FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Actor, playwright and University of Arkansas alumnus Laurence Luckinbill returns to campus this week as a McIlroy Family Visiting Professor in Performing and Visual Arts. During his stay Luckinbill will bring two historic personalities to life on stage.

On Friday, June 22, he will present Clarence Darrow Tonight!, about the celebrated attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union who fought for civil rights, decent working conditions and the abolition of the death penalty. The performance is at 7:30 p.m. in the University Theatre and will be followed by a talk back with Luckinbill.

He will also do a reading of Teddy Tonight!, one of his favorite and most famous works, based on the life and adventures of President Theodore Roosevelt. The performance is at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 23, at the University Theatre. It will be followed by a reception including remarks and presentation of the McIlroy Professor medallion by Fulbright College Dean Robin Roberts.

Additionally, a question-and-answer session has been scheduled for Saturday, June 23, at 10 a.m. in Room 104 of Mullins Library. This event will focus on his experiences with Star Trek. Luckinbill played Sybok, Spock’s half brother, in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. He will discuss the film and his experience as well as answer questions. There is no formal performance, and the event is free and open to the public.

Luckinbill was born in Fort Smith. He graduated from the department of drama in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences in 1955 and earned a master of fine arts in playwriting from the Catholic University of America in 1958. He was a Tony nominee for The Shadow Box and a recipient of the New York Critics Circle Award for The Memory Box.

Luckinbill works extensively as an actor, writer and director for the stage and screen. His humorous, complex and heartfelt one-man scripts examine the lives of iconic men whose challenges and struggles are as relevant today as when they lived. A graduate of the department of drama, Luckinbill currently tours the world in his award-winning solo performances portraying Lyndon Johnson, Clarence Darrow, Theodore Roosevelt and Ernest Hemingway. He has been writing and acting in such performances portraying great Americans for almost two decades. 

Each performance is $5. Free tickets are available for University of Arkansas students with a valid university ID. Tickets are available at the University Theatre box office. For ticket information, please call 479-575-4752, email acohea@uark.edu or visit the box office, open weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center.

Free parking is available in the Stadium Drive Parking Facility, where parking is free after 5 p.m. Entrance to the parking facility is on Stadium Drive, and the facility’s elevator will take patrons to Level 4, which is street level directly across from the Fine Arts Building.

Luckinbill is the fourth in a series of guest scholars brought to campus this year as McIlroy Family Professors in Performing and Visual Arts endowment. Other McIlroy Professors include Tony Award-nominated writer and director Moisés Kaufman, master of stage combat Bret Yount and casting director Elizabeth Barnes.