KCK playwright has two plays running in KC area

Nathan Louis Jackson (Photo courtesy of UMKC)
Nathan Louis Jackson (Photo courtesy of UMKC)

Nathan Louis Jackson, a Kansas City, Kan., native, currently has two plays running in the Kansas City area.

Jackson is one of five writers of “Freedom Rider,” being presented May 1-10 at the Spencer Theatre, Olson Performing Arts Center, on the University of Missouri at Kansas City campus in Kansas City, Mo. A preview of this play will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 1.

“Freedom Rider” was the idea of Ricardo Khan, playwright and director, who recruited playwrights Murray Horwitz, Kathleen McGhee-Anderson, Nathan Jackson and Nikkole Salter, to work on the play.

The play is about four college students who faced violence during a 1961 bus trip to support civil rights.

Previews for “Freedom Rider” are May 1 to 6 with opening night at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 7. Tickets for the May 1 and 2 shows are $10 each.

For more information about tickets for “Freedom Rider,” call 816-235-6222 or visit www.umkc.edu/finadmin/cto/events/umkc-theatre.asp.

Jackson also has written “Sticky Traps,” showing at the Copaken Stage, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Kansas City, Mo.

A playwright in residence at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Jackson has written “Sticky Traps” for mature audiences. The play is about a mother who tries to preserve her homosexual son’s honor at his funeral, which is being protested by a church.

Jackson’s other well-known plays have included “Broke-ology” and “When I Come to Die.”

For more information about “Sticky Traps,” visit www.kcrep.org/shows/2014-2015/sticky-traps/.