Theatre's ArkType New Works Festival Kicks Off Feb. 26

Poster designs: Ash Micheel

Arktype New Works Festival Featuring 'Book of Esther,' 'Earning' and 'End of the Day'

The Department of Theatre in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences presents the ArkType New Works Festival, featuring readings of three new plays from Feb. 26 to March 6, 2022, at the Nadine Baum Studio Theatre.

All readings are free and open to the public, but tickets are required and can be reserved online. Celebrate new works, new worlds and new theatrical archetypes being created at the U of A.

This year's festival includes readings of new plays in process by M.F.A. playwrights Adrienne Dawes and Sarah Loucks, as well as a reading of the Kernodle Award winning play by visiting playwright Gina Stevensen.

John Walch, head of the M.F.A. program in playwriting, says, "the architectonics of a play can only be fully experienced when it's off the page and on the stage in front of an audience. This process is thrilling, because it's the first time the worlds these writers have created are being visited." The Department of Theatre welcomes all new visitors on this adventure.

ArkType Line Up

Saturday, Feb. 26, at 3 p.m.
Book of Esther by Gina Stevensen
Directed by Michael Landman

Within the confines of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, a new generation of women is pushing the boundaries. Esther grew up in a loving and religious family, but she is 17 now and can feel a larger world outside her own. When Esther decides to enter a local poetry contest, she finds herself asking surprisingly large questions and begins looking for answers everywhere: from her parents, from the hipster barista she secretly befriends, even from her namesake, the mythical Queen Esther. Will her questioning take her too far to come home?

Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 26-27, at 7:30 p.m.
Earning by Sarah Loucks
Directed by Lacy Post

What happens after a tornado destroys your family's farmhouse built in the 1800's?  Is it possible to rebuild after such loss? Or does it open the possibility to earn a chance to rebuild a new type of home built on the foundation of community and family?

Saturday and Sunday, March 5-6, at 7:30 p.m.
End of the Day by Adrienne Dawes
Directed by Huan Bui

Tud, Myleigh and Lancelot are perhaps the only surviving contestants of a British reality dating show broadcast during a massive extinction event. Isolated from the outside world, they dance between denial and acceptance, searching for love and meaning in a pointless, absurd existence.

All readings will be at the Nadine Baum Studio Theatre (505 W. Spring St.), and plays contain adult subject matter. To maintain updated COVID-19 safety protocols, the performers will not be masked, but masks will be required for all audience members.

Ticket reservations can be made online at uark.universitytickets.com.