Let’s go!

Friday, April 14, 7 PM

Taylor Performing Arts Center, Missouri Southern State University

General admission seating, free to the public.

The community is invited to the next day’s event: Percy Wenrich, “The Joplin Kid,” Tribute to Ragtime.

This evening performance will be in two acts.

Act One is a tribute to the music of Percy Wenrich and will highlight some of his most famous songs, including Moonlight Bay, When You Wore a Tulip, Red Rose Rag, Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet and many more.

The music of fellow Missouri ragtimers Scott Joplin, James Scott, Eddie Kuhn and “Ragtime Bob” Darch will also be honored.

Steve Spracklen and Robin Braun will respectively portray Percy and his wife, Dolly Connolly, in song and vaudevillian schtick in the fashion the famous couple was known for in the early 1900s.

Act Two highlights the many Percy Wenrich songs composed in four-part harmony and a perfect fit for barbershop quartets. Two international champion quartets, Quorum and Duly Noted will perform a selection of songs, concluding with a celebration chorus comprised of local and regional barber shoppers, plus an additional large community chorus along with audience participation in a patriotic finale.

About the performers:

Steve Spracklen was nicknamed Joplin Kid II, a bestowed honor by the ragtime community, as Percy Wenrich was known as The Joplin Kid. Spracklen took the role of Percy Wenrich at the Joplin 95th birthday celebration in 1968 and was featured at the 1973 Joplin Centennial program honoring Joplin’s native son Percy Wenrich.

For decades, Spracklen toured the United States and Canada and was selected in 1979 by the Delta Queen Steamboat Company to play on the new steamboat, the Mississippi Queen. Forty years later, Spracklen continues entertaining audiences on the storied steamboat navigating the Big Muddy.

A resident of Monett, Missouri, Robin Braun earned her bachelor’s degree in vocal performance at Graceland College and her master’s degree in vocal performance from the University of Illinois, Urbana/ Champaign.

Braun has been active as a vocal artist with Ozark Festival Orchestra and is the lead singer in her four-piece band Robin’s Hood, which has played throughout Southwest Missouri since its inception six years ago.

Also featured in the concert are the Heartland Concert Band, banjoist Clarke Buehling and ragtime pianists Bill Rowland and Susan Cordell.

Let’s go!

SATURDAY, April 15, 7 PM

Taylor Performing Arts Center, MSSU

Limited reserve seating is available for $15, and general admission seating is free.

The Celebrations Commission wishes to thank Joplin’s Stanley Family for sponsoring this event. The family is a descendant of Eddie Kuhn, another significant Missouri songwriter/musician of the ragtime era. The Celebrations Commission will continue the party with a focus on films with a Joplin connection starting April 13 and running through July at various Joplin venues.

The film festival will start with the 1967 movie, “Bonnie and Clyde,” that showcases the 1933 Joplin shootout on this 90th anniversary of the tragic events where two Joplin lawmen lost their lives. Academy Award winners Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway star in this groundbreaking film as a glamorous couple of Depression-era bank robbers, Bonnie and Clyde. When Bonnie Parker (Dunaway) catches Clyde Barrow (Beatty) stealing her mother’s car, it is love at first sight and the two begin a nationwide crime spree. As young gangsters in love, who attack the wealthy establishment and live by their own rules, Bonnie and Clyde capture the attention of an entire country and, for a short time, manage to elude law enforcement.

The film will be shown outdoors at Landreth Park with lawn chair and blanket seating. Food trucks will be at the park at 7 p.m., and the show will begin at 8:30 p.m.

Other films in the Joplin Goes to the Movies series include:

April 20: “Saboteur,” made in 1942 and featuring Joplin native Bob Cummings.

May 11: “Captain Salvation,” made in 1927 and featuring Joplin native Pauline Stark.

May 25: “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” made in 1954 with a background story shared by Carol Parker.

June 8: The 1971 film “Duel,” featuring Joplin native Dennis Weaver.

June 22: “On Moonlight Bay,” the 1951 classic featuring the music of Joplin native Percy Wenrich.

July 13: “The Hitch-Hiker,” made in 1953, telling the tragic story of the Mosser family at the villainous hands of Billy Cook.

July 27: The 1949 film “Alimony,” featuring Joplin native John Beal.

More details about these film events will come as the dates get closer. And to learn more about all the other Celebrations Commission events throughout 2023, visit CelebrateJoplin.com and Facebook/ CelebrateJoplin.com.