Kauffman Performing Arts Center - Kansas City, MO by Michael Fultz

9/16/2011 - Saturday afternoon
Nikon D90, 595 images, 17 rows, 35 columns

After 16 years of fits and starts, the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts opened Friday night with a royal flourish.

To be sure, there were captains of industry, political leaders and Kansas City society mavens in abundance at the black-tie gala that inaugurated the center.

But they were trumped by a true-blue royal — England’s Prince Charles, a well-known benefactor of the arts — who had the honor of speaking the first official words from the stage of the Muriel Kauffman Theatre, by video.

Some in the audience of about 1,800 people giggled when the prince appeared on a large screen that descended over the stage. But they applauded when he pronounced that “the performing arts are thriving in Kansas City as they never have before.”

The applause was stronger yet when he mentioned the undisputed woman of the hour: Julia Irene Kauffman.