Rising Tide Productions is a theatre company based out of Kansas City, MO. Formerly known as Different Choices, RTP is dedicated to finding fresh perspective and new ideas and interpretations and bringing them out through this wonderful medium of theatre. RTP is run by two passionate theatre artists, Casey Jane and Bob Linebarger. Adding another passionate theatre artist to the mix, Denver Liitle, this production company has produced four productions so far: “The Bottom of Everything”, an original play written by Denver Little, in 2012, “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea” in 2014, usually presented as a heavy drama, but interpreted more as a romantic dark comedy under the direction of Bob Linebarger, “Matt and Ben” a play co-produced, directed and acted by Bob and Denver and “Silly Animals: A Comedy of the Human Drama” an original play written by Denver and directed by Bob that resembled an episode of Planet Earth and presented the question of what has happened as a result of humans separating ourselves from the rest of the animal kingdom.

Our first production as RTP is a new play called “Elephant”. We started this project with an urge to raise money for Lora McDonald, the executive director of MORE2, a local KC social justice non-profit organization that works to fight systemic racism through awareness but also at the ballot box. We met with Lora and an up-and-coming KC playwright Lewis Morrow and talked about how this play could be representing this wonderful non-profit. Out of this, Lewis came up with the concept and story of Elephant, based on a real-life incident in his life. Elephant is a story about a black man being approached by his white female boss with an offensive request – to wear a chicken suit as part of a presentation to impress the company’s CEO. The play dives into a discussion about microaggression in the workplace and uplifts the perspective of black and hispanic individuals. We believe that the world needs to start truly listening to and sharing the perspective of the oppressed and move towards the empathetic and diverse people that we all can be. It is a long shot, but we believe it is projects like these (and especially non-profits like MORE2) that help push us forward.