TheatreSquared 2013 Gala for Education

November 21, 2013, 6:30pm, Fayetteville Town Center

Judy and Bill Schwab to Receive 2013 Arts Advocate Award
Broadway Veterans Rob Sutton and Rita Harvey to Perform

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS—October 8, 2013— TheatreSquared announced today its 2013 Gala for Education, the theatre’s signature annual celebration supporting arts-in-education outreach to 14,000 students throughout Arkansas. The 2013 event will be held on November 21, 2013, at 6:30pm at the Fayetteville Town Center and will feature a 30-minute command cabaret performance by Broadway veterans Rob Sutton and Rita Harvey  and a three-course dinner catered by Bordinos Restaurant.

.Judy and Bill Schwab will receive the 2013 Arts Advocate Award, recognizing their longstanding dedication to arts and education in Northwest Arkansas.

Individual tickets to the evening’s event are $125; individual sponsor tickets are $250. Tables for up to ten guests range from $1,000 to $5,000. Guests are invited to RSVP to (479) 445-6333 or online at theatre2.org/gala

2013 Honorary Gala Co-Chairs include:

Terrye and Patric Brosh, Lynn and Joel Carver, Carolyn and Nick Cole, Catherine and Bill Corley, Rosemary and George Faucette, Denise and Hershey Garner, Tracey and Jason Hendren, Ann and Morriss Henry, Susan and Anthony Hui, Joan and Bruce Johnson, Linda and Steve Nelson, Billie Jo Starr, Pattie and David Williams, and Rolf and Ceri Wilkin.

At the event, the 2013 Arts Advocate Award will be presented to Judy and Bill Schwab. Before serving as associate vice chancellor for administration at the University of Arkansas — and helping manage the $1 billion Campaign for the Twenty-First Century — Judy Schwab taught English at Fayetteville High School, where she launched the Advanced Placement Language and Composition program and the literary magazine Connotations. Among other recognitions, she and was honored as Fayetteville Public Schools Teacher of the Year. A past president of the Fayetteville Public Education Foundation, she currently serves as vice chair of the Walton Arts Center Board of Directors. As a scholar, Bill Schwab is the author of four books and numerous articles, focusing most recently on the Arkansas Hispanic community and on undocumented children and youth. As dean of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, he advocated for a renewed emphasis on the arts, supporting efforts to transform the campus into an “All Steinway Campus” and to establish sUgAR, a student art gallery in Bentonville. Since 2010, he has served as the university’s liaison with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Bill and Judy have been married for 27 years and are passionate about the arts and education — as well as good books, exceptional food, wonderful friends, and travel. The 2013 Arts Advocate Award recognizes their indelible contributions to the arts and to the greater Northwest Arkansas community through leadership, inspiration, and hard work.

Featured performer Rita Harvey recently starred in TheatreSquared’s production of Next to Normal. On Broadway, she appeared as Hodel in the Broadway revival Fiddler on the Roof and made her debut performing the lead role of Christine in The Phantom of the Opera, after two years performing the role with the second national tour. She has also starred off-Broadway, in major regional theatres and in concerts around the world. Ms. Harvey will be joined by Mountain View native Rob Sutton, who co-starred in TheatreSquared’s Next to Normal. On Broadway, he understudied and performed the roles of Beast and Gaston in Disney’s Beauty and The Beast and starred as Sam Carmichael in the Las Vegas company of Mamma Mia!

Tickets and tables for the 2013 Galafor Education can be reserved by calling (479) 445-6333 or visiting theatre2.org/gala. Individual tickets are $125, sponsor tickets are $250, and table sponsor levels range from $1,000 to $5,000. Guests may also take part in the 2013 Sparkling Wine Raffle, awarding one lucky winner a $1,500 gift certificate to Romance Diamond Co. and a collection of exceptional wines selected by Bordinos Restaurant and The Wine Cellar. Dress is cocktail attire.

TheatreSquared’s education programs will reach 14,000 students and teachers this year.

Initiatives include: the Arkansas Schools Tour, bringing live educational performances to high schools throughout the state; the T2 Professional Development Institute for Arkansas educators; the Word/Play literacy intervention program, engaging at-risk students in NWA and the Arkansas Delta through in-school residencies and curriculum integration; and deeply discounted performances year-round at the theatre.

TheatreSquared's locally produced and nationally acclaimed productions reach 24,000 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.

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Major funding for TheatreSquared Season 8 is provided by the Walton Family Foundation and by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Support for TheatreSquared's educational outreach programs is provided by the Arkansas Arts Council, the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation, the Windgate Charitable Foundation, the Nadine L. Baum Charitable Foundation, Harps Food Stores, Target, and Walmart Stores, Inc. Media partners for the 2013

Gala for Education include NWA Media, CitiScapes, KUAF, and MailCo USA. In-kind partners for the 2013 Gala for Education include ARCare, Bordinos Restaurant, Flora, Jammin' Java, McBride Distributing, New Belgium Brewing, Romance Diamond Co., and The Wine Cellar.