If you’re familiar with Room 306 through the myriad articles, books and television shows produced since the assassination, walking through the doors of TheatreSquared’s West Theatre for a performance of The Mountaintop might take your breath away, due to the painstakingly detailed work by Scenic Designer Tanya Orellana and Props Manager Brodie Jasch and their teams.
Read More“I think history can sometimes seem like a dry subject when you're younger,” says writer/director Morgan Hicks. “Especially when there's an emphasis on dates and names, as the show alludes to. This performance, however, activates those moments in history in a playful and comedic way—making familiar events in history just that little more palatable. The performance's interactive element also encourages students to think about how and why history from hundreds of years ago still matters to them today.”
Read MoreOn February 17, TheatreSquared is partnering with Woman-Run, an initiative of Wright, Lindsey & Jennings, for a workshop designed to sharpen the skills of women seeking funding for their business ideas. Participants will gain confidence, develop their pitches, and learn how to navigate the unique business challenges facing women and minority business owners.
Barrier Breakers is built around the findings of a 2018 study called “We Ask Men to Win and Women Not to Lose: Closing the Gender Gap in Startup Funding”, written by researchers from Columbia and Harvard Business Schools. Women own an estimated 38% of businesses in the U.S. but only receive roughly 2% of venture funding. That number fell to 1.9% in 2021.
Researchers found that investors tended to ask men promotion-focused questions like, “How do you plan to monetize this?” while women were instead asked prevention-focused questions, like “How long will it take you to break even?” They also found, however, that when women turned the question to focus instead on a promotion-based solution, the math changed, and their share of venture capital investments greatly increased.
Read MoreheatreSquared has been awarded the prestigious 2021 International Architecture Awards in the category of 'Museums and Cultural Buildings'. The International Architecture Awards are dedicated to the recognition of excellence in architecture and urbanism from a global point-of-view.
The program pays tribute to new developments in design and underscores the directions and understanding of current cutting-edge processes consistent with today’s design thinking and is the world's foremost internationally distinguished building, landscape architecture, and urbanism awards program.
“As we welcome audiences back, it's wonderful to be reminded of just how singular Northwest Arkansas's home for professional theatre really is,” said Executive Director Martin Miller. “So many community members had an impact on the design of this beautiful space, and we are grateful to the team of design and construction professionals we worked with who made their vision a reality.”
Lights up. Night. April 3, 1968. Room 306, The Lorraine Motel, Memphis, Tennessee.
The stage directions that introduce Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop are simple – but their import is weighty. Hall’s play imagines the last night of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life. He’s just delivered one of his most lauded speeches, "I’ve Been to the Mountaintop", and is struggling to write his next, when there’s a knock at the door; his encounter with a mysterious woman, sent to deliver him coffee, sends his world into a tailspin.
TheatreSquared’s production of The Mountaintop – by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Katori Hall – opens on January 19 in T2’s West Theatre (477 W. Spring St., Fayetteville) and runs through February 13. Tickets range from $20-$54, and can be purchased by calling (479) 777-7477 or by visiting theatre2.org.
During this period of heightened community caseload of COVID-19, elevated entry requirements have been reinstated at TheatreSquared. Through February 13 (coinciding with the close of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop), patrons will be asked to show confirmation of their fully vaccinated status or the results of a negative antigen test performed within 48 hours of their performance date.
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