NORTHWEST ARKANSAS—July 26, 2010—Walton Arts Center is pleased to announce a new and extended partnership with TheatreSquared (T2), Northwest Arkansas’ premiere professional theater company.   Under the terms of the agreement, T2 has become an official resident company of the arts center, performing their annual season in Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios.   

“We are excited for this enhanced relationship and the opportunity to work in partnership with TheatreSquared,” said Peter B. Lane, Walton Arts Center President/CEO. “As our region grows, we want professional arts organizations like T2 to succeed and grow and provide high quality arts experiences to our region. Walton Arts Center is pleased to help support this emerging theatrical company that is producing thoughtful, entertaining and interesting work.”

“TheatreSquared exists to serve our artists and audiences,” said Martin Miller, TheatreSquared Managing Director. “This new partnership will benefit both. We will be able to focus more time and resources on bringing great artists from the across the region and nation to Northwest Arkansas, and creating imaginative worlds on stage. Our audiences will benefit from top-notch ticketing services and the intimate, flexible venue we’ve come to call home.”

TheatreSquared presents a four-play subscription series and the Arkansas New Play Fest each year, totaling more than 65 annual performances for a growing regional audience. Under the new agreement, T2 will continue its residency in the 150-seat Studio Theatre at Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios, and T2 education staff will create study guides and provide in-school workshops for Walton Arts Center’s arts-in-education programming. Walton Arts Center will provide a full range of box office services for TheatreSquared productions, as well as assist in cross-promotion and marketing to help introduce broader audiences to T2’s work.

The new partnership formalizes and extends a relationship that began with TheatreSquared’s founding in 2005. “TheatreSquared provides the kind of high quality, locally produced shows that complement Walton Arts Center’s programming,” said Jodi Beznoska, VP of Communications for WAC and a longtime member of T2’s Board of Directors. “I’m hopeful that this relationship, which has been strong ever since TheatreSquared’s debut, will continue to grow and improve in the next three years.”

Walton Arts Center is Arkansas' premier center for the performing arts and entertainment. Each year more than 140,000 people from Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma and beyond attend over 350 public events at Walton Arts Center, including performances, rehearsals, community gatherings, receptions, graduations and more.  Approximately 20,000 students and teachers from 30 school districts participate annually in arts learning programs at Walton Arts Center, and over 300 volunteers donate more than 15,000 hours of time each year to its operations. Walton Arts Center presents entertainers and artists from around the world including Broadway musicals, renowned dance companies, international artists, up-and-coming jazz musicians and more. As a non-profit organization, Walton Arts Center enjoys the generous support of public sector funding, corporate sponsorship and private donors, allowing audience members to pay on average only 50% of the cost of programs offered. To learn more about Walton Arts Center, visit www.waltonartscenter.org. 

Founded in 2005, TheatreSquared (T2) is Northwest Arkansas’s regional theatre, producing professional work that is challenging and heartfelt, intimate and entertaining. The company strives to ensure that audiences of all backgrounds have access to its artistic and educational programs. The Theatre’s professional productions include family programs, classics, new plays and world premieres. Sixty-five annual performances and the Arkansas New Play Fest attract a growing audience of patrons from throughout Northwest Arkansas, including more than 1,000 students and teachers. Performances are presented in the intimate, 150-seat Studio Theatre at Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios in downtown Fayetteville. Together with its theatrical season, T2’s educational offerings are a core focus in the company’s service. T2 for Education, the Theatre’s program for students and teachers, offers deeply discounted student performances, professional development for educators, and a variety of in-school programs focused on engaging students in learning and literacy through theatre. For more information, visit theatre2.org.

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THEATRESQUARED LAUNCHES
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE
T2’s Free, Year-Long Workshop Series Begins Today


FAYETTEVILLE, AR—July 19, 2010—TheatreSquared (T2) launched today a free, yearlong workshop series for Arkansas educators, starting with a one-week immersion seminar for educators from throughout Northwest Arkansas. Educators hailing from Little Rock, Jonesboro, Mena, Mountain Home, El Dorado, Morrilton and throughout Northwest Arkansas arrived in Fayetteville today to take part in the Institute’s “freshman class,” beginning with thirty hours of collaborative workshops this week and continuing with full-day Saturday master classes throughout the school year. Participating teachers will bring new theatre-based techniques back to their classrooms, directly impacting more than 2,000 students in the coming year alone. The T2 Professional Development Institute is being offered free of charge in partnership with the University of Arkansas Brown Chair in English Literacy, and funded by leadership support from the Arkansas Arts Council and Land O’Frost, Inc.

“When an actor steps into a role, she uses techniques that any student or educator can apply,” said Morgan Hicks, director of education for TheatreSquared. “She breaks down language, scans for story clues, visualizes scenes, and forms opinions. These abilities are mirrored in the work of strong readers and learners. Working with educators, we can equip students with theatre-based tools that will help them to be confident and curious in the classroom and in life.” 

TheatreSquared’s outreach program, T2 for Education, is expanding quickly as the Theatre enters its Fifth Anniversary Season. In addition to designating Ms. Hicks the full-time Director of Education in 2009, the Theatre recently created the new part-time staff position of Learning Programs Manager and hired Kris Stoker, a two-year veteran of Cincinnati Shakespeare’s leading educational outreach programs, to fill the role. New arts-in-education offerings in the 2010/11 Season will include a series of free in-school workshops beginning in August 2010; a continuing residency with Fayetteville High School’s Keystone and Capstone literacy program, culminating in public readings of student ten-minute plays in May 2011;  the T2 Artist’s Forum series for lifelong learners, presented in partnership with Fayetteville Public Library and KUAF; and designated student performances for area schools offering a 75% discount on standard ticket prices.

TheatreSquared’s 2010 T2 Professional Development Institute is being developed in partnership with Dr. David Jolliffe, Brown Chair in English Literacy at the University of Arkansas and former coordinator of the writing-in-the-disciplines initiative at DePaul University in Chicago. He is co-author of ten books on writing, literacy, and other curricular subjects, and a frequent presenter at national conferences on language and communication. Dr. Jolliffe will join a group of distinguished experts and teaching artists in leading master classes and workshops for educators as part of the Professional Development Institute.

“The potential impact of this new offering is dramatic,” said Jolliffe, who is also a Board member at TheatreSquared. “One teacher can reach one hundred students over the course of a year. With comparable arts-in-education programs from coast to coast reporting measurable advances in classroom literacy, student engagement, attendance, test scores, and with the opportunity for arts educators to respond to the state’s new Common Core standards—it’s simply a terrific resource to have here in Northwest Arkansas.”

TheatreSquared is Northwest Arkansas’s professional theatre company, dedicated to creating exceptional theatre and innovative educational programs. For further information, contact TheatreSquared at 479.445.6333 or visit the Theatre's website at theatre2.org.

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TheatreSquared’s 2010/11 education programs are funded in part by Land O’Frost, Inc.

Support for the T2 Professional Development Institute is provided, in part, by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and the National Endowment for the Arts.

THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY SEASON
Suspense, Thrills, Romance, Holiday Laughter and a World Premiere
Four-Play Subscription Series Goes On Sale May 21

THE 2010 ARKANSAS NEW PLAY FEST
Featuring Four New Plays, the Young Playwrights Showcase,
And The 24-Hour Play-Off — May 21–23, 2010

FAYETTEVILLE, AR—April 20, 2010—TheatreSquared announced today the lineup for the second annual Arkansas New Play Fest, a celebration of new works by emerging playwrights. The festival will feature staged reading performances of new plays and, in its fourth year, the Northwest Arkansas 24-Hour Play-Off, a marathon competition awarding a $1,000 Jury Prize. The new play lineup includes: The Fall of the House by Robert Ford; Dream Date by Dan Borengasser; Tell Martha Not to Moan by Clinnesha D. Sibley; and, in a new revision, Sundown Town, a play with music in two acts by Kevin D. Cohea. The festival will also feature the Arkansas Young Playwrights Showcase, with readings of five student short plays integrating sustainable themes as part of Walton Arts Center’s Artosphere Festival. Tickets are $7 (one staged reading performance), $10 (24 Hour Play-Off), and $25 (Festival Pass), and are available at theatresquared.org. All events take place at Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios:

MAURITIUS
By Theresa Rebeck | Directed by Kimberly Senior
March 26–April 11, 2010

FAYETTEVILLE, AR—February 15, 2010—On March 26, TheatreSquared will debut a new production of Theresa Rebeck’s Mauritius, the darkly comic thriller which had its Broadway premiere in 2007. When two sisters discover what may be the “crown jewel” of stamp collecting in their attic, they are thrust into a violent and deceptive battle between three rival collectors and soon find that more than money is at stake. Theresa Rebeck, who won the Peabody Award for her writing on Law and Order: Criminal Intent and NYPD Blue, is also the author of Bad Dates, TheatreSquared’s inaugural production. The play will be directed by Kimberly Senior, whose production of The Overwhelming at Next Theatre in Chicago was named one of the Ten Best Shows of 2009 by The Chicago Tribune. Performances are scheduled Friday, March 26 through Sunday, April 11, 2010 in the Studio Theater at Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios (505 W. Spring St, Fayetteville). Tickets are $22 ($18/seniors, $10/ under 30) and can be purchased by visiting the Theatre's website at theatresquared.org or calling the Box Office at 479.571.2728.

"The New York Times called Mauritius a ‘corkscrew-twist drama of suspense,'" said T2 Artistic Director Robert Ford, "and we agree. We’ve got an all-star team of artists from across the country bringing it to the stage here in Northwest Arkansas, and we’re thrilled to welcome them to TheatreSquared."

The cast for Mauritius includes: Kevin Christopher Fox (Sterling); Rebecca Harris (Mary), who appeared in TheatreSquared’s Bad Dates and Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol; Kathy Logelin (Jackie); Bradford Lund (Dennis); and John T. Smith (Philip), whose TheatreSquared credits include Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol and the 2009 Arkansas New Play Fest.

The production team for Mauritius includes: Jeff Award-winner Jack Magaw (scenic and lighting design); Morgan Hicks (costume designer); Emily Jones (stage manager); Richard Rew (sound designer); and Steve Wilhelm (technical director); and Ashleigh Burns (properties wrangler).

During its three-week run from March 26—April 11, performances are scheduled Thursdays at 7:30; Fridays at 7:30; Saturdays at 2:00 and 7:30; and Sundays at 2:00. Tickets for Mauritius are $22 for adults ($18/seniors, $10/under 30), and can be purchased by calling the T2 Box Office at 479.571.2728 or by visiting the Theatre's website at theatresquared.org. Special prices are available for groups.

TheatreSquared is Northwest Arkansas’s professional theatre company, dedicated to creating exceptional theatre and innovative educational programs. For further information, contact TheatreSquared at 479.445.6333 or visit the Theatre's website at theatresquared.org.

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