TheatreSquared is currently wrapping up one of the most successful seasons in its five-year history, but as they say in show-business, “the show must keep on going.” (They say that, right?)
The local theatre company recently announced the lineup for its sixth season, including four plays and another installment of the annual New Play Festival.
The four-play season includes 2008 Tony Award-winner Boeing-Boeing, a new adaptation of Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, Kim Rosenstock’s Tigers Be Still, and the Arkansas premiere of The Fall of the House.
Audience exits T2’s Mauritius
“Season selection is comparable to alchemy,” said T2 artistic director Robert Ford. “It’s not really a science, and there’s certainly no formula. But every so often, you finish the process, and you realize you’re looking at gold. We’re thrilled by this season lineup, and we can’t stop talking about these plays. It is truly exciting to be able to say, ‘Okay, let’s share them with 10,000 of our closest friends.’”
According to T2 officials, the company has doubled its audience this season for the second straight year. As a result, organizers are planning to offer 30 more performances in the 2011-12 season.
“After three extensions this year, we’re expanding to offer 95 performances next season—an increase of 30—while keeping our lowest subscription and single ticket prices the same,” said Managing Director Martin Miller.
T2 also announced a new partnership with BHK Kafé, which will offer Sunday evening packages including a three-course meal prepared by chef David Lewis from the restaurant, along with tickets to T2 performances.
Subscriptions, starting at just $74, are on sale now by calling the Walton Arts Center Box Office at 479-443-5600.
Play descriptions and information provided by TheatreSquared:
Boeing-Boeing
Description: The 2011/12 season will launch with Boeing-Boeing, Marc Camoletti’s fast-paced comedy set in 1960s Paris. The play’s recent Broadway production, translated from the French by Beverly Cross and Francis Evans, won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Revival amidst widespread critical acclaim from the national press. In Boeing-Boeing, Bernard, a successful architect living abroad, has mastered the art of juggling his three flight attendant fiancés—who are quite unaware of each other—on their international “layovers.” When a new jet shortens travel times, Bernard’s careful scheduling is thrown into disarray—and all three show up at once.
Dates: September 1–25, 2011 (recommended rating: “PG,” for adult humor).
It’s a Wonderful Life
Description: In time for the holiday season, TheatreSquared is creating an entirely new stage adaptation of Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, named by the American Film Institute the most inspirational film ever made. After a life of sacrifices, George Bailey finds himself drunk and despondent on Christmas Eve, 1946, staring into the swirling waters off a highway bridge. What follows is a remarkable tale of redemption and old-fashioned holiday magic, reminding even the cynics among us that there’s much to be treasured in life. T2 artists will re-imagine Capra’s classic with theatrical invention, while holding true to the story that has brought audiences together for generations.
Dates: December 8, 2011–January 1, 2012 and is recommended for all audiences.
Tigers Be Still
Description: “This is the story of how I stopped being a total disaster,” announces the heroine of Tigers Be Still, the darkly funny and moving new comedy opening at TheatreSquared in February 2012. Sherry Wickman, who had expected the perfect life to fall into place after earning her degree, instead finds herself underemployed, overwhelmed and back home in her twin-sized childhood bed. Her mother refuses to emerge from the bedroom, her sister claims drunken sovereignty over the couch, and a tiger has escaped from the local zoo. With the 2010 off-Broadway hit that The New York Times called “piercing, ferocious and devastatingly hilarious,” TheatreSquared brings a bold new work by an emerging playwright to Northwest Arkansas. (recommended rating: PG-13, for occasional adult language)
Dates: February 9–March 4, 2012
The Fall of the House
Description: The 2011/12 subscription season will conclude with The Fall of the House, a new theatrical mystery in which T2 Artistic Director Robert Ford (‘Twas the Night, My Father’s War) explores the desperate bargains we make for love. Nominated for the 2011 Edgar Award for Best New Play, The Fall of the House premiered in a critically acclaimed production at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in 2010, and was previewed for Northwest Arkansas audiences at the 2010 Arkansas New Play Fest. In this “haunting dreamscape of a play” (Theatre Montgomery), an escaped slave risks her freedom for an illegal rendezvous with Edgar Allen Poe, and—two centuries later—a celebrated architect, standing trial for a fatal beach house fire, finds she possesses an undiscovered manuscript of Poe’s final work (recommended rating: PG-13, for occasional adult language).
Dates: April 12–May 6, 2012.
New Play Festival
Offered separately from the theatre’s subscription season, TheatreSquared will present the fourth annual Arkansas New Play Fest in June of 2012, with dates and titles for the celebration of new works to be announced early that year. The Festival will unite promising voices in American playwriting in a three-day celebration of dramatic storytelling, both at T2’s home theatre in Fayetteville and on tour to the Arkansas Repertory Theatre in Little Rock.
Dates: TBA
Subscription Information
Description: Subscriptions for TheatreSquared’s four-play season are available in five packages. Performances run Thursdays through Sundays of each week, with all evening performances scheduled for 7:30pm (Sundays at 7pm), and matinees for 2pm. Subscriptions start at $74 for the new T2 Preview Saver Series, including a general admission ticket to the final Thursday evening dress rehearsal of each new production. T2’s popular Opening Night Series, including prime reserved seats for the Friday night opening, a catered reception with cast members after the show, and an intermission champagne toast, is priced at $110. The T2 Prime Weekend Series, with reserved seating for either Friday and Saturday evening performances (excluding Opening), is available for $92. The T2 Weeknight/Matinee Series, in which subscribers can choose seats for either Thursday or Sunday evenings, or Saturday and Sunday afternoons, is priced at $82. Click to download subscription pricing overview.
Dinner Series Information
The new T2 Sunday Dinner Series will include: complimentary parking at BHK Kafé; prime seats at the new Sunday evening performance of each TheatreSquared production; and a three-course, seasonal dinner—with opener, entrée, dessert and beverage—prepared by Chef David Lewis using locally-produced “garden-to-table” ingredients. Dinner is served at BHK Kafé 5:30pm, and the performance begins at Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios at 7:00 p.m. The full package, available in limited quantity, is priced at $168.
