New Professors of Theatre, History Partner for Staged Reading at 21C Museum-Hotel

Design by Gustav Carlson

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – John Walch, the new head of the M.F.A. program in playwriting, and Ren Pepitone, a new assistant professor of history, will join the artistic team of Craving Gravy, a staged reading of a play by Walch to be presented by ArkansasStaged at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 2, at 21C Museum-Hotel in Bentonville. The artistic team also includes Shawn Irish, assistant professor of theatre, who will design projections and lights for the performance, and Shana Gold, another recent transplant to Northwest Arkansas with an extensive directing career in New York and around the country. Gold and Walch are a married couple who have had a long relationship with TheatreSquared and Northwest Arkansas.

Craving Gravy is a post-apocalyptic dark comedy that tells the tale of two wanderers, Gilroy and Delroy, as they journey through a blighted Eden after the great "gorge," searching for scraps and fighting for survival. The play "pays homage to Samuel Beckett's sparsity and humor, Red Skelton's hobo clowns, …[and explores] what it means to be human when all bindings of civilization have snapped" (Austin American-Statesman). The play was the winner of the Austin Critic's Table Award for Outstanding Original Script.

"I have an interest in creation mythology," said Walch, who finds himself drawn to mythical and epic themes, "and I'm interested in where people believe they've come from and how that influences who they are. I am interested in those things that are essential to people in terms of their identity and how they react when those things are snatched away from them."

Pepitone plays "The Charmer," a mythical mischief-maker who silently toys with the two main characters.

The audience will travel through the museum as part of the experience. A majority of the reading will take place in the ballroom. Afterward, the audience will be invited to join the actors, director, playwright and designer for a meet and greet in The Hive Lounge and Bar at the museum.

The three faculty members in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences are collaborating with other ensemble members of ArkansasStaged, a collective of theatre artists working to bring contemporary and experimental theatre to life in unique spaces in Northwest Arkansas, for the reading at the museum. Jonny Schremmer as Gilroy and Justin Scheuer as Delroy round out the cast. The play is stage managed by Celeste Richard, a recent graduate from the U of A Department of Theatre, and the company is lead by artistic director Laura Shatkus, a recent graduate of the M.F.A. program in acting.

Tickets are free, with a suggested donation of $3. Reservations are not necessary. For complete information, visit www.facebook.com/ArkansasStaged. 

PERFORMANCE
Sunday, Oct. 2, at 7:00 p.m.
Run time: approximately 90 minutes

WHERE
21c Museum Hotel, 200 NE A Street, Bentonville, AR 72712

TICKETS
Free with a suggested donation of $3.