June 26–28, 2026  /  3 performances  /  Fully staged opera  /  Ages 13 & up

PATIENCE or Bunthorne High!
It's 1995. The jocks are confused. The drama teacher plays cello. And every girl in school is inexplicably in love with the boy who runs a zine library.

Gilbert & Sullivan's Patience is a razor-sharp comedy about aesthetes, obsession, and the excruciating social calculus of who's cool — and Opera Kansas is setting it in a Beverly Hills high school.

Think Clueless. Think Mean Girls.

At the center: Patience, who learned a definition of love that has no room for her own heart — and Archie, who keeps running into that wall.

A coach who won't admit he's noticed the drama teacher. A drama teacher who is completely elsewhere.

By the end, everyone finds their person. Getting there is the whole point.

It's a comedy about all the ways we talk ourselves out of love — and into a part we were never meant to play.

Performances

Friday, June 26  •  7:00 PM
In the Gymnasium  •  Carl G. Brewer Community Center
1329 E 16th St N, Wichita KS 67214

Saturday, June 27  •  5:00 PM
In the Gymnasium  •  Hillside Christian Church
8330 E Douglas Ave, Wichita KS 67206

Sunday, June 28  •  2:00 PM
In the Gymnasium  •  Carl G. Brewer Community Center
1329 E 16th St N, Wichita KS 67214

Credits

Stage Director: Jesse Koza
Music Director & Conductor: Nicholas Perry Clark
Music & Original Libretto: Gilbert & Sullivan
Adaptation: Zeffin Hollis & Opera Kansas

Opera Kansas performs in spaces where opera doesn't usually live — and we make it feel like it was made exactly for you.

Running time: approximately 2 hours with intermission  •  Performed in English  •  Recommended for ages 13 and up  •  operakansas.org