Our Mission
"The Progress Plays," 2019. Diane Hightower, Nicole Hall, Sebastian Smith, Curtis Smith, Grace Suh, Mark Mattison, Sarah Aptilon, Bob Linebarger, Rebecca Munoz, Mackenzie Goodwin, Casey Jane, Margaret Shelby, Judy Graves, Ann Spivak, Taryn Eby, & Ace Lovelace. Photo credit unknown.
Rising Tide Productions was founded by local theatre creatives with a shared vision; to lead a production house that creates high quality work with enthusiastic artists in safe and open spaces.
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We are dedicated to giving progressive voices a platform to expand minds and the boundaries of theatre and media. We strive to work with the best, and to be a profound contributor to a community where art is sought and attainable by all.
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We seek to showcase rising talent in Kansas City, and want to help fill a gap to provide more work for our city's passionate, dedicated artists. We are small but mighty, and don't have a traditional season structure or location. We create work as it comes.
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We aim to represent top-tier community leadership, based in integrity and accountability. Artists are our top priority, and we will always work to ensure their comfort, safety, and pride when working with Rising Tide.
Rising Tide Productions was founded in 2018 by Casey Jane and Bob Linebarger, two passionate KC theatre artists whose experience lay mostly in the acting realm. They wanted to fundamentally impact the culture of Kansas City theatre, helping to set a precedent along with a new wave of KC theatre independent companies seeking to uplift strong new leaders who deeply promoted integrity, onstage and off.
Our initial goal was to provoke the deep wells of empathy within audiences, and bring intensely thought-provoking, issue-driven work to the stage. We decided to team with local nonprofit organizations to theme our seasons around raising awareness and funds for specific issues near and dear to our hearts.
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In 2018, we partnered with MORE2 (More Squared) to commission our premiere production, Elephant, written by Lewis Morrow, presented at The Living Room theatre. We wanted to tell a story about racial divides in our daily lives, and Elephant offered a riveting office drama about microaggression and white privilege.
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We then teamed with the Women's Foundation, and kicked off our first full season with a fundraising staged reading of the movie Bridesmaids. Next, we produced a short play festival called The Progress Plays, featuring short plays written and performed by local artists.
For the 2019 KC Fringe Festival, we premiered Christie Kennard's The Summer House, a historical drama about the wives of Jesse and Frank James, outlaws of the Wild West. The Summer House was one of the most highly attended shows of the Festival, and even drew the viewership of Betty Barr, Jesse's great granddaughter.
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In Winter 2020, we debuted our all female cast parody adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew, commissioning the talents of Natalie Liccardello to adapt what might be Shakespeare's most sexist well-known work. The show premiered at The Living Room theatre, in one of the last local shows to close before the COVID pandemic shut theatre productions down entirely.
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Adapting to the strains of the pandemic, we produced a YouTube video called La Depression du Kansas City in Winter 2021 with 6 local actresses/writers in self-filmed, intimate, dryly comedic slices-of-life that reflected the experience of isolation. In Spring 2021, we produced Faring Through the Ages for the KC Virtual Fringe Festival, a Millennial dramedy play written by Emmeline McCabe for the stage, adapted to film and directed by Casey Jane.
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Our little company has evolved a lot in our short history. In 2022, we changed leadership and shifted our mission. Katelyn Baron jumped onboard to help Casey steer the company in a new direction, and together they developed a slate of exciting projects to work in harmony with KC's thriving arts community.
2025 brings us to a hiatus, after a busy 2024. We hope you'll support our mission, join in on our endeavors, and always keep us accountable as community leaders.
Our Story
"The Northeast Pole," 2022. Katelyn Baron & Casey Jane.
"The Summer House" cast with Betty Barr, 2019 . Stefanie Stevens, Emmy Panzica, Betty Barr, Sam Wright, Marek Burns, Margaret Shelby, & Casey Jane.
Our Team
Contact us if you're interested in joining our team!
We're always seeking to expand with guidance from diverse voices and passionate community members!
Casey (she/her) is a dynamic artist, having pursued an acting career in Kansas City since 2013. Much of her drive in the arts seeks to reflect the power of creativity and risk-taking, to live as a role model who thrives in a job she loves, and to create profound and often comedic work that resonates with audiences. Through Rising Tide, she has expanded her lens as a performer, learned massively helpful editing skills, and gained new bounds as a director, marketer, writer, and leader. She hopes to always reflect integrity and multifaceted leadership in her collaborations with friends and community members. You can see her individual website at bit.ly/caseyjanekc
Casey Jane
Founding Artistic Director
Current Board Members:
Christie Kennard
Seth Jones
Christopher Steinauer