Listening Post

Sunday night brought together more than 500 people to celebrate HBHA’s 42nd Civic Service Award Dinner. Irene Bettinger (left) 2014 CSA honoree, and Michael Abrams (right), 2015 dinner co-chair, presented the 2015 CSA award to the Marion and Henry Bloch Family Foundation. The award was accepted by Henry Bloch (center). In its effort to make Kansas City a top-tier city, the Foundation has — for the last several years — generously supported HBHA, which it views as the cornerstone of a strong Jewish community.

HORROR MOVIE HAS KC CONNECTIONS — We found out too late last week to inform you that the movie “It follows” opened in theaters here last week. It was written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, the grandson of Sunie and Lee Levin. “It Follows” debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014 to critical praise and was widely released March 27. It is still playing through today, Thursday, April 2, for sure. Interested theater-goers will have to check their local listings to see if it’s still on local screens through next week. Here’s the synopsis of the R-rated movie:

 

“For 19-year-old Jay, fall should be about school, boys and weekends out at the lake. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}But after a seemingly innocent sexual encounter, she finds herself plagued by strange visions and the inescapable sense that someone, or something, is following her. Faced with this burden, Jay and her teenage friends must find a way to escape the horrors that seem to be only a few steps behind. 

Barbara Warady, a member of the Jewish community and president of Kansas Alliance for the Arts in Education, met with Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran last week to discuss arts related issues including the status of arts education in Kansas and their efforts to enable Kansas educators to integrate the arts into teaching across all subjects. Shown are Moran (from left), Morgan Beuchat (center), a member of the Kansas Thespian Hall of Fame and Warady in Moran’s Washington, D.C., office.

‘THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO’ — Chronicle reader Maury Kohn recommends those who enjoy live theater get tickets to see “The Last Night of Ballyhoo,” scheduled to open April 16 and continue through May 3 at the Metropolitan Ensemble Theater. It’s an English comedy by Alfred Uhry that first premiered in 1996 and won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1997. Here’s the description:

“It is December 1939. Gone with the Wind is having its world premiere, and Hitler is invading Poland, but Atlanta’s elitist German Jews are much more concerned with who is going to Ballyhoo, the social event of the season. Especially concerned is the Freitag family: bachelor Adolph and his widowed sisters, Boo and Reba. The family gets pulled apart and then mended together with plenty of comedy, romance and revelations along the way. Events take several unexpected turns as the characters face where they come from and are forced to deal with who they really are. For more information, visit metkc.org.{/mprestriction}