groups. They help us put on events, raise money and help on parade day. The goal each year is to increase community participation, raise awareness of our beneficiaries and put on a great community event.”

59

“We Care at Prompt Care” Full Service • Urgent Care Center Occupational Health No Appointment Necessary • Open 7 Days a Week ALWAYS SEEN AND TREATED BY A PHYSICIAN Michael Geist, M.D. - Owner 3511 Clinton Place – Kasold & Clinton Parkway

785-838-1500 www.promptcarelawrence.com

Local businesses, nonprofits and families also participate as parade entries and compete for the top three places in the “commercial,” “nonprofit” and “family” categories, Scott says. These same groups compete for a “Travelling Trophy” as the “Best Entry” in the parade.

“It is important to have not only a great parade that brings out so many local and regional visitors for a day (and maybe an overnight stay), but also to have our fund-raising events leading up to the parade that encourage participation,” Scott says. “For the last 32 years, the Lawrence St. Patrick’s Day Parade has been a great community event and has raised more than a million dollars for local youth organizations.”

Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade, 1992 ®

An event that draws people from all across the country, Lawrence’s Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade began with 21 horse-drawn vehicles traveling down Massachusetts Street but has grown into a major Midwest event, with close to 100 entries in recent years. Its mission is “to help preserve the history of real ‘horsepower,’ educate and entertain spectators, attract visitors to Lawrence and provide a Christmas tradition for families,” parade director Elaine Vandeventer explains.

“The number and quality of our entries is the result of what we do to assist them and the hospitality provided while they are here,” she continues. “Our reward is a family-oriented event which has become a tradition for Lawrence residents and those who travel here for this parade.”

2735 Iowa Street, Lawrence KS 60

Originally “The Eldridge Hotel Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade,” the parade grew, sponsors changed, and in 2004,

Old-Fashion Christmas Parade

the parade was renamed The Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade. No entry fees for participants or spectator fees make it a popular event for both.

Many entrants travel a significant distance, and they leave their vehicles and horses overnight at the fairgounds, Vandeventer says. “We also provide a buffet dinner and band on Friday night as a thank you for all the work and expense involved for the entries to participate. It’s wonderful to watch as friendships from past years are rekindled, and a few tears are always shed over news of past friends, both two- and four-legged, who are no longer with us.”

The Lawrence Police Department (LPD) provides an escort and traffic control during the event. Kennedy Glass employees construct announcer stands for intersections along the route and put chalk lines to delineate safe boundaries. “Because we have such a dedicated group of people, the little things just get done,” Vandeventer says. “If you’ve been on Massachusetts Street the night before, you will see that all parking spaces are filled even after the bars close as spectators are guaranteeing themselves a front-row seat.”

Through the years, the cost to run the parade has continued to rise. Revenue sources currently include a grant from the city of Lawrence from the TGT (transient guest tax) fund, $200 sponsorships from businesses and individuals in Lawrence, and a corporate sponsor, when there is one.

This historic parade, however, could be in jeopardy. The philosophy and procedure for awarding TGT funds has recently changed, expanding the application process, reserving funds to help new events get established and requiring existing events to become self-sufficient (applicants are now limited to funding for only three consecutive years, leaving The Old-Fashioned ineligible in 2020). Starting in 2020, the parade will be billed for LPD services and must 61

rent necessary barricades, adding about $4,000 to its expenses. And, Vandeventer admits, management is getting “very senior.”

“There are many groups and individuals willing to volunteer their services, but the parade needs a few new people to take the reins and coordinate all the pieces and parts,” she explains.

Art Tougeau, 1995 If you are into cars, this event is for you: Art Tougeau, Lawrence’s only art car parade. A grassroots event that started 24 years ago, Art Tougeau is a nonprofit organization run by a handful of volunteers that partners with The Lawrence Arts Center and Busker Fest to put on Final Fridays.

“Art Tougeau celebrates all forms of wheeled creativity,” says Ben Ahlvers, director of exhibitions. “Why not?”

With an art car culture in the U.S. that has been around for decades, this event offers music, buskers, food and Free State beer, along with some intriguingly decorative cars.

“It’s amazing to see so many people having a great time. It’s pure joy,” Ahlvers says. “Kids, adults, it doesn’t matter. What’s unique about this parade … is that it is mostly homegrown, meaning that most of the participants are from this area.”

Funds generated for this event come from sponsorships, T-shirt sales and a bike raffle. Any extra money goes right back into offsetting costs for out-of-town artists’ travel, permits and production costs.

“Lawrence is loaded with creative people who like to have a good time,” Ahlvers says. “The Art Tougeau Parade is a magical place where art and fun collide.”

62

Left: Art Tougeau photos by Jerry Jost Right :Earth Day Parade

Earth Day Parade, 2000 On April 22 each year since 1970, people around the world have come together to show their support for protecting the environment. Lawrencians have done so as a community for nearly 20 years.

“Earth Day is a way for the community of Lawrence (and the rest of the planet) to connect over the one thing we all have in common and celebrate it,” explains Brenna Base, 2019 Earth Day Parade coordinator with KU Environs, who says the event is the most important one of the year held by the student-led environment advocacy group at the University of Kansas. “The Earth Day Parade is a way to get people to see some of the local businesses and organizations that support a more sustainable lifestyle in Lawrence. The celebration began as a way to appreciate our shared planet.”

Along with the parade, the Parks & Recreation Department hosts South Park tree identification tours and live music at the Gazebo in South Park. Also in the park are food, vendors and children’s activities, as well as exhibits about waste reduction, recycling, composting, energy conservation, land preservation and wildlife and habitat preservation. In 2018, there were 40 exhibitors and five local food vendors.

“Earth Day is a bit different from our other events, since education is more of a focus than vending. So it is nice to see groups and businesses take a day where they could be selling and do an event for goodwill and to educate the community,” says City of Lawrence’s Hull, who worked with KU Environs to coordinate this year’s event.

Lawrence’s Earth Day Parade brings together different communities, businesses and people who support a sustainable environment in order to advocate for a healthier planet. “Lawrence has historically been a little more progressive than some of its surrounding cities, and this is another showcase of all the efforts the city puts into becoming an eco-friendly city,” Base says. “It’s important for our city to understand and come together over the health of the Earth.”

Whatever the event, bringing people into town is always a good thing for Lawrence. The money spent here goes right back into the community. “The more people who come in from out of town and pay sales tax, that burden is less on us,” Downtown Lawrence’s Zogry explains. Plus, “There’s always something new here. It’s just a great vibe.” p For a list of events in Downtown Lawrence, visit www.downtownlawrence.com/events.

Earth Day Parade

For More Information: Summer Concert Series: lawrenceks.org/lprd/specialevents/summerconcerts St. Patrick’s Day Parade: lawrencestpatricksdayparade.com Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade: www.lawrencechristmasparade.org Art Tougeau: www.arttougeau.org Earth Day Parade: lawrenceks.org/earth-day 64

‘

Music is an ageless form of art, an intricate language that resonates with the human soul.

– Wayne Chirisa

’ A packed audience fills up The Lied Center

Music in the Middle Musicians big and small flock to Lawrence to be part of its rich, lively and diverse music scene.

by Bob Luder, photos by Steven Hertzog

For two glorious summer evenings nearly seven years ago, Lawrence, Kansas, still a sleepy mid-America college town despite its growth, could have made a legitimate claim to being the psychedelic rock capital of the world.

Downtown cultural cornerstone Liberty Hall, which opened in 1912 as the Bowersock Opera House and had been the Lawrence Opera House, among other temporary iterations, was celebrating its centennial anniversary. And to commemorate the occasion, The Flaming Lips, an internationally famous psychedelic alternative rock band from Oklahoma City, was booked to play two nights. Not only did the venerable hall pack more than 2,000 music lovers through its doors for two sold-out shows, a couple thousand more not lucky enough to get tickets enjoyed a block party on Seventh Street, between Massachusetts and New Hampshire streets, listening to local bands, drinking local beer and eating food.

“I remember being there thinking what a big deal it was,” says Jacki Becker, a longtime Lawrence live music pro-

moter who owns Eleven Productions and books bands with Mammoth Inc. “This was a band that was playing much larger venues, playing in front of tens of thousands at festivals; but here they were in this intimate space putting on two great shows. It was two great nights.”

Those two Flaming Lips shows represented a more recent acme in a Lawrence live music scene that is as rich, lively and entertaining as it is diverse.

Two larger-capacity venues on Mass Street—Liberty Hall and the Granada, built as a silent-movie theater in the 1930s—regularly host national and international touring acts in various musical genres. The Bottleneck, on New Hampshire, is smaller and splits stage time between touring bands and local performers.

Then there are the smaller venues that cater primarily to the dozens of local and regional bands trying to be heard, searching for that big break that will one day get them closer to emulating a band like The Flaming Lips. Operating at 10th and Mass since 1993, the Replay Lounge hosts the 65

Black Violin plus LHS and Free State students Exterior of Lied Center photos by John Clayton

occasional national and international touring act, but primarily features local and regional talent both in its front room and outdoors on the more spacious back patio.

The Jazzhaus has booked famous jazz artists and performers from other genres on Mass Street since 1982. The Gaslight, located just north over the Kansas River bridge, has bands primarily on weekends— up to four nights a week during summer months— mostly on its outdoor patio. A couple of newer spots featuring live music include Lucia, next door to the Granada, and Shaun & Sons Artisan Pub and Coffeehouse, at 23rd and Iowa streets. Still others, like Brothers Bar & Grill and Eighth Street Tap Room, have local DJs at various times during the week.

Multiple Musical Styles Including student events, the Lied Center, a nonprofit organization that’s part of KU, hosts 75 to 100 events annually, explains Derek Kwan, the center’s executive director. Any outside events have to share dates with a vast number of performances put on by the KU School of Music. That includes ensemble performances by the KU Symphony Orchestra, KU Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, University Band, KU Jazz Ensembles 1, 2 and 3 and the KU Choir.

There also are a number of student recitals scheduled each year, and the center hosts about 10 Student Union Activities events where they book regional and local bands.

“We can never book against a set KU event like Rock Chalk Revue or a graduation ceremony or event,” Kwan says.

And certainly, let’s not forget the outlier, both geographically and culturally, the Lied Center, on the West Campus at the University of Kansas (KU), which during the last 25 years has presented the most diverse plethora of musical talent to be found anywhere in town.

In addition, the Lawrence public school system books chorale events, as well as districtwide talent shows at the Lied Center.

“It’s hard to find a community that has as much going on musically in such a dense space,” says Mike Logan, owner of the Granada and Lucia. “And I mean anywhere.”

That leaves limited availability in the 1,979-seat-capacity center for dates for big-name professional artists, and yet the Lied Center manages to bring in great shows each and every year. Last year, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis performed two shows for public school students. The center kicked off this season with a performance from Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers. Martin Short and Steve Martin, classical violin player Joshua Bell, the Beach Boys and country stars Kenny Rogers and Clint Black all have performed there in recent years.

“There’s no doubt Lawrence is a good music town,” says Dean Edington, general manager at Liberty Hall. “Like every place, it has its ups and downs. But the town does well when the artists in town are doing cool stuff. I’ve been through the crests and the waves. I think we’re coming out of a bit of a funk. But I’ll never not believe that Lawrence is a great music town.”

66

“As part of our educational programming, we provide a free, agespecific performance for every student in the Lawrence public schools,” he says. “Booking is a challenge, but it’s one of the most entertaining parts of my job, because it’s a big puzzle.”

“We host a pretty wide breadth of musical styles,” Kwan says, “from chamber and orchestral to classic rock.”

Kwan says he’s had performances at the Lied that have drawn patrons from 15 states.

“What makes us unique is that we’re an all-seated venue,” he says. “And at 1,979 capacity, we’re the largest venue other than Allen Fieldhouse and Memorial Stadium.”

Kwan simply loves that the Lied Center plays a small role in the thriving live music scene in the city.

“We love all the other music venues in town,” he says. “I hang out myself a lot at the Replay.

“Our goal here at the Lied Center is to be able to present a world-class lineup every season that can not only entertain but educate the student body and local population. From an educational standpoint, the investment is what we’re supposed to do.”

TRANSFORMING IDEAS INTO COMMERCE

The Downtown Scene While Liberty Hall, with a capacity of 1,050, might not always pack the punch of a band as big as The Flaming Lips, it constantly serves up a smorgasbord of some of the biggest acts in music. This summer alone, the hall will host a diverse menu that includes art rock provocateur Todd Rundgren, classic rock troubadour Gordon Lightfoot, rock band Band of Horses and legendary rhythm and blues and gospel singer Mavis Staples.

“The shows that come in here are tailored to the room for what the (renter wants),” says general manager Edington, who points out that Liberty Hall is strictly a rental facility and does not produce any of the concerts it hosts. “Everyone likes to play here. It’s the biggest stage in town, and we have the most intense sound system.

Facilities Guidance Connections

785.832-2110 Learn more at btbcku.com 67

“I think the caliber of events is what sets us apart. It’s kind of a destination place.”

Just down the street a few blocks to the north, the Granada, which holds 900, also hosts big-name artists or those on the cusp of breaking out. The popular cult band Insane Clown Posse, New Found Glory and up-and-coming indie rock act Snail Mail are just a smattering of talent it’ll host this summer.

“The beauty of a venue like the Granada is that the style of music can vary depending on the night,” owner Logan says.

“We’ve stayed relevant by booking a little of everything the last 16 years.”

The Granada also has forged a unique presence downtown by hosting music outside its walls, staging its annual “Live on Mass” concert series. This summer, the venue will host three concerts on an outdoor stage on Mass Street and have another outdoor show planned in August featuring the band The Urge.

“Touring acts love to come to Lawrence,” says music promoter Becker, who’s booked a lot of them during the years.

“They can park the tour bus and walk anywhere, and get anything they want downtown. It provides a great stage for people to see and experience great live bands.”

It might be brand-name acts that draw more popular attention to venues downtown, but it’s the local shows and nurturing local talent that is the backbone of the Lawrence music scene. Liberty Hall and the Granada also host a lot of local shows and talent showcases.

The Bottleneck has been hosting open mic nights complete with a backing house band every Monday for years. Mike Dye, general manager and talent buyer, says it’s “probably 50-50 between local and national touring acts.” In March, the venue hosted a local music showcase as a fund-raiser for a local sexual trauma abuse center and raked in $1,300 for the cause.

“The music scene in Lawrence is a big, tight community,” Dye says. “We do pretty well here; it’s been pretty steady attendancewise. And when we do have a national touring act in here, we try to put on a local band for support any chance we get.

68

Left to right Bands performing at The Bottleneck and the Replay Photos by Nick Spacek

“For local bands, it’s hard to make money, but it really doesn’t matter because we all support each other,” he continues.

The Replay Lounge—simply “the Replay” to locals who know and love it—is one of the longest-running and most venerable local music venues in town, with live music running late into most nights of the week (along with more recently added matinees on Fridays and Sundays).

“The live music scene was one of the main reasons I moved here from Iola,” says Chris Maddox, who works at the Replay. To me, this is the best venue in town. You can come here most nights of the week and see three bands for three bucks.”

Maddox, who also plays in a local rock band called Bloom, says another great selling point of the Replay is the diversity. On any given night, a rock band can be playing the 149-capacity front room while a DJ plays on the patio, which can hold upwards of 280, out back.

Rick McNeely has made a living owning the Jazzhaus since 1982 despite jazz typically courting a more narrow fan base than other types of popular music. He’s had some of the all-time greats play his stage—Stan Getz, Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Mose Allison, Eddie Harris and Phil Woods, among many others. But he freely admits he’s kept his venue operating by branching out musically and generating additional income by renting out the space for private parties.

The Jazzhaus also has enjoyed great success with karaoke nights on Mondays and weekly Thursday night drag shows.

“I used to be open 12 hours a day, seven days a week,” McNeely says. “We’re dealing with a generation of young people who are used to getting their music for free. That makes it harder to get people to pay for music.”

He’s probably lost about $150,000 on jazz over the years, he continues.

“But I’ve had a great time,” McNeely says. “After so many years, the Jazzhaus has really become a mainstay on the local scene. As long as I can get up and down the stairs, we’ll keep going.”

SUPERVISED • TRAINED RELIABLE PROFESSIONALS WEEKLY • BIWEEKLY • ONETIME Eco Friendly Cleaners • Move-In/Outs • Carpet Cleaning • Spring/Fall Cleaning • Floors

buckinghampalacehousecleaning.com

We Give Your Home A Royal Cleaning

1st Place

Cleaning/Maid Services

Cleaning For Your Health Since 1984 939 Iowa • Lawrence • 785.842.6264

Top to Bottom The Bottleneck, Liberty Hall, The Granada, The Replay

69

Aaron Combs

Isaac Combs • • • • •

• • • •

Agility, Speed, and Power Training Injury Prevention / Pre Habilitation 1 on 1, Couples, Small Group Training Athletic Strength Development

By Appt Only

ART (Active Release techniques) MYK (Myokinesthetics) Sports Massage & Bodywork Cupping

4910 Wakarusa Ct, suite A • Lawrence KS 66047 • (785) 766-0763

70

An Artist’s Perspective Sean Hunt knows the Lawrence music scene from every perspective. He’s a well-known local hip hop artist, operating under the pseudonym “Approach” since 1999. Over time, he’s become involved in audio engineering and producing other acts, and currently owns and operates Datura Records, which licenses artists to release new material. He also works at the Replay.

Hunt has seen all sides of the music business and the local scene, with all its peaks and valleys, ebbs and flows. It’s an interesting time in the industry, he says. More recently, artists have been using machines to flesh out music by themselves, bringing about the term “bedroom project.” But he thinks that trend might be playing itself out, and a rebirth of organic band projects is on the horizon.

Top to Bottom Sean Hunt, hip hop artist mixing tracks in his studio Liberty Hall, photo Nick Spacek Band performing at The Granada , photo by Todd Zimmer

“Computers are so common in peoples’ homes, I think that’s just what people reach for first,” he says. “It’s practicality. But I believe the venues are everybody’s melting pot. The Replay, four nights a week, at least two bands are going to be playing. The Bottleneck open mics. On a bigger level, the Granada and Liberty Hall. Lucia, Brothers, Tap Room, you’re going to have DJs three to four nights a week.

“Peoples’ attention spans are more spread out today,” he continues. “Everything you need is at the touch of a button on a phone. Music might not play as much a role as it once did, but it’s still important.

Artists are pushing themselves all the time to be better and better, and I think as they get better, more and more people are going to want to come out and see it and hear it.

“Like a cockroach, music will always find a way to regenerate and rise up,” he says.

Becker says the live music scene in Lawrence will always have the welcome mat out.

“Local people doing the best they can locally,” he says. “That’s the mantra we live by.” p 71

THE CHAMBER SAND TRAP GOLF CLASSIC

photos by Carter Gaskins, Gaskins Photography

THE LOCAL

[SCENE]

BUDWEISER CLYDESDALES VISIT DOWNTOWN

LIED CENTER SCHEDULE 2019-2020 ANNOUNCEMENT

ART IN THE PARK

VAN GO CULINARY HEARTS

photos by Mariah Seifert

THE LOCAL

[SCENE]

74

VISITING NURSES CASINO NIGHT FUNDRAISER photos by Michael Brock and Mike Yoder

MIDWEST SPORTS PERFORMANCE CONFERENCE

75

NEWS [MAKERS] Dr. Bilal Farhat, M.D. Joins Lawrence Eye Care Associates Dr. Farhat will be joining Drs. Brown, Mulhern and Lange at Lawrence Eye Care Associates in September 2019. He received his Bachelor of Science in biology from The University of Tulsa. He obtained his Doctor of Medicine degree from The University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City and his internship in Internal Medicine at the KU Wichita campus. He completed his residency in Ophthalmology at New York Medical College at JHMC in Queens, NY followed by a sub-specialty fellowship in Cornea, External Disease, and Refractive Surgery at Albany Medical Center, NY. He specializes in cataract surgery, cornea transplantation (including DMEK, DSAEK, PKP), refractive surgery (including LASIK and PRK), other cornea and external disease, and comprehensive eye care. He and his wife, Anna, are originally from Kansas and excited to return to the state with their new baby daughter, Mariam.

Lawrence Schools Foundation Community Education Breakfast We are excited to announce our 2019 Community Education Breakfast Speaker - Brian Frederick, Lawrence High School (Kansas) Class of 1993.

Brian Frederick has served as Executive Vice President of Communications for the ALS Association since March 2015.

During the 2014 ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Brian consulted with the association on crisis and strategic communications.

Brian has also served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Sports Industry Management program.

Brian is the son of the late Bob Frederick, former University of Kansas Athletic Director.

This high-proďŹ le event will be held to kick off the 2019-2020 school year and will be held on Friday, September 20, 2019 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Lawrence.

76

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE Sunflower Bank’s Program Gives to Schools & Students in Lawrence We are pleased to announce that Sunflower Bank is giving $2,422 to schools and students in Lawrence through our ABC Program. We are thrilled with the commitment of the Lawrence community to participating in the program. This amount is part of $83,046 in total grants being given out across our footprint this year. Since 2001, the ABC Program has donated over $1.3 million and we are already planning to bring the program back in 2020 for a 19th year. (Photo of Liam Novotni, a student at Prairie Park Elementary with the check that was presented to his school. The school will be using the money for new playground equipment.)

Genstler Eye Center Invests in Laser for Cataract Surgery Patients The LenSx femtosecond laser brings an elevated level of safety and accuracy to cataract surgery. Genstler Eye Center has invested in this cataract laser technology to expand the options available for its patients. This is the preferred treatment choice for cataract patients with low levels of astigmatism.

The LenSx laser is designed to provide more precision to the refractive cataract process. The laser uses 3-D image guided technology that maps the patient’s eye. The laser then uses a computerguided image to perform precise incisions that would normally be made with a surgical knife.

“I am pleased to provide this technology to our patients,” said Arla Genstler, MD. “This is a great option for individuals with lower amounts of astigmatism who want their best vision without glasses.”

WHOSE DESK ?

Be the first to correctly guess which local business figure works behind this desk. Winner receives a $50 gift card to 23rd Street Brewery. facebook.com/lawrencebusinessmagazine

78

80