Kansans Kan! FAQ Page

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions about the original Stage Play
Questions about the Video Documentary

Stage Play:

Q: How did the play come about?

A: Around 1995, Monica Flynn, the Executive Director of Wichita Children's Theatre asked playwright, Kevin M Reese, if he was interested in writing a Kansas history show to tour the state as part of the WCT professional touring company's season. Though he had written 30 shows for WCT's theatre, he quickly declined. Fast-forwarding through 10 years of slowly wearing him down, in a moment of weakness he finally agreed to write such a show. Not having grown up in Kansas, Kevin had to buckle down and learn Kansas history from scratch. After 18 months of research and writing, the show toured the state of Kansas during the 2006-2007 school year. Click HERE for more info.

Video Documentary:

Q: How did the video documentary come about?

A: I was attending a workshop on Documentary Storytelling at UCLA during the Spring of 2007. I had always thought it would be a neat thing to create a video documentary of the metamorphosis of one of my scripts: idea to script to rehearsal to touring. It's not a process many people are familiar with. During a lunch break with the workshop leader and some other attendees, I was describing my KS history play. They commented that it was an "obvious" documentary. The research is done, the timing of the materials is done-- I just needed to get the rights to the photos and shoot the re-enactments and voice-over narrations. I came home and looked the script over. They were right! I assembled a core staff, got the funding (thanks to an "out of nowhere" inheritance from Mrs. G!) and began adapting the play into a video documentary DVD.

Q: What's unique about your documentary?

A: Kansans Kan is a survey of Kansas' history for all ages, all levels of Kansas history knowledge. In 50 minutes, the viewer will see the whole history of the state of Kansas. They will see the famous and important people and events that shaped the state's history. Younger viewers will recognize and retain different things than viewers who already have a grasp of Kansas history, but there are enough facts and figures-- and fun trivia-- to challenge even hard-core Kansas history buffs. The documentary will not only show new and familiar people and events, perhaps more importantly, it will provide perspective-- how all the people and events influenced each other.

Q: Who is the target audience?

A: We will market the DVD to school classrooms and to libraries-- both school and historical. There are around 1,200 schools in Kansas (approx 20,000 classrooms). In addition, there are about 2,500 public libraries and around 500 KS historical libraries and museums. We feel the value of a DVD that surveys the whole history of KS in under an hour would be very valuable to these organizations in particular. Add to that the many history buffs who would like to have a personal copy, we're convinced that our product will be well received.