Woody Guthrie Experience Traveling to the Faulkner Performing Arts Center

Photo Courtesy of Randy Noojin

Randy Noojin as Woody Guthrie.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Playwright, actor and musician Randy Noojin will bring his one man multimedia show, Hard Travelin’ with Woody, to the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center at 8:15 p.m. Saturday, May 5.

Alisha Jones, a University of Arkansas alumna, songwriter and vocalist, will open for Noojin, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Noojin debuted his tribute to Woody Guthrie at FringeNYC in 2011. The award- winning show is filled with Guthrie’s songs, stories and artwork, seeking to capture the iconic folksinger’s life during the tumultuous period of the Depression, World War II and the Cold War.

Noojin has since gone on the road, like Guthrie himself, bringing Hard Travelin’ with Woody to audiences across the country.

Tickets are on sale now for Hard Travelin’ with Woody. To get your ticket, visit faulkner.uark.edu or call the Box Office at 479-575-5387. You may also visit the Box Office, open Monday to Friday from 1:30-5 p.m.

Noojin will also hold a songwriting workshop at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 6, at the Fayetteville Public Library. Seating is limited for this event so registration is required. For more information and to register, visit their website at www.faylib.org or call 479-856-7000.

Tickets are on sale now for ‘Hard Travelin’ with Woody’.  General Admission -$20. Students/Faculty/Staff/Seniors - $10. To get yours, visit faulkner.uark.edu or call the Box Office at 479-575-5387.  You may also visit the Box Office, open Monday – Friday from 1:30 - 5 p.m

About the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center: The newest performing arts center at the University of Arkansas — a renovation of the old Field House — is named the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center, in honor of the couple’s major gift to the project. Completed in September 2017, this world-class performance venue is 39,400 square feet, with seating for 587, and a stage that can accommodate as many as 250 performers. The center is the main performance venue for the university’s J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences Department of Music and hosts guest musical activities for the university and Northwest Arkansas community. 

About Randy Noojin:  Randy Noojin’s plays, “The Complaint”, “The Kinfe Trick”, “You Can’t Trust the Male”, “Unbeatable Harold”, and “The Memory Collection” (NEA Grant for Musical Theatre) have been commissioned and produced at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre, Bloomington Playwrights Project, Circle Rep Lab, as well as nationwide and internationally; they are published by Dramatic Publishing Company.  Randy holds an M.F.A. from The University of Iowa’s Playwrights Workshop.  The feature film based on his play “Unbeatable Harold” premiered on Showtime in 2011, starring Dylan McDermott, Charles Durning and Henry Winkler.  His one-man show “Hard Travelin’ With Woody” was originally produced at FringeNYC, 2011. Randy has acted in hundreds of plays regionally and in New York at Circle Repertory, La Mama E.T.C., Circle-in-the-Square, Circle Rep Lab, and The Drilling Company.  Film: Die Barkley, The Bench; Television: Boardwalk Empire, Royal Pains.

About Alisha Jones:  Alisha Jones is a recent graduate from the University of Arkansas. Since she was six years old, Jones wanted to work in the music industry. Now, she is pursuing her career as a songwriter. Jones has been singing professionally for 15 years. Gathering inspiration from Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, Jones is a powerhouse singer with a jazzy tint to her voice. During her college life, Jones has performed with the Inspirational Chorale, University of Arkansas Schola Cantorum, and the Inspire Soul Jazz Band. Along with jazz music, Jones has also trained in classical music.