T2 Announces 2013 Arkansas New Play Festival

TheatreSquared Announces Lineup of Bold New Work THE 2013 ARKANSAS NEW PLAY FESTIVAL June 14-16, 2013 in Northwest Arkansas New Partnership with University Theatre Offers Patrons A Month of New Works in NWA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For Further Information, Contact Martin Miller, Managing Director 479.445.6333,  martin@theatre2.org   View as PDF > Download Festival Photos >

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS— May 20, 2013—TheatreSquared today announced the lineup for the 2013 Arkansas New Play Festival, the theatre’s fifth annual celebration of bold new works for the stage. The festival will feature staged reading performances of four plays by professional playwrights, a showcase of ten-minute plays by Arkansas high school students, and Northwest Arkansas’s seventh annual 24-Hour Play-Off. For the first time, the Arkansas New Play Festival is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Tickets are $7 (staged reading performances), $10 (The 24 Hour Play-Off), or $30 for a New Play Pass including all festival events, and can be reserved by calling the Walton Arts Center Box Office at (479) 443-5600 or online at theatre2.org.  Through a new “Month of New Plays” partnership with the University of Arkansas Department of Drama, New Play Pass buyers may also add admission to six new work performances by UA students for just $10. Performances will take place at Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios (505 W. Spring St., Fayetteville). Each new play reading will be followed by a conversation with the playwright, director and cast. “Four leading playwrights are bringing scripts in raw form to Northwest Arkansas this June,” said T2 Artistic Director Robert Ford. “We’re thrilled to match 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.” Arkansas New Play Festival Performance Schedule: Friday, June 14        6:30pm – Don Chipotle by Juan Francisco Villa ($7) 8:30pm – Raw Vision by Les Wade ($7) Saturday, June 15    2:00pm  – Arkansas Young Playwrights Showcase (Free) 6:30pm – If I Did This by E.M. Lewis ($7) 8:30pm – Swimming with Van Gogh by Susan Felder ($7) Sunday, June 16    6:30pm – The 24 Hour Play-Off  ($10) A lineup of additional new play performances by UA Department of Drama students is available at drama.uark.edu. Professional New Play Lineup: DON CHIPOTLE, by Juan Francisco Villa — Friday, June 14, 6:30pm Two 11-year-old boys—a hero and his sidekick—set out on a 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 New York, this new play shines a bright light on social hypocrisies and the adventurous spirit of youth. RAW VISION, by Les Wade — Friday, June 14, 8:30pm 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. IF I DID THIS, by E.M. Lewis — Saturday, June 15, 6:30pm 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. SWIMMING WITH VAN GOGH, by Susan Felder — Saturday, June 15, 8:30pm 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. Special Performances: ARKANSAS YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS SHOWCASE — Saturday, June 15, 2:00pm In partnership with the University of Arkansas Brown Chair of Literacy, TheatreSquared is proud to present, for the fourth year, the Arkansas Young Playwrights Showcase. Students from across the state have been invited to submit scripts, and six will be selected for public readings at the Arkansas New Play Festival. THE 24-HOUR PLAY-OFF — Sunday, June 16, 6:30pm 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 artists will write, rehearse, and perform a new ten-minute play, all within the space of 24 hours, in competition for a grand prize sponsored by local businesses.  Through a new partnership with the University Theatre at the University of Arkansas, the 2013 Arkansas New Play Festival will be offered together with six additional student performances scheduled throughout June by professional artists-in-training at the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.   A $40 “Month of New Plays” Package will include admission to all TheatreSquared’s Arkansas New Play Festival events and to student performances scheduled at 7:30pm on June 7, 8, 19, 20, 22, 23, 26, and 27. A complete listing of Department of Drama performances offered during the Month of New Plays is available at drama.uark.edu. Featured Playwrights: Juan Francisco Villa (Don Chipotle) is a Colombian-American actor and playwright, and a native of the Lower East Side of New York City. This summer he will appear in the World Premiere of Mojada by Luis Alfaro to be directed by Chay Yew at Victory Gardens. His nationally produced solo play Empanada for a Dream made the Best of 2012 list on the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Reader. He also received a 2012 ITB Patrick Lee Award for Outstanding Solo Performance and was a 2012 NY IT Award Nominee for Solo Performance and Original Full Length Script. Chicago credits: Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf, Rivendell, SALSATION, 16th Street Theater, and Teatro Vista. NYC credits: Rattlestick, Mabou Mines, INTAR, terraNOVA Collective, Rising Circle, Monarch, HERO, Lark, Collaboration Town, BAX, 59E59, and La Mama. Los Angeles credits: Los Angeles Theater Center and Celebration Theater. He is an ensemble member of Teatro Vista in Chicago and InViolet in NYC. He is a member of AEA-SAG/AFTRA and a graduate of Maggie Flanigan’s Meisner Conservatory in NYC. Les Wade (Raw Vision) is an award-winning playwright and scholar of dramatic theory and criticism. His play, Raw Vision, was previously workshopped at Kitchen Dog Theatre's 2006 New Play Festival in Dallas and at 93 Feet East in London. Other plays include Shelter of Last Resort: Gonzo's Blue Dream (New Play Festival—Swine Place Theatre at Louisiana State University) and The purple Bird and the coler Tree (New Plays for the Next Century Festival—Atlanta's Horizon Theatre Company), which received a production by the LSU Department of Theatre. He is currently a faculty member at the University of Arkansas Department of Drama and holds a Ph.D. in Dramatic Art from the University of California at Santa Barbara. E.M. Lewis (If I Did This) wrote the 2009 Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award-winner Song of Extinction, which premiered in Los Angeles (Production of the Year—LA Weekly; Outstanding New Play—Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle) and has since received multiple productions and been published by Dramatics magazine and Samuel French. Other titles include Heads (2008 Primus Prize; Best of 2007—LA Times), Infinite Black Suitcase (available form Samuel French), and Strong Voice. She has developed work at the Ashland New Plays Festival in Oregon, the William Inge Center for the Arts in Kansas, and HotCity Theater's Greenhouse Festival in St. Louis—where her most recent work, Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday, premiered in 2012. She is the recipient of a 2010-11 Hodder Fellowship in playwriting from Princeton University and a 2012 Playwriting Fellowship from the New Jersey Council for the Arts.  New projects underway include The Gun Show, The Stone Languages, and Magellanica: A New and Accurate Map of the World.  Member: Dramatists Guild. Susan Felder (Swimming with Van Gogh) has been a professional actor, director and educator for more than 20 years. Most recently, her play Wasteland received a critically acclaimed world premiere at Chicago's Timeline Theatre Company. Other scripts include Temple Spirit, which was workshopped by The House Theatre of Chicago; and Jumping Mouse, a short play written for Kids in Distress. Selections from her musical Waking Eden were chosen to be performed at the Royal George for Chicago Musical Theatre Works. As a director and actor, she has worked at theaters in Chicago—including Steppenwolf, Goodman, Northlight, Next, Chicago Shakespeare, Court, Remy Bummpo and others—and throughout the country, including at Orlando Shakespeare, Indiana Repertory and Montana Shakespeare. She teaches theatre at Loyola and Northwestern Universities in Chicago.  She holds an MFA from the Academy for Classical Acting at George Washington University and is a member of Actor’s Equity Association. Tickets for The 2013 Arkansas New Play Festival are on sale beginning today at the Walton Arts Center Box Office, and can be reserved by calling (479) 443-5600 or visiting theatre2.org. Staged reading tickets are $7 and 24 Hour Play-Off tickets are $10, with a Play Fest Pass granting access to all TheatreSquared events available for $30 ($15/under 30), and a Month of New Plays Package granting admission to both the Arkansas New Play Festival and seven additional University of Arkansas Department of Drama performances for $40. TheatreSquared's locally produced and nationally acclaimed productions reach 22,000 patrons each year. The company is Northwest Arkansas's only year-round professional theatre, offering a unique audience experience in its intimate 175-seat theatre at Walton Arts Center's Nadine Baum Studios. In 2011, TheatreSquared was recognized by the American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards, as one of the nation's ten most promising emerging theatres. For further information, contact TheatreSquared at 479.445.6333 or visit the theatre's website at theatre2.org. ### The 2013 Arkansas New Play Festival is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Major funding for the TheatreSquared Season 7 is provided by The Walton Family Foundation, Inc., and the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage. Major marketing support for TheatreSquared Season 7 is provided by the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotions Commission. Media sponsors include NWA Media, CitiScapes, Fayetteville Flyer, KUAF and MailCo USA.

Broadway Veterans Lead "Next to Normal"

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BROADWAY VETERANS HEADLINE NEXT TO NORMAL Pulitzer Prize & Tony Award-Winning Musical Takes Stage at T2 April 18–May 12, 2013 at TheatreSquared in Fayetteville NORTHWEST ARKANSAS—April 9, 2013—The Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning musical Next to Normal, TheatreSquared's first Broadway-scale musical, begins April 18 in downtown Fayetteville. Broadway veterans Rita Harvey and Rob Sutton—an Arkansas native—lead an all-star cast of professionals from around the country, directed by T2's own associate artistic director Amy Herzberg. A surprise sensation in its Broadway debut, Next to Normal is the story of a suburban mother fighting to keep her family together, and features a powerful contemporary score. The musical was co-created by book writer and lyricist Brian Yorkey and composer Tom Kitt. Tickets are available at the Walton Arts Center Box Office, by phone at (479) 443-5600or online at theatre2.org. “If you’ve ever driven by a beautiful home with light streaming out of it and wondered what’s going on inside, this may be your play,” said Herzberg. “At its core is a mother, betrayed by her own mind and memory, desperately trying to love and connect with her family. It’s a profoundly human story of struggle and hope, filled with powerful music—and reminds us that we’re all next to normal.” Rita Harvey, whose Broadway credits include Christine in The Phantom of the Opera and Hodel in The Fiddler on the Roof, will lead an all-star cast from across the country that also includes Mountain View, Arkansas native Rob Sutton (Beauty and the Beast—Broadway, Mamma Mia!—Las Vegas).  The cast of national professionals also includes Matt Edmonds, Caroline Kittrell, Sky Madison and Jared Nepute.  Amy Herzberg, director, leads a creative team that includes Jason Burrow (Music Director), Johan Botes (Piano/Conductor), Patrick Bellah (Cello), Andrew Chu (Violin), Daniel Dyer (Guitar), Michael Ferguson (Percussion), Gary Sloan (Bass), Anna Lucia DeDe-Panken (Stage Manager), Emily Bohannan (Assistant Stage Manager), Josh Tillotson (Technical Director), Megan Truscott (Scenic Designer), Ruby Kemph (Costume Designer), Jason Pruzin (Sound Designer), Nathan Scheuer (Lighting Designer), and Ginny Headrick (Properties Designer). In its 2010 Broadway debut, Next to Normal won three Tony Awards — including Best Original Score and Best Orchestration — and followed this success by garnering the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, a rare feat for a musical.  The show won widespread critical acclaim as well, with the New York Times calling it "brave, breathtaking... a feel-everything musical" and The Washington Post declaring it "the future of American Musicals." The play's intimate depiction of a mother's struggles with bipolar disorder, paired with its powerful, contemporary score, were hailed as trailblazing steps for a major Broadway musical.  Tickets for Next to Normal, on stage April 18–May 12, can be reserved by calling (479) 443-5600 or visiting theatre2.org. Performances are scheduled for Thursdays at 7:30, Friday at 7:30, Saturday at 2:00 and 7:30, and Sunday at 2:00 and 7:00. A special performance sponsored by the UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute, followed by a panel discussion with Arkansas experts on bipolar disorder, will take place on May 1.  The Opening Night performance on April 19 will include a champagne toast and catered reception with the cast.  Tickets for the regular run range from $23–$34. TheatreSquared's locally produced and nationally acclaimed productions reach 22,000 patrons each year. The company is Northwest Arkansas's only year-round professional theatre, offering a unique audience experience in its intimate 175-seat theatre at Walton Arts Center's Nadine Baum Studios. In 2011, TheatreSquared was recognized by the American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards, as one of the nation's ten most promising emerging theatres. ### Individual sponsors for Next to Normal include Joel and Lynn Carver, Nick and Carolyn Cole, Susan and Orville Hall, and Margaret and Richard Rutherford. Major funding for TheatreSquared Season 7 is provided by the Walton Family Foundation, Inc. and by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and the National Endowment for the Arts. Media partners include NWA Media, CitiScapes, the Fayetteville Flyer, KUAF, and MailCo USA.

T2 presents "Sons of the Prophet"

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TheatreSquared Presents the Multi-Award-Winning Comedy SONS OF THE PROPHET Playwright Stephen Karam to Visit Northwest Arkansas On stage February 14 through March 3, 2013 FAYETTEVILLE, AR—January 9, 2013—TheatreSquared will open Stephen Karam’s bold, award-winning comedy Sons of the Prophet for a limited run in Northwest Arkansas in its first production since its critically acclaimed New York debut. Winner of multiple awards (including the 2012 Lucille Lortel and New York Drama Critics Circle awards for Best Play) and a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Sons of the Prophet is a contemporary comedy-drama that is "soul-piercing" and “explosively funny” (The New York Times).  New York director Tamara Fisch will lead a cast and creative team of national professionals from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and Northwest Arkansas. Following a preview performance February 14, Sons of the Prophet opens Friday, February 15 and plays through Sunday, March 3 in the 175-seat Studio Theatre at Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios, with performances Thursdays 7:30, Fridays 7:30, Saturdays 7:30, and Sundays 2:00 and 7:00. Tickets start at $22 ($10/under 30) through the Walton Arts Center Box Office at (479) 443-5600 or at theatre2.org. “Sometimes, and only rarely, choosing the new season for TheatreSquared is made easier by the emergence of a simply exceptional play,” said T2 Artistic Director Robert Ford. “Sons of the Prophet is that play. It is universally acclaimed to be one of the smartest, funniest and deeply felt new works that has been written in this decade—and we agree. I’m thrilled that TheatreSquared and Northwest Arkansas will host the play’s first national production since its New York debut.” In Karam’s darkly comic Sons of the Prophet, Joseph, a former track star, struggles to manage a dead-end job, mysterious pain and a family tragedy. The only thing more dysfunctional than his health, it seems, is his nonexistent love life as a gay Lebanese-American in small-town Pennsylvania.  When a reporter gets too close and things get weird with his eccentric boss, Joseph’s wit and worn-out family may be all that’s left to keep him sane. The cast for Sons of the Prophet includes: Kathleen Darcy, Lara Jo Hightower, Shirley Hughes, JP Green, Michael Bradley Cohen, Bill Rogers (Sundown Town), Mason Azbill, and Matt Klingler. The creative team includes Tamara Fisch (director), Anna Lucia DeDe-Panken (stage manager), Josh Tillotson (technical director), Courtney O’Neill (scenic designer) (Sundown Town, Noises Off), Ren LaDassor (costume designer) (It’s a Wonderful Life), Matt Sherwin (sound designer), Andy Smith (lighting designer), Ginny Headrick (properties designer) (Period of Adjustment), and Emily Bohannan (assistant stage manager). Through a continuing partnership between TheatreSquared and Fayetteville Public Library, playwright Stephen Karam will visit Northwest Arkansas and host two free public events in the library’s Walker Community Room on Saturday, February 2. The Pulitzer Prize nominee will lead a playwriting workshop at 10am and, at 3pm, will join the cast of Sons of the Prophet for a T2 Artists’ Forum hosted by Ozarks at Large producer Kyle Kellams. For more information and to sign up for the workshop, visit www.faylib.org. Tickets for Sons of the Prophet are on sale now at the Walton Arts Center Box Office and can be reserved by calling (479) 443-5600 or visiting theatre2.org. Tickets are $22-$34. Opening Night performance includes a champagne toast at intermission and a post-show reception with the cast catered by BHK on the Square. Parents and Grandparents can bring children aged 4-12 to a special “T2 Kids’ Club” performance on Sunday, February 17 at 2pm, where children will take part in separate theatre classes at Nadine Baum Studios during the performance time ($20 per child). Through the “30 under 30” youth access program, thirty $10 tickets are reserved for patrons under the age of thirty at every performance. Group discounts of up to 15% are also available for groups of eight or more. Recommended for ages 13 and up (parental discretion requested) due to adult language and mature situations. TheatreSquared is Northwest Arkansas’s locally produced and nationally acclaimed regional theatre, dedicated to innovative, professional stage work. The theatre is the recipient of the 2011 National Theatre Company Grant from the American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards, recognizing the nation’s ten most promising emerging professional theatres. For further information, contact TheatreSquared at 479.445.6333 or visit the Theatre's website at theatre2.org. ### Major funding for TheatreSquared Season 7 is provided by the Walton Family Foundation, Inc. and by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and the National Endowment for the Arts. Major marketing support for TheatreSquared Season 7 is provided by the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotions Commission. Media sponsors include NWA Media, CitiScapes, KUAF, Mailco USA and the Fayetteville Flyer.

"Period of Adjustment" Opens This Week

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Tennessee Williams's Only Comedy, a "Holiday Gift," PERIOD OF ADJUSTMENT OPENS THIS WEEK Performances December 6 – 30 at TheatreSquared NORTHWEST ARKANSAS— December 3, 2012—TheatreSquared will open Tenneessee Williams' only comedy, set on Christmas Eve and rarely seen since its 1961 premiere, this week in a new production directed by Broadway veteran Sean Patrick Reilly. After a disastrous wedding night, George deposits Isabel at the home of his old army buddy, Ralph—whose own wife has just walked out—and promptly disappears. The unexpectedly warmhearted and poignant drama that follows is vintage Williams, with all the hallmarks that have defined him as one of America's greatest playwrights. Following a preview performance December 6, Period of Adjustment opens Friday, December 7 and plays through Sunday, December 30 in the intimate Studio Theatre at Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios, with performances Thursdays at 7:30, Fridays at 7:30, Saturdays at 7:30 (and 2:00 on Dec. 15 and 23), and Sundays at 2:00 and 7:00. Tickets start at $24 ($10/under 30) at the Walton Arts Center Box Office, and may be purchased at (479) 443-5600 or at theatre2.org. "It's stunning that so few audiences across the country have seen this gem of a work by Tennessee Williams," said T2 Artistic Director Robert Ford. "We're thrilled to help rediscover it. Like every great holiday story, it's a tale of redemption—four people in love trying to find their ways back to each other through a thicket of emotions, expectations and simple human mistakes. You really root for them, and that's why it's lovely that—in this rare case—Williams has written a comedy."  TheatreSquared's new production is directed by Sean Patrick Reilly. Trained at Brown, Harvard, as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Reilly's career as an actor and director spans Broadway, regional stages, television and film. Directing credits include the award-winning current Off Broadway hit Cloud 8; PREY at the New York International Fringe Festival; Tennessee Williams’ Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen (SoHo Rep.); Terry Neal’s Future (HERE Theatre); The Killer Inside Me (Promenade Theatre); In Our Time (Atlantic Theater); Holy Water (Flea) Here We Are Mrs. Parker (La Mama); Pvt. Wars; (Harold Clurman Theatre); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Players Theatre); and A Lie of the Mind (Second Story). He appeared on Broadway in Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts and Martin McDonough’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane. He has also appeared at Atlantic Theater Company, Playwrights Horizons, Signature Theatre, The Public/NYSF, Naked Angels, The Cherry Lane, NYTW, Second Stage, Circle in the Square, La Mama, Circle Rep, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Westport Playhouse, Alley Theatre, Huntington Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Trinity Rep, ART, Dallas Theatre Center, Kennedy Center, Royal Shakespeare Company, Edinburgh Festival, and others. Film and Television: ARGO; A Wife Alone; Fair Game; Howl; Following Bliss; Something Borrowed; Solitary Man; The Sorcerer’s Apprentice; Man of the Century; Jerry Maguire; State and Main; Sleepers; “Blue Bloods”(CBS); “Bored to Death (HBO)”;“Mildred Pierce”(HBO); “Damages ” (FX); “Third Watch” (NBC); “The Black Donnellys”(NBC); and “Law and Order” (NBC). The cast for Period of Adjustment includes: Bryce Kemph (It's a Wonderful Life, Moonlight and Magnolias, Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol); David Mason, Elizabeth France, and Madeleine James. The creative team includes: Sean Patrick Reilly (director); Anna Lucia DeDe-Panken (stage manager); Josh Tillotson (production head); Alan Edward Schwanke (scenic design); Michael J. Riha (lighting design); Latricia Reichman (costume design); Will Eubanks (sound design); Ginny Headrick (properties design); and Emily Bohannan (assistant stage manager).   Though a relative stranger to the American stage for fifty years, Period of Adjustment was a breakout success in its recent London revival. "You must see this play," wrote the critic for the Sunday Times. "It's like a diamond cut with its own stardust." Tickets for Period of Adjustment are on sale now at the Walton Arts Center Box Office, and can be reserved by calling (479) 443-5600 or visiting theatre2.org. Tickets are $22-$34. The Opening Night performance on December 7 includes a champagne toast at intermission and a post-show reception with the cast and creative team catered by BHK on the Square. Through the “30 under 30” youth access program, 30 $10 tickets are reserved for patrons under the age of 30 at every performance. Group discounts of up to 15% are also available for groups of eight or more. Recommended for ages 13 and up due to mild adult language. TheatreSquared's locally produced and nationally acclaimed productions reach 22,000 patrons each year. The company is Northwest Arkansas's only year-round professional theatre, offering a unique audience experience in its intimate 175-seat theatre at Walton Arts Center's Nadine Baum Studios. In 2011, TheatreSquared was recognized by the American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards, as one of the nation's ten most promising emerging theatres. ### Major funding for the TheatreSquared Season 7 is provided by The Walton Family Foundation, Inc., and the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and the National Endowment for the Arts. Major marketing support for TheatreSquared Season 7 is provided by the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotions Commission. Media sponsors include NWA Media, CitiScapes, KUAF, Mailco USA and the Fayetteville Flyer.

TheatreSquared Receives NEA Grant

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THEATRESQUARED AWARDED
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS GRANT
$20,000 Will Support 2013 Arkansas New Play Festival
Highly Selective Grant is Theatre's Second in Three Years

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS— November 28, 2012—National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman, together with TheatreSquared (T2) Artistic Director Robert Ford and Managing Director Martin Miller, announced today that T2 has been selected to receive a $20,000 NEA Art Works Grant to support the theatre’s Arkansas New Play Festival. With performances scheduled for June 13-16, 2013 in both Fayetteville and at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre in Little Rock, the Festival will bring together more than 50 artists from across the nation to develop and perform new plays for the American stage.

“TheatreSquared does significant work,” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman following a recent visit to Fayetteville. “They are incredibly committed to what they’re doing…and successful at it.”  In the grant announcement, Chairman Landesman cited the Arkansas New Play Festival as an “extraordinary example of creativity in our country.”

NEA Art Works grants are highly competitive, with more than 1,500 applicants competing during each funding period. A panel of outside experts convened by NEA staff reviews applications, and each project is judged on its artistic excellence and artistic merit. TheatreSquared previously received NEA funding for its 2011 World Premiere of Sundown Town—both the theatre’s first NEA grant and first application. A complete listing of projects recommended for Art Works grant support is available at the NEA website at arts.gov.

“The Arkansas New Play Festival is our state’s premiere outlet for professional playwrights to workshop and present new plays for an audience,” said T2 Artistic Director Robert Ford. “This funding will allow us to bring in some of the best directors and actors in the country to work alongside Arkansas professionals to create these trailblazing new works. It’s the part we play in ensuring that middle-America playwrights have a voice on the national stage—and I can’t wait to invite Arkansas audiences in to see the result.”

Passes for the Arkansas New Play Festival are on sale now at the Walton Arts Center Box Office, and can be reserved by calling (479) 443-5600 or visiting theatre2.org. All-Access New Play Passes are $30 and include tickets to four staged reading performances and all additional events. The full lineup and performance times for the Festival will be announced in February 2013.

TheatreSquared is Northwest Arkansas’s regional theatre, dedicated to creating exceptional theatrical works and innovative educational outreach. The theatre is the recipient of the 2011 National Theatre Company Grant from the American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards, recognizing the nation’s ten most promising emerging professional theatres. For further information, contact TheatreSquared at 479.445.6333 or visit the Theatre's website at theatre2.org.

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Major funding for TheatreSquared Season 7 is provided by the Walton Family Foundation, Inc. and by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Major marketing support for TheatreSquared Season 7 is provided by the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotions Commission. Media sponsors include NWA Media, CitiScapes, KUAF, Mailco USA and the Fayetteville Flyer.