Thirty Stories

Newberry Award-winning author Louis Sachar leveraged his experiences working as a teacher's aide at an elementary school into a series of books about the fictitious Wayside School, in which all of the classrooms are stacked vertically into a 30-story building (which doesn't have a 19th floor). As part of its Family Series, the Coterie Theater (2450 Grand, 816-474-6552) stages Sideways Stories From the Wayside School, a play based on the series with Nancy Marcy as Miss Jewls and Ron Megee in the role of school psychiatrist Dr. Pickle. It's directed by Missy Koonce, another former Late Show Theater mainstay and longtime Kansas City theater scenemaker. The curtain rises today at 10 a.m., 12 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets cost $9 for kids and $14 for adults. The show runs through May 18.
April 8-May 18, 2008