Laugh for the Cure

You can walk against AIDS. You can run against AIDS. Tonight, thanks to Actors & Artists Against AIDS, you can sit down and laugh against the Scourge That Ronald Reagan Dared Not Name. To benefit the April 24 AIDS Walk Kansas City, Ron Megee, Missy Koonce, Jessica Dressler and a bevy of this town’s most concerned and committed theatrical pros have banded together to mount Pride & Joy and Other Plays, a collection of comic one-acts by Paul Rudnick, the sharp-witted writer of Jeffrey and I Hate Hamlet. Director Jeff Church has a well-deserved reputation for nurturing talent and nursing unlikely projects. In this case, Church and company have wrangled rehearsal space from his theater, the Coterie, as well as scenery from the Kansas City Rep, and student help from UMKC’s graduate theater department — all for a show on the Unicorn’s Jerome stage. That means production costs won’t swallow the money raised. For all the show’s top-flight performers and Rudnick’s memorable one-liners, the real star is something larger: the theatrical community itself, unified in spirit and purpose. Still, expect laughs. The show premieres at 8 p.m. at the Unicorn Theatre (3828 Main) and runs through Sunday, April 18. Tickets cost $20; call 816-235-6222 or see actorsagainstaids.com.

Thu., April 1, 8 p.m.; Fri., April 2, 8 p.m.; Sat., April 3, 8 p.m.; Sun., April 4, 3 p.m.; Thu., April 8, 8 p.m.; Fri., April 9, 8 p.m.; Sat., April 10, 8 p.m.; Sun., April 11, 3 p.m.; Thu., April 15, 8 p.m.; Fri., April 16, 8 p.m.; Sat., April 17, 8 p.m.; Sun., April 18, 3 p.m., 2010