When the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette asked us to consider our proudest moment of 2022, it wasn’t hard to come up with an answer. Read the published story here or the full version, below.

***It Came From Outer Space*** / Wesley Hitt

Jerry Perez didn’t know much about TheatreSquared—or live theater at all— when he won tickets to a show there in 2010. But he’s gregarious and outgoing and always up for a new experience, so he thought he would give it a try. He says that first exposure to the organization’s work was like a lightning bolt.

“We went, not knowing what to expect,” he says, adding that he was so astonished by what he saw, he started talking to other audience members afterwards in a kind of “Did you see what I just saw?” fact-seeking mission. “I was saying, “That was fun! And weird. I’ve never seen anything like that before.’ And they said, ‘Well, this wasn’t a one-time thing. They have other shows!’”

A dozen years later, Perez is a season ticket holder, a generous donor, and a good friend to the theater company he’s grown to love so much. So on March 13, 2020, when a global pandemic forced T2 to shut its doors to live audiences for a time, he was devastated.

“You just want to be there and have a good time and talk with other people about the things we’re all experiencing,” he explains. “Because I think shared experiences are important. I remember receiving tickets in the mail during the pandemic realizing there was supposed to be a show that day—but there was no show that day. So you just sadly put them in the trash. As far as you know, you're not even really sure when you get to go back.”

Flash forward to the first week of December 2022. “A Christmas Carol”—the stage adaptation by T2 co-founders Amy Herzberg and Robert Ford that first captured the holiday hearts of Northwest Arkansas in 2019—opened in West Theatre this past weekend. Meanwhile, audiences are packing the smaller Spring theater to see playwright Marie Jones’ “Stones in His Pockets”. The Commons Bar/Cafe, on the first floor of the T2 complex, is redolent with the smell of baking cookies and tables are full with the lunch crowd. Staff is making finishing touches on holiday decor as the events team gives a tour to a prospective client interested in renting the space for a holiday event.

There’s no contest: Seeing the building full of people—staff, actors, patrons, and donors—is what Executive Director Martin Miller and Artistic Director Robert Ford are most proud of this year. It’s everything they imagined the space could be back in August 2019, when the company first opened the doors of its brand new, 50,000 square foot, $31 million theater building to audiences flocking to see “Shakespeare in Love '' on the West theater stage. The reaction to T2’s new home was overwhelmingly positive, and Miller’s dream of a building that lures the community inside with its floor-to-window ceilings looked to be coming true. In a short time, the stunning building racked up several prestigious architectural awards. The grand opening was the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s #1 story in a yearly roundup of arts and culture events; as a feature writer for the paper at the time, I closed that story in December 2019 with an optimistic sentiment from Miller: “We can’t wait for 2020.”

***Detroit ‘67 /*** Photo by Wesley Hitt

We all know what happened next. A few months later, the world shut down to try and mitigate the spread of a global pandemic.

“I remember standing outside Spring theater, greeting folks after a performance of ‘Ann’, knowing it would be the last live performance of what was looking like a smash hit for us,” says Ford. “At that moment, I wasn't thinking about the theater. I wasn't even thinking, ‘Oh, what a shame, this is such a great show.’ Instead, like most folks, I was just trying to sort through what we thought we knew about covid-19.”

Ford could not have known it on that chilly March night, but covid-19 would eventually strike down almost 100 million Americans and, devastatingly, kill one million of those who fell ill. As families grieved, nearly all corners of the economy struggled as tens of millions sheltered at home to avoid getting sick. Research shows that the performing arts sector was one of the worst hit, with financial losses approaching $18 billion. By mid-2020, 63% of artists were already unemployed, and 95% reported losing creative income.

As a reporter covering the pandemic’s effect on the Northwest Arkansas arts and cultural scene, it seemed to me that T2 barely paused before “pivoting” —you’ll hear 2020’s most popular word in a few places in this story—to alternative revenue streams to keep the organization afloat. Today, as T2’s Communications Manager, I understand what looked effortless was actually a herculean effort by staff — an effort that helped T2 weather a pandemic that closed the doors of many performing arts venues.

“Logistics, immediate next steps,” Ford says of his thoughts once his shock had worn off. “The future— intermediate, long-term—was utterly unknown. Every decision felt huge. ‘Should we leave the set up for “My Father's War?”’”

The set eventually came down, but much of the cast, who had just flown into town to start rehearsals the week everything closed, remained in T2’s artist housing—free of charge—for a months. At first, it was because travel was dangerous, but later, because there weren’t any theater jobs left to which to fly.

“The word ‘pivot' popped up in every other sentence,” Ford continues.”I don't remember spending any time bemoaning the irony of having just opened this world-class theater, only to shut it down. We had no intention of shutting it down. Instead we leaned on each other heavily, for ideas, for emotional support— Martin Miller, Shannon Jones, Kat Wepler, the rest of our amazing staff. There was little despair. Mainly what-if's, contingency planning, driven by our overwhelming desire not to let our community down—our patrons, our donors, all the folks who'd helped us build this amazing theater.”

***Stones in His Pockets*** / Wesley Hitt

One thing was decided early: The organization would do everything within its power to make it through without laying off any employees.

“Some organizations had no choice; they had to let people go,” notes Miller. “For those that did have a choice, I fear that some made the wrong decision. Building a culture is even harder than building a theater. The people we had were the people we wanted in the room. We were five steps ahead when audiences began to return, because we had the right team to welcome them.”

The TheaterSquared team began reaching out to other theaters as they struggled to put together a “best practices” list for this situation that no one had ever seen coming.

“I do love how much closer the industry grew during the crisis,” says Miller. “Bi-weekly conversations over video began between theater leaders who typically wouldn't see each other more than once a year. Those continue to this day. It's better to be in conversation than going it alone.”

“We were all looking to our professional networks to learn what everyone else was doing,” adds Director of Production Kat Wepler. “It was really interesting to talk to folks around the country and see how states and communities were handling things differently.”

But the biggest question of all remained: How could they share their art with patrons if no one was allowed in their amazing, new building? Ford credits Miller with the answer: streaming performances.

“We were also fortunate that, before the pandemic, we had received grant funding for new production equipment,” says Wepler. ”We pivoted our plans and purchased a package of video streaming gear. This allowed us to film productions we were staging and stream them to our audiences at home.”

“TheatreSquared has been one of the first theaters in the country to live-edit and live-stream a Zoom production replete with top-to-bottom special effects, to install a broadcast-quality four-camera setup, and to film a live performance on a contract with the film actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA,” Miller said in an interview with the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in mid-2020, at which point the organization already had a sophisticated streaming operation up and running. “We’re not resting, we’re innovating, and it’s all thanks to the remarkable and diverse group of artists and professionals who make up theaterSquared. The best decision we’ve made to date in this crisis is continuing to invest in this hardworking team, and our region and field are benefiting from their agility and dedication.”

As the streaming option became more popular with T2 patrons, viewers from all over the world purchased tickets to watch a T2 show, including theater critics from The New Yorker, NPR, and The Wall Street Journal, whose prominent theater critic, Terry Teachout, called T2 “an outstanding drama company clearly worthy of its fine reputation.” The company’s streaming production “Russian Troll Farm” made The New York Times’ “Best Theater of 2020” list.

Receiving accolades on the national stage was certainly not something the company saw coming in March 2020. But that national word of mouth started garnering attention from the theater community across the country.

“More and more, Northwest Arkansas is becoming an exporter of art to the country’s major urban centers,” says Miller, an astonishing feat, nearly three years into a global pandemic. “We're setting the trends, not picking up on them years later. When “At the Wedding” had its sold-out run at Lincoln Center in New York, a year after it had played at theaterSquared, or when “Designing Women” took the stage here before moving to Little Rock and to Atlanta—that's becoming the rule, not the exception. More often than ever, our audiences will be able to say, ‘We saw it here first.’”

“Unquestionably, the creation of a truly world-class, architecturally astounding theater complex has made theaters across the country sit up and take notice,” says Ford. “Our mission—the plays we put on, their quality—has not changed. But now there's a building that expresses everything we are. We're being treated as a full-fledged partner in the American theater. And more—we blazed a few trails during the pandemic, and it was noticed, by theaters and by the press: streaming productions, maintaining [and] even growing our staff, bringing back in-person performances before most other theaters, programming an ever more diverse season of shows, developing new work right through the pandemic.”

The national recognition has manifested itself in an increase of co-productions with other notable theaters, like this year’s “Flex”, “It Came From Outer Space”, and January’s “Kim’s Convenience.”

“Theaters like ours have emerged from the pandemic with a newfound sense of solidarity,” Ford says. “It's like, ‘Whew. We might just survive this thing.’ War stories abound. Lots of sharing. Lots more interconnectedness between theaters. T2 had co-produced several shows prior to the pandemic—and had one or two on the docket when COVID hit—but I sense there's even more desire now among theaters to find like-minded theater-makers.”

There is a sense of relief in this post-game wrap-up, as well as optimism and gratitude. But there’s still a formidable hill to climb. Since the building was brand new in the fall of 2019, says Wepler, the organization was able to follow CDC guidelines and switch out the air filters per their recommendations. As a result, a trip to T2 today remains as safe as possible. Audiences are returning, but they have yet to return to their pre-pandemic numbers, so revenue is down. Luckily, support for the theater has been consistent throughout the crisis.

”Patrons and donors stuck with us,” notes Wepler. “In many places around the country, funding sources and support dried up.”

***TheatreSquared staff*** / Cheanie Lopez-Hall

That support has been critical in sustaining an arts organization that, in turn, helps sustain the overall arts and culture economy in Northwest Arkansas. A 2017 study found that the regional arts and culture industry contributes nearly $131 million to the economy. Almost half of T2’s audience is from outside the area, and they also patronize local gas stations, hotels, bars and restaurants when they come to see a show.

The team that built the organization from a conversation around a kitchen table to a nationally acclaimed company housed in a $31 million theater complex tries to look at the pandemic as a learning experience.

“We take nothing for granted,” says Ford. “You want to embrace every returning patron, thank everyone individually.”

“Certainly, it's been a tough few years,” admits Miller. “ But look at this space, look at this lineup of shows, look at the people who are making them—how could you be anything but excited for what's ahead?”

For Perez, a return to live theater has meant the world. He’s missed the community of an audience.

“For example, comedy is subjective—what joke lands?” he says. “And what did someone find funny? Why did they laugh at that? It makes you curious. And then, all of us sitting in a theater, trying not to cry at an emotional scene. And the excitement for a show out in the lobby.

“It’s that shared experience—we are all watching the same thing together. We are laughing together. We are crying together. Walking into the theater that first time back, I thought, ‘Yes. This feels exactly right.’

A look back at T2's 2022