About ARTS, Inc. & Karen Hastings Players

ARTS, Inc. is a 501(c)-(3) charitable nonprofit formed in 2005 to supersede our original nonprofit entity AppleTree Productions, Inc., which was an educational theater company founded in 1993 by Karen Hastings and Beverly Gunderman. Appletree addressed problem solving for social and cultural issues by creating original dramatic material facilitated with and for client audiences. Using Cognitive Field Theory techniques, our work was endorsed by Drs. Walter Menninger and Harriet Lerner, both leading psychotherapists.

The names ARTS, Inc. and Karen Hastings (our ARTS, Inc. founder, writer, director, producer, and actor) are synonymous with theater throughout the region. Our acting company ensemble, Karen Hastings Players, has performed throughout Kansas, Missouri, Texas, and New Mexico. 

We helped initiate the international Telly and domestic Emmy award-winning Theater of the Mind at KTWU Television (PBS) by producing and directing radio-theater productions presented in a television format. ARTS, Inc and Karen Hastings Players won a first place PBS state directing award for Hound of the Baskervilles, a first place PBS regional directing award for Dracula, and a first place international PBS Telly directing award for Dracula. These radio-theater dramas were written by playwright Philip Grecian. Dracula and Frankenstein also were simulcast through Cumulus radio. Now rebroadcast nationally, these radio theater productions are used in schools throughout the country to reinforce literature education. 

In addition, our production of Lemonade finished in first place at both state and regional competitions of the American Association of Community Theatre where it won Best Ensemble and Best Actress (Karen Hastings) and advanced to the AACTFest finals where we placed 2nd in the nation for Best Actress. Lemonade was a two-woman show featuring Karen Hastings and Carole Reis. Karen is a two-time Renna Hunter Award winner and also has been inducted into the Topeka Civic Theater Hall of Fame. 

As the heir to Dale Easton’s The Drunkard, ARTS, Inc. and Karen Hastings Players are well-known in Kansas for reviving the genres of Melodrama and Vaudeville through original plays and for producing Dale Easton’s The Drunkard, the longest-running play in Topeka history. The 2021 season (marking our 914thperformance) sold out every show with audiences comprised of half returning and half new patrons. 

The scope of ARTS, Inc. work includes the following: 

· We work for preservation of historic theater genres. 

· We present skill–development workshops and other opportunities for the theater community that include presentation of new and existing works.

· We offer theater-skills workshops through public engagement opportunities.

· We present train-the-trainer mentoring programs which provides qualified instructors for our education programs.

· We produce small-cast plays.

· We offer platforms for area theater participants to showcase and celebrate their talents.

· We continue to use theater to help solve problems through discovery and inclusive collaboration.

5th of   July

84 Charring Cross

A Holocaust Commemoration

Blood Countess

Bluegrass & Apple Jam

Bluegrass & Mistletoe

Candide

Coming Out/Coming Home

Dale Easton’s The Drunkard

Doubt

Dracula

Driving Miss Daisy

Frankenstein

Hound of the Baskervilles

It’s a Wonderful Life

Lemonade

Lilith

Murder in the Cathedral

‘Night   Mother

Night Must Fall

Rhapsody in Ragtime

Shirley Valentine

Star Spangled Christmas!

The Belle of Amherst

The Blood Countess

The Mail Order Bride

The Miller’s Men/The Olde Mill

Toby Saves the Farm

Twisted Tales of Poe