fayettevillearts.org

Tickets are still available for MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS!
 
 
A smart, fast-paced comedy running through Sept. 21st at Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios, with performances on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m   and Sundays at 2 p.m.
 
Tickets are $22 ($18 for seniors, $10 for students) and are available at the TheatreSquared box office at 479-445-6333 or on-line at:
www.theatresquared.org.
 
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Moonlight and Magnolias tells the fascinating and funny backstage story about the making of Gone with the Wind, the blockbuster of all blockbusters. Hollywood producer David O. Selznick, the outsized ego behind the making of the film, shut down production, fired his screenwriter and director, and hired legendary screenwriter Ben Hecht and director Victor Fleming, locking them in his office for a week to rewrite the film while subsisting on bananas and peanuts!
That much is known. Unknown is what actually went on behind closed doors, and Moonlight and Magnolias imagines just that. The result is a fast-paced, often hilarious peek at the creative, frantic underside of show biz.  This show is custom made for people who love writing, understand the pressure of deadlines or love Gone With the Wind!
 
THE ARTISTIC TEAM
TheatreSquared has assembled a creative team of local professionals and visiting artists, led by director Amy Herzberg. 

Bryce Kemph (David O. Selznick)is a graduate of the MFA acting program at the University of Arkansas where favorite roles included Sweeny Todd in Sweeny Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet, and the Baker in Into the Woods.  Bryce currently lives in Astoria Queens.  He was recently featured in The New to New York Actors Showcase at the Producers Club and was seen last season in TheatreSquared’s production of Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol. 

Justin Scheuer (Victor Fleming), who holds an MFA in Acting from UofA was last seen in T2’s My Father’s War.  He recently moved back to Fayetteville after living in California where he worked and taught in L.A. and the San Francisco Bay Area.   Some of his many stage credits include Orsino in Twelfth Night and Orlando in As You Like It.  Justin is the head of the drama department at Bentonville High School and will be appearing in T2’s production of Fully Committed this April which will be part of Walton Arts Center’s Night Out Series. 
 
Kevin Cohea (Ben Hecht) A graduate of the University of Arkansas’ MFA Playwriting Program, Kevin’s plays include 2A.M., Strays, The Love Molecules, Scoop, Ho!Ho!Ho!, and the screenplays The Grimoire, 30 Minutes or Less, The Last Days of Winthorpe Vance, and an adaptation of the novel Towing Jehovah. He has appeared in numerous productions for University Theatre and Not a Penny Productions. He currently teaches English at Main Street Academy. This
is his first Theatre Squared production.
 
Virginia Scheuer (Miss Poppenghul)holds her MFA in acting from
the University of Arkansas, and just recently moved back to Fayetteville from California where she has worked professionally doing theatre and documentary work in L.A. and the San Francisco Bay Area.   Her favorite credits include
Titania and Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Celia in As You Like It, Amanda in Private Lives and Hermione in The Winter’s Tale 

Amy Herzberg (Director)is Associate Artistic Director of TheatreSquared.  Amy Joined the University of Arkansas’ drama faculty in 1989, following a four-year stint as a company member of the San Diego Repertory Theatre.  She has acted and directed professionally throughout the country and has directed dozens of productions for the University Theatre and Boars Head Players at the University of Arkansas, including Assassins, Cabaret andI Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.  Herzberg is the Head of Performance in the UA Drama Department, where she helped start the MFA Acting program.  Her teaching has been recognized by the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival, which awarded her a National Acting Teacher Fellowship in 2003.  Amy holds an MFA in Acting from California Institute of the Arts.

Robert Ford (Assistant Director)serves as Artistic Director of TheatreSquared and Director of the Arkansas Playwrights Workshop. A winner of the prestigious Stanley Drama Award, Ford’s plays have appeared in New York’s Abingdon Theatre, thePennsylvania Stage Company, St. Petersburg’s American Stage, and many othertheatres. His full-length play The Fall of the House is slated for the 2008/9 season at Alabama Shakespeare Festival.  Ford’s well-received first novel, The Student Conductor(G. P. Putnam’s Sons), won both the Jesse H. Jones Award for Fiction and the Steven Turner Award for Best First Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters, among other distinctions. Ford is also writer-in-residence at the Fayetteville Public Library, where he helped create the FPL Writers Center under a grant from the Arkansas Arts Council. A member of Actor’s Equity, Ford has directed and acted both regionally and in New York. He holds a M.Mus. degree from Yale, an MFA in acting from Rutgers, and an MFA in playwriting and screenwriting from the University of Texas at Austin. Ford is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

Shawn Irish (Scenic Design)For T2, Shawn has designed The Mystery of Irma Vep, Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, Noodle Doodle Box andMy Father’s War. Shawn’s favorite designs include The Elephant Man, Cabaret and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His Lighting Design for Big Love was featured in Theatre Design and Technology and American Theatre magazines and The Prague Quadrennial Exhibit in 2007. Shawn holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Arkansas and currently serves as Assistant Professor and Lighting Designer at West Texas A&M.  http://www.shawnirish.com/

D. Andrew Gibbs (Lighting Design) is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Drama, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where he has taught since 1978.  He serves as director of the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Lighting program and teaches courses in lighting design and technology, theatre architecture, theatre and stage management and scene design. Andy holds a Ph.D. in Theatre from the University of Illinois, an MA in Drama/Design from the University of Washington and a BFA in Theatre from the University of Connecticut.  He is a past National Design Chair for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festivall and has active memberships in the U.S. Institute for Theatre Technology and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.

Shauna Colclasure Meador (Costume Design)is a resident of Conway and teaches costume design in the Theatre Department at the University of Central Arkansas.  She has designed at UCA, Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre and Purdue University and has also worked at the Texas Shakespeare Festival and the Illinois Shakespeare Festival.

Richard Rew (Sound Design)is celebrating his 32nd year in the entertainment business this year, having started in 1976.  From 1992, when it first opened, to 2006, he was a member of the Walton Arts Center technical crew, the last ten years as the Technical Manager.  In 2007, he became one of the masterminds behind The Event Production Group.  Richard has designed sound for several T2 productions including Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol and My Father’s War

Steve Wilhelm (Technical Director)has a working background in technical theatre with emphasis in lighting design.  He has learned tricks of the trade from a number of talented professionals during his 16 year career.  Steve has lived in Fayetteville since 2002 and is a member of Event Production Group, which has had many opportunites working with area Performing Arts Centers, Civic Groups and Businesses coordinating special events, concerts and galas.

Ashley Butler (Stage Manager) is starting her second year as seasonal stage manager with Theatre Squared. She previously served as the stage manager for T2’s 2007-2008 season.  Ashley has a B.A. in Drama from the University of Arkansas and has also worked with Northwest Arkansas Dance Coalition and Sager Creek Arts Center.

Carley Tisdale (Intern/Props Mistress)is a senior at Bentonville High School. This is her first production with TheatreSquared, where she currently serves as a 2008/2009 season intern and member of the young company. In the coming years Carley plans to pursue a career in directing and stage management.

Presented by Regional Technology Strategies
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
9:00 am – 11:00 am
Compton Gardens
Downtown Bentonville
312 N. Main Street

As a key stakeholder in Arkansas’ economic future, Regional Technology Strategies (RTS) would like to invite you to be among the first to hear and respond to a three-year study of Arkansas’ creative economy.  Sarah Butzen of RTS will be presenting the findings and next step policy recommendations on Creativity in the Natural State.

Starting in 2005, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation has been sponsoring the detailed study of Arkansas’  most critical creative industries and activities.  RTS has found, among other exciting results, that the creative sector is the third largest industry in the state, creating thousands of jobs and contributing millions of dollars to the region’s economy.

We hope you’ll be at Compton Gardens in Downtown Bentonville on September 10th from 9:00 am – 11:00 am to offer your feedback on the findings and recommended next steps.  RTS’ recommendations will be delivered to the state legislature, so this is your opportunity to influence the recommended policies on strengthening Arkansas’ Creative Economy.

Please RSVP to Daniel Hintz at Daniel@downtownbentonville.org.  You can read RTS’ previous reports on Arkansas’ creative economy at rtsinc.org/publications/index.html.

BY KEVIN KINDER Northwest Arkansas Times

It started as a marketing ploy.

But the Walton Art Center’s Young Professionals Arts Society has become something more, said Justin DeLille, the center’s corporate relations officer.

As he and the 20-member steering committee for the new group began looking for ways to attract young clientele to the art center’s slate of Broadway Series shows, the group learned there was a unfulfilled need.

“Our members have a place were they can network in a business environment,” DeLille said.

The idea for the new Arts Society has been something the WAC has contemplated for some time, said DeLille. After he was hired at the art center just more than a year ago, DeLille, a young professional himself, decided to take on the project.

He first met with a group of young professionals assembled from companies that DeLille works most closely with: WAC sponsors such as Sam’s Club, Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark and more.

During the March meeting, the group determined there was a market for the program. But that market, admittedly, is tough to define, DeLille said. In general, it includes people who are between 25-40, with or without kids.

“It’s very broad. … We’re not trying to be exclusive at all,” he said.

Ellie Miller, a steering committee member for the new group, said she hopes the organization will allow her to expand her networking opportunities outside of Procter & Gamble, where she serves as an account executive.

“For me, personally, it’s to expand my networking, and to help serve the community. But from a broader perspective, it’s helping the WAC gain awareness,” she said.

She also believes the area is attracting arts-conscious young professionals, and she sees many such people come to the area through corporate jobs, such as those at her company.

“I think especially when you consider the whole Northwest Arkansas corridor, the young professional demographic is growing,” she said.

There isn’t a formal enrollment process for the new group, explains DeLille. VIP members are made so by purchasing a season ticket to the Tuesday night productions of the WAC’s Broadway Series shows, which this season are “Monty Python’s SPAMALOT,” “Wizard of Oz,” “Cirque Eloize — Nebbia,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “RAIN: A Tribute to the Beatles” and a choice between “Avenue Q,” “Tango Fire” or “Comedy of Errors.” Packages for the six-show block begin at $130. VIP members are then given free admission to all arts society functions and exclusive seats near other Young Professional Arts Society members.

“You sit by those you met at the party,” DeLille said.

The “party” that DeLille mentions will be the primary networking opportunity for the young professional involved with the group. Before each of the center’s Tuesday-night Broadway shows, members will mingle and share complimentary hors d’oeuvres and drinks.

Other similar meet-andgreets will take place at events where a high turnout from a young demographic is expected, such as at the WAC’s opening show, “Second City: DeFace the Nation,” which took place Friday. Between 100 and 150 people were expected to attend the inaugural YPAS event, a social gathering with the cast of the Second City, a comedy troupe from Chicago.

VIP members of the new group were admitted free, other ticket holders were asked to pay $5.

Because the group is new, much of its future plans are unknown, DeLille said. But he knows that the group will continue to have pre- or postshow parties. As the group gains experience, it may begin fundraising for the arts center, but it is too soon to tell what form such an endeavor would take, he said.

Until then, charter members such as Miller said they are excited about the opportunities the group is giving people now by having fun and helping the arts center in the process.

“I think we have a unique need, a unique opportunity, to work with the young community,” she said. “And as we bring in new people to the area, they look for ways to get involved.”

Publication:Northwest Arkansas Times;  Date:Sep 7, 2008

BY KATE WARD Northwest Arkansas Times

! The former YouthCAN! and the Community Imagination Studio celebrate one year in Fayetteville

YouthCAN! has changed its name to YouCAN!

The announcement came during the group’s one-year anniversary celebration at the Community Imagination Studio’s new location in Fayetteville on Saturday.

“Our new mission statement is that ‘We are a community organization that provides empowering opportunities for all,’” Barbara Price Davis, executive director, said. “It’s a very small change, but we think it better communicates who we are.”

Located about two blocks off Wedington Drive on Sang Avenue, the Community Imagination Studio is a division of YouthCAN! that focuses on art education for the community.

While the group’s logo will remain unchanged, Price Davis said programs offered by the Community Imagination Studio will be geared toward the entire community.

“We’re just expanding more into adult classes,” she said. “We do family programs. Our programs encompass a variety of fine arts media and instruction with the ultimate goal of fanning sparks of creative self-expression, exchanging perspectives, discovering new talents and building a relationship with the community.”

The celebration Saturday recognized volunteers for their service to the organization and featured numerous festivities, including a cake walk and cake decorating contest. Let’s Bring them Home — a national missing persons advocacy nonprofit organization — offered free photos and fingerprinting as part of its Safe Kids Total Identification system funded in part through the Wal-Mart Foundation. The Northwest Arkansas Tobacco Free Coalition also hosted an educational “Candy Shop” booth for kids and parents

“This is just our way of saying ‘Thank you’ to Fayetteville for welcoming us with such open arms and making us a part of the family,” Price Davis said.

Previously located in a retail shopping center in Springdale, the Community Imagination Studio’s new facility offers 6,000 square feet of space. The new location features a larger art space and has room for individual offices, a storage area and yard space.

“It’s been fabulous for us,” Price Davis said. “The space is more welcoming, and the neighborhood gives it a family-friendly vibe. The majority of our clients come from Fayetteville anyway so we can increase our clientele and participate in more community activities.”

For more information or a list of programs offered by Community Imagination Studio, visit the Web site www.communityimaginationstudio.org or call 442-8586.

Publication:Northwest Arkansas Times;  Date:Sep 7, 2008

BY MARSHA L. MELNICHAK Northwest Arkansas Times

The possibility of Fayetteville High School using the Walton Arts Center space for performing arts is just one option being considered as the school district looks ahead to a new high school at the present site.

“It’s just one of the things. We’re trying to think creatively,” said district spokesman Alan Wilbourn, who gave an update of the high school possibilities in a blog entry Thursday.

Among his focus points were an emphasis on performing arts centers for all kinds of student productions and new and adequate space for choir and band.

In a letter to Fayetteville Superintendent Bobby New and University of Arkansas Chancellor David Gearhart, Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody offered suggestions that he hoped could lead to partnerships.

One of the suggestions in that letter was sharing use of the 1,200-seat Baum Walker Hall at the arts center to avoid having to build a performing arts hall for the school district.

“I’m wondering if there’s a way they (the school district) can partner with Baum Walker Hall, not necessarily that stage, partner with the Walton Arts Center to where they can not have to build a performing arts hall but use the one that already exists,” Coody said Friday. “I just think that’s an option that should be looked into.”

Terr i Trotter, inter im president of the Walton Arts Center, said the possibility of sharing space with the school in the near term would be challenging but that she saw possibilities in the concept of that sharing.

“We’re pretty full,” Trotter said. “That would be challenging in the near term, but conceptually and for the long haul, absolutely. I think there’s plenty of opportunity.”

She said the concept has been discussed between representatives of the school district and the arts center as part of the Walton Arts Center feasibility study.

“It’s definitely a concept we have been stirring around,” Trotter said.

She said the arts center has been looking at the need in the community for spaces.

“That’s the issue that we’re addressing with the feasibility study. We have more people interested in using the space than we have space available,” Trotter said.

Wilbourn said the district wants to consider all possibilities.

“ We know we need a much larger space,” he said.

Wilbourn said the auditorium at the high school will only seat 360, which severely limits use by all of the fine arts programs.

The only place right now that the Fayetteville High School band can meet all in one place is outside on the football field, Wilbourn said. There is no room at the high school big enough for the band to practice together.

“To have a facility the size of Baum Walker Hall would be fantastic,” he said.

Like Coody, he sees that using the arts center space could mean not having to build something similar on the limited space of the current high school site.

“Nothing is off limits to consider how we can make this a 21st-century high school, right here on this site.”

Publication:Northwest Arkansas Times;  Date:Sep 7, 2008

BY DUSTIN TRACY Northwest Arkansas Times

Within three weeks a site selection team could make an announcement about the future home of the Northwest Arkansas Science Museum.

Brent Robinson, acting executive director for the museum foundation, said that the selection committee carefully reviewed around 15 possible sites in Benton and Washington counties and narrowed it down to five finalists.

“We’ve zeroed in on a couple of those sites,” Robinson said.

The selection process started shortly after the May 16 request for proposal deadline. Robinson said the committee spent the past three months checking the sites and picking them out based on the qualifications laid out in the foundations request for proposals.

The whole idea for the museum was driven by the late John Lewis, former president of the Northwest Arkansas Museum Foundation. Lewis said he wanted to create a world-class science center that would inspire children in the sciences, enable adults to navigate the 21st century, and See SITE, page A7 do it all through the lens of the Ozarks, the people, the culture and the innovations. In 2004, Lewis started working toward getting a science museum in Northwest Arkansas.

The museum foundation’s Web site claims the museum will include traveling exhibits, learning and research centers, Web programs, themed galleries and learning pods for young children and toddlers to enjoy their first experience with science.

It said visitors will be immersed in cutting-edge scientific discovery through live science forums and citizen science projects. Delta Exhibits, or exhibits designed to evolve over time, will entice visitors to be active participants in the scientific community, working with real scientists and research students in countless fields to perform real and meaningful experiments. The people, cultures, history and innovations of the Ozarks will be an integral component of the museum.

Robinson said the selection committee hopes to streamline a few things before it announces the future home of the museum. He said a Web site for the actual museum would hopefully be set up on the day of the announcement so people wishing to know more about the location could visit the site and have some of their questions answered.

“It’s kind of a day-by-day thing,” Robinson said.

Publication:Northwest Arkansas Times;  Date:Sep 6, 2008

Beginning Illustrator
Four Saturdays, 8 hours, September 6, 13, 20, 27 / 10 am–noon / $225
Taught by Sonia Davis Gutiérrez
To sign up, reply to this email or give us a call!

Diggiti Fayetteville Arts Festival 2008
Want to check out the digital graffiti created by participants of all ages at the Fayetteville Arts Festival visual arts weekend?
Visit our Flickr gallery to see all the pieces
www.flickr.com/photos/30199617@N04/
Thanks to the many volunteers that made a fun interactive exhibit possible!

Draw Your Favorite Animal Digitally
Taught by Mike Davis Gutiérrez
Saturday, September 13 / 1 pm–3 pm / ages 9 to 12 / $40

Graphic Designers Speak: Graphic Design Obedience/Disobedience
Featured Graphic Designer: Greg Moore
Saturday, September  20 / 1 pm–2 pm / Free

For descriptions of Makeshops visit:
www.newdesigncenter.org/makeshops.html

For the fall calendar visti:
www.newdesigncenter.org/calendar.html

New Design Center
Empowering you with creativity and technology skills

Among the winners of fellowships from the Arkansas Arts Council are three faculty members in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences: Christopher Lacy, Hank Kaminsky and Bethany Springer.

Lacy, artistic director of the Opera Theater, has been a visiting assistant professor of music since 2000. For the competition, he submitted his work “Quintet for Winds,” which will be premiered by the Lyrique Quintette at 8 p.m. Nov. 5 in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall.
Kaminsky, a sculpture instructor in the art department, was a founding member and first vice president of the Artists of Northwest Arkansas. He also helped organize the Eureka Springs Guild of Artists and the Eureka Brotherhood Cooperative.
Springer, an assistant professor of sculpture, has held positions as an independent contractor restoring houses and as the assistant to the senior producer of the PBS station in New York. She moved from New York City to the south about four years ago. Her work reflects her engagement with place and how it can be established, reinforced and lost.
The Arkansas Arts Council awards the $4,000 fellowships in recognition of artistic ability by artists who have created substantial bodies of work and have demonstrated a lifelong commitment to their art. They and the other winning artists will be recognized in a ceremony during the Governor’s Arts Awards luncheon on Tuesday, Oct. 21, during the ArtLinks 2008 conference at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.

I am recently having my MFA thesis exhibition in painting up at the University of Arkansas Fine Arts center gallery and will have my opening on the night of 28th August from 5-8 pm. the show will be up from 25 th August till 5th September. My thesis exhibition “VEILED PRESENCE” includes 23 large panel paintings (30″x40″, 36″x48″ and 40″x53″) with the focus on the religious society and women’s life and freedom in Iran.  I attached some of the photos from the show and my artist statement.

I was born and grew up in Iran and came here to get my Master in Fine Arts and will graduate in Dec with my MFA in Painting and Graphic Design (web-design). Since the very first semester of my studies here I have been granted an Assistantship and for the past 3 years I have been instructing as a 2D design instructor at U of A. Recently I have been granted the OMNI Center for peace scholarship for the fall semester.

The Fulbright College department of music will feature guest artists, The Cleveland Duo and James Umble in concert on Wednesday evening, Sept. 17 at 8:00 p.m. in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall.  The ensemble will perform a work by University of Arkansas composer Robert Mueller, as well as works by Handel, Higdon, Ravel, and Bartok.  Read more…