See New Works by University Students, Faculty This Weekend

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An audience member gives comments to the playwright, director and cast during a post-reading talkback.

TheatreSquared's 2013 Arkansas New Play Festival begins Friday, June 14, at the Walton Arts Center's Nadine Baum Studios, located at 505 W. Spring St. in downtown Fayetteville. Several students and faculty in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences department of drama will be part of the three-day event.

The fifth annual festival will feature staged reading performances of four plays by professional playwrights, a showcase of 10-minute plays by Arkansas high school students and Northwest Arkansas's seventh annual 24 Hour Play-Off.

"Four leading playwrights are bringing scripts in raw form to Northwest Arkansas this June," said Robert Ford, visiting assistant professor of drama and director of the master of fine arts playwriting program at the University of Arkansas. "We're thrilled to pair them with TheatreSquared's artists and audience and help shape these bold new works. If you love storytelling and great theatre, this is a weekend you won't want to miss."

Every staged reading features a talkback with the playwright, director and cast of the workshop, giving community members a chance to impact the development of the new work.

The Arkansas New Play Festival performance schedule:

Friday, June 14     6:30 p.m. – Don Chipotle by Juan Francisco Villa ($7)

                              8:30 p.m. – Raw Vision by Les Wade ($7)

Saturday, June 15 2 p.m. – Arkansas Young Playwrights Showcase (free)

                              6:30 p.m. – If I Did This by E.M Lewis ($7)

                              8:30 p.m. – Swimming with Van Gogh by Susan Felder ($7)

Sunday, June 16    6:30 p.m. – The 24 Hour Play-Off ($10) 

Don Chipotle shines a bright light at social hypocrisies and the adventurous spirit of youth. Two 11-year-old boys — a hero and his sidekick — set out on an quixotic quest through the streets of the Lower East Side to locate the missing Twin Towers. A raw, comic fable that draws on the Columbian-American experience in NewYork. The cast and crew are comprised entirely of University of Arkansas students, faculty and alumni. Visiting instructor and alumna Morgan Hicks directs and alumna Emily Bohannan serves as stage manager. Students Emily Thomlinson, Missy Maramara, Debbie Baños and Laura Shatkus and alumni Justin Cunningham, Jason Suel and Asa Tims serve as readers.

In Raw Vision, an original work by U of A drama professor Les Wade, an African-American brother and sister, both 30-something, live a ramshackle existence well off the grid in southern Louisiana. She is the brilliant, if deeply conflicted, caretaker of her artist brother, whose paintings have recently begun to turn up on the New Orleans art scene. When an outside interloper — who can't seem to keep his story straight — insinuates himself into their close-knit world, all three lives are changed forever. A gorgeously poetic drama, Raw Vision will remind many of the Oscar-nominated film, Beasts of the Southern Wild, in its heartfelt portrayal of a stubbornly offbeat way of life. Student Rachel Washington stage-manages, and alumni Justin Cunningham and Kris Stoker serve as two of the three readers.

The University of Arkansas Brown Chair in English Literacy and TheatreSquared have partnered for the fourth year of the Arkansas Young Playwrights Showcase. Students from across Arkansas were invited to submit scripts, and six were selected for public readings at the festival. The Brown Chair is held by David Jolliffe, professor of English.

In If I Did This, a brainy, edge-of-your-seat thriller about a ghost writer, an acquitted murder suspect who is his subject and the literary editor who may (or may not) be his best friend in the world. A brilliantly theatrical jigsaw puzzle, this play goes to the heart of the question, "What is truth?"— or maybe, "Whose 'truth' is really true?" Part film noir, part theatrical tease, If I Did This will toy with your perceptions and touch your heart. Drama student Garth Moritz serves as stage manager and alumni Bryce Kemph and John Smith are among the five readers.

Set in a lighthouse just off the coast of Lake Superior, Swimming with Van Gogh tells the story of a middle-aged painter who stumbles into sudden prominence, only to come face-to-face with her own worse doubts — not to  mention an old flame, a mid-career artist who knows just how to keep her off-balance. When an adoring young art student invades her lighthouse retreat, the chemistry becomes overpowering. This play takes a profound look at the possibility, and impossibility, of originality and renewal as an artist. The five-person cast includes students Emily Tomlinson and Mason Azbill and professor Amy Herzberg. Alumna Emily Bohannan is stage manager and student Brittany Taylor served as literary assistant.

TheatreSquared is partnering with Fayetteville-based Ceramic Cow Productions to present the Northwest Arkansas 24 Hour Play-Off, a perennial favorite for artists and audiences alike. Teams of five artists will write, rehearse, and perform a new 10-minute play, all within the space of 24 hours, in competition for a grand prize sponsored by local businesses. 

Tickets are $7 for the staged readings, and $10 for The 24 Hour Play-Off. New Play Passes are $30 for all festival events or $40 for festival events plus the University Theatre's Month of New Works. New Play Passes and tickets are available through the Walton Arts Center Box Office at (479) 443-5600 or online at theatre2.org.

For more information on the University Theatre's Month of New Works, please email drama@uark.edu.