Patience or Bunthorne High!

Every high school had that kid. Doc Martens. A manifesto stapled to his locker. A devoted following of girls who'd reorganized their entire social lives around his angst. And the football team that couldn't figure out why being popular suddenly counted for nothing.

Gilbert & Sullivan wrote all of it in 1881. Opera Kansas is finally giving it the gymnasium it always deserved.

Patience or Bunthorne High! transplants Gilbert & Sullivan's beloved satire into Bunthorne High — a 1990s Beverly Hills high school — where Baldwin, the school's resident tortured poet, has the senior girls completely under his spell. When Archie, an effortlessly genuine new student, arrives and threatens Baldwin's hold on the crowd, the comedy of posturing, longing, and self-invention that Gilbert perfected snaps into something that feels like it was written yesterday.

Directed by Jesse Koza and produced and adapted by Zeffin Hollis and Opera Kansas, Patience runs three performances in June 2026 at two intimate Wichita venues.

Opera Kansas has staged unconventional opera in non-traditional spaces for 40 years. This is not your grandmother's night at the opera.
Performances:
Friday, June 26, 2026 · 7:00 PM — Carl G. Brewer Community Center Gymnasium, 1329 E 16th St N
Saturday, June 27, 2026 · 7:00 PM — Hillside Christian Church, 8330 E Douglas Ave
Sunday, June 28, 2026 · 2:00 PM — Carl G. Brewer Community Center Gymnasium, 1329 E 16th St N