Toccarro Cash and Cassandra Schwanke perform in "Quindaro" at Union Station.

Quindaro - Kansas' Atlantis

By: Teresa Sheffield

Posted: 2/11/08

Quindaro is not the name of a Chipotle knock-off or Nacho Libre's new sidekick; it's the name of a lost city in Kansas, and a new play that is showing at Union Station Feb. 13-24.

The play is a brand new work written by Kathleen McGhee-Anderson which previewed Saturday, Feb. 9.

Quindaro, Kan., formed near Lawrence, Kan., existed from 1855-56 in a part of the country where slavery was rampant and just another way to get rich. Here, slavery was illegal and every man was treated equally no matter the color of his skin.

Quindaro quickly began to prosper, with a high population and successful ports and mills.

"It had such momentum, and it just came from nowhere, this inexplicable wave that overtook the people that built this town," McGhee-Anderson said. "Beyond anyone's wildest expectations, it grew."

The play takes us on the journey of Quindaro, showing the massive successes and failures of both the city and its people as they try to build the first free city in the Midwest.

Overall, the cast was really good. Some of my favorite actors were Toccarra Cash (Mercy), Samuel T. Gaines (Mingo) and Angela Cristantello (Clarina).

"I felt really good about the performance tonight," Cash said. "I felt like everybody was connected, and that we moved the story forward to a very spiritual place that I think the play is supposed to go."

Heading the cast was Bill Cobbs, an actor who has worked with Ben Stiller and Laurence Fishburne, and appeared in movies such as "The Bodyguard" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer."

It was obvious McGhee-Anderson was passionate about Quindaro, both as a play and a city.

"It's just not a story about Kansas and Missouri, it's also a story about a nation, the United States and what it was going through, what we were all going through as a nation during that time," McGhee-Anderson said. "It's happening still … it's time to bring the nation together in unity, and that's what the spirit of Quindaro is about."

Unity was a major theme of this play. "Quindaro" means bound sticks, which are stronger than single sticks. The image of bound sticks was infused throughout the story.

The play is thick with historical information.

"I wrote it in about eight months. I spent maybe the first three months researching it, and then the last five months writing it," McGhee-Anderson said.

She wrote the play from the end to the beginning because there was just so much information, McGhee-Anderson said.

Because it takes a lot of information to put the story into context, at times the story seems to falter a bit as historical information is related to the audience.

It is also sometimes difficult to follow because of all the plots and subplots that aren't always totally resolved and sometimes come out of nowhere.

Despite any problems with it, I recommend this play because of the passion with which it was written and acted. This story of a revolutionary city really should be in history books.

To buy tickets for Quindaro visit http://tickets.cto.umkc.edu/ or call (816) 235-6222.

tsheffield@unews.com