WAC Gives Back

Tis’ the season for doing good by supporting organizations that serve our community.

In December, the staff at Walton Arts Center partnered with five local organizations to help give back during the holidays - The Walmart Museum, Toys for Tots, NWA Children’s Shelter, NWA Books for Kids and NWA Food Bank.

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Toys on display in our Holiday window were donated to Toys for Tots.

Walton Arts Center’s holiday display in the lobby was filled with vintage toys, frost-covered trees and everything needed for a winter wonderland. All of the toys and were donated by The Walmart Museum of Bentonville, including a wooden sled, board games, pedal cars and a Radio Flyer Wagon. The display was up in the Walker Atrium from Nov. 22 to Dec. 23. After the last performance on the year WAC staff and volunteers from the current Leadership Fayetteville class gathered the display items and delivered them to NWA Toys for Tots, right in time for Santa to load them in his sleigh.

An annual tradition for Walton Arts Center and Walmart AMP staff is to collect donations for Northwest Arkansas area non-profits as part of the holiday party held in December. This year, the NWA Children’s Shelter was the chosen recipient. Employees could either donate money or items that were requested by the shelter. Several employees were able to play Santa and use the monetary donations to purchase more of the requested items for the shelter including toys, snacks, paper products and winter coats.

In conjunction with two family-friendly holiday traditions, The Snowman Concert with WAC & SoNA and the annual screening of The Polar Express, Walton Arts Center partnered with NWA Books for Kids and hosted a holiday book drive. NWA Books for Kids seeks to build reading skills and a love of books among children at an early age by placing books in their homes and encouraging their parents to read together. Books collected during the drive will be given to nonprofits in our area that serve children and their families.

With a spirit of giving, the Walton Arts Center Communication team decided to forgo in their yearly “secret Santa” exchange and instead donate to the NWA Food Bank. The team donated enough money to provide 1,100 meals for NWA residents in need through the local nonprofit.

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The staff at Walton Arts Center have a mindset focused on giving back to our community. We are grateful for all of the support that we receive throughout the year, and are more than happy to help other organizations that serve our community.

History and Legacy on Display - Memories Worth Sharing Returns to Joy Pratt Markham Gallery

Walton Arts Center’s History Boxes by local artist Kathy Thompson have returned to the Joy Pratt Markham Gallery in an exhibition titled Memories Worth Sharing.

Originally commissioned for the nonprofit organization’s 20th anniversary in 2012, the exhibition consists of 20 mixed-media assemblages that commemorate Walton Arts Center’s impact since it opened. Each box uses the power of found objects to convey a sense of time, place, self and community, all focused around the mission and history of Walton Arts Center.

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Memories are worth sharing, and patrons can add theirs to the collection. From now until December 1, patrons can donate a small object that symbolizes the impact that a performing arts or visual arts experience at Walton Arts Center has had on their life. Objects should be placed in the receptacle in the Joy Pratt Markham Gallery or left with the box office if the gallery is closed.

Thompson will create the newest box from a selection of the donated materials. This newest History Box celebrating collaboration and community memories will be on display December 10-31.

Walton Arts Center was created when the community of Northwest Arkansas rallied around a vision and worked collaboratively for the good of the region. Since its opening in 1992, each person who has walked through the doors has added their experience, laughter, energy and memories to the collective space of Walton Arts Center. The Memories Worth Sharing exhibition explores Walton Arts Center memories through the lens of foundations, programming, giving back, experience and art forms.

Memories Worth Sharing

Joy Pratt Markham Gallery at Walton Arts Center

Joy Pratt Markham Gallery is open Monday through Friday from noon until 2 pm and one hour prior to most performances. Tours may be scheduled by calling 479.571.2766.

Jesse Cook Takes Nuevo Flamenco Beyond Borders

Widely considered one of the most influential figures in "nuevo flamenco" music today, Jesse Cook incorporates elements of flamenco, rumba, jazz and many forms of world music into his work.

Jesse Cook is a Juno Award winner, Acoustic Guitar Player's Choice Award silver winner in the Flamenco Category and a three-time winner of the Canadian Smooth Jazz award for Guitarist of the Year.

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Born to photographer and filmmaker John Cook and television director and producer Heather Cook and nephew to artist Arnaud Maggs, Jesse Cook spent the first few years of his life moving between Paris, Southern France and Barcelona.

After his parents separated, Cook and his sister accompanied his mother to her birth country, Canada, where he took lessons at Toronto's Eli Kassner Guitar Academy and eventually studied under Kassner. While Cook was still a teenager, his father retired to the French city of Arles in the Camargue where his neighbor was Nicolas Reyes, lead singer of the flamenco group the Gipsy Kings. During frequent visits to Arles, Jesse Cook became increasingly fascinated by the "Camargue sound,” the rhythmic, flamenco-rumba approach that could be heard on many corners and cafés.

Back at home, he continued his studies in classical and jazz guitar at Canada's Royal Conservatory of Music, York University and Berklee College of Music in the United States. He has often quipped that he later attempted to unlearn it all while immersing himself in the oral traditions of Romani music.

After the independent 1995 release in Canada of his debut albu, Tempest, he played at the 1995 Catalina Jazz Festival; shortly afterwards, Tempest entered the American Billboard charts at No. 14.

Cook has recorded ten studio albums, five live DVDs and has traveled the world exploring musical traditions that he has blended into his style of rumba flamenco.

In 1998, Cook was nominated for a Juno Award as Instrumental Artist of the Year. In 2001, he received a Juno Nomination for Best Male Artist. In 2001, Cook won a Juno Award in the Best Instrumental Album category for Free Fall. In 2009, he was Acoustic Guitar's Player's Choice Award silver winner in the Flamenco category (gold went to Paco de Lucia). He is a three-time winner of the Canadian Smooth Jazz award for Guitarist of the Year and numerous other awards.

In 2011, Cook began filming, directing and editing his own music videos with the release of Virtue. He has since directed, filmed and edited eight music videos, 16 episodes of Friday Night Music and produced, edited and mixed the PBS Concert Special Jesse Cook, Beyond Borders.

Cook has said of his music: "If you go to Spain and you play [my] music, they’ll say, what is this? They don’t recognize it as Flamenco because it’s not, it’s a hybrid. I love Flamenco, but I also love world music, jazz, pop, Brazilian Samba and Persian music."

Jesse Cook

DATE: Friday, Jan. 10, 8 pm

Cook has traveled the globe looking for sounds that resonate with him. Known for his intoxicating fusion of world music, the Juno Award winner’s songs transport you – to Cairo, Brazil, Spain and beyond.

It's Piff-Tacular! Piff the Magic Dragon At Walton Arts Center

With over 100 million online views, sold out shows across the U.S. and Canada and a residency at the Flamingo Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas, Piff the Magic Dragon has proved he’s here to stay.

Joined by Mr Piffles, The World’s Only Magic Performing Chihuahua™, the dynamic duo have performed all over the world in iconic venues such as Radio City Music Hall, Shakespeare’s Globe, the O2, London and Sydney Opera house. He was the opening act for Mumford & Sons on their 17-date U.K. tour and graces the cover of their Grammy award winning album Babel.

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Magician and comedian from the United Kingdom, Piff the Magic Dragon is the winner of multiple awards from British magic societies and appeared on “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” and “America's Got Talent.” In 2019, Piff the Magic Dragon was named one of Variety's 10 Comics to Watch for 2019.

Regarding his comedic influences, Piff the Magic Dragon said "It was the people who are a little more irreverent. It was people like The Amazing Johnathan, Penn and Teller, Harry Anderson … and also if you look at some of the Copperfield stuff, like with the singing tie, he’s got amazingly funny routines as well. But obviously, the other stuff that Copperfield does is very straight and serious. And that was what I was reacting against."

And when asked which is harder, doing the magic or getting the comedy right, Piff said: "It is, without question, getting the magic tricks to work. That is the hardest bit. Because for the comedy, you can rewrite a joke pretty quickly, but to make a magic trick work it’s usually at least a month or two in R&D prototyping. And if it doesn’t work, then you have to really go back to the drawing board. Because now you spent all this time on something that nobody even cares about. So, you have to start again."

In 2008, John van der Put created his stage persona of Piff the Magic Dragon, dressing in a green, red and yellow dragon costume, with self-deprecating humor and deadpan delivery. He is assisted by "Mr. Piffles," a chihuahua in a dragon costume. The Magic Dragon persona was created by happenstance, when he went to a costume party in a dragon outfit, and nobody else turned up in costume. "It was just me. And one of my friends who knew that I was a magician said to me, 'You should do this in your act. You could be Puff the Magic Dragon.' And I said, 'Wait, I could be Piff the Magic Dragon. You might have heard of my older brother, Steve.' And that's where that came from."

When asked in an interview why he is a dragon, and not some other mythological being, Piff the Magic Dragon responded:

The first question is, “Am I even a dragon?” Because, well I don’t have wings … I can’t even fly. So, I don’t know. What happened was: I was a regular human magician for many years. And it never really worked out for me … I had a sort of very grumpy face, and I was getting fired everywhere. And then I had to go to a costume party, and I didn’t have a costume to wear and I said to my sister, ‘Do you have anything to wear?’ And she said, ‘Yes, I have a dragon outfit under my bed.’

So, the fact that it’s even a dragon outfit is solely down to my sister and her interpretation of the facts. And, I did ask her recently, ten years later, ‘Was it definitely a dragon outfit?,’ and she could not authenticate that. So, it was definitely some sort of lizardy, reptile-ish creature that I prefer to look at as a dragon.”

Piff the Magic Dragon has appeared regularly in shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, debuting at the 2009 Free Fringe Festival with a solo show that broke the record for highest takings in one night and being nominated for the inaugural 2012 Time Out and Soho Theatre Cabaret Award. His show at the 2009 Buxton Fringe won the award for Best Comedy Show the same year that Love and Other Magic Tricks won. He has had national tours of the UK and Australia and now Piff is on tour across the U.S. and headed to the Walton Arts Center for The Fun Size Tour.

Piff the Magic Dragon

The Fun Size Tour
featuring Mr Piffles, The World’s Only Magic Performing Chihuahua™

DATE: Sunday, Jan. 12, 7pm

“Piff is the best! A true original!” -David Copperfield

“A stunningly good magician!” -Penn & Teller

Old Fashioned Fun, On-Stage in A Christmas Story, The Musical

A Christmas Story: The Musical is the stage version of the 1983 American classic film, A Christmas Story. The musical has music and lyrics written by the award-winning duo, Pasek & Paul, and book by Joseph Robinette.

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The film was released on November 18, 1983 and in 2012, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The story came to life on Broadway in the winter of 2012, stealing the hearts of a new generation of audiences. Get your pink bunny suit ready - A Christmas Story: The Musical is about to take the Walton Arts Center stage!

Characters

• Ralphie Parker: A little boy who wants a Red Ryder Carbine Action Range Model Air Rifle with a compass in the stock and a thing that tells time.

• Jean Shepherd: Old Ralphie, who narrates the story.

• The Old Man: The gruff father of Ralphie and Randy.

• Mother: The glue who holds the Parker family together.

• Randy Parker: Ralphie's kid brother.

• Miss Shields: Ralphie's teacher.

• Schwartz: Ralphie's foul-mouthed friend

• Flick: Ralphie's dim friend who gets his tongue stuck to a flag pole.

• Scut Farkus: The class bully who gets beaten up by Ralphie.

• Grover Dill: Scut's right-hand man.

• Esther Jane: Ralphie's love interest.

• Mary Beth: Esther Jane's best friend.

• Santa: A mean old mall Santa.

Musical numbers

Act 1

• "Overture" - Orchestra

• "It All Comes Down to Christmas" - Ralphie, the Parkers and Ensemble

• "Red Ryder Carbine Action BB Gun" - Ralphie and Jean

• "It All Comes Down to Christmas (Reprise)" - Ralphie and Company

• "The Genius on Cleveland Street" - The Old Man and Mother

• "When You're a Wimp" - Kids

• "Ralphie to the Rescue!" - Ralphie, Miss Shields, the Old Man, Mother, Randy and Ensemble

• "What a Mother Does" - Mother

• "A Major Award" - The Old Man, Mother and Neighbors

• "Parker Family Singalong" - The Parkers

• "Act One Finale" - Ralphie and Ensemble

Act 2

• "Entr'acte" - Orchestra

• "Sticky Situation" - Ralphie, Flick, Schwartz, Kids, Miss Shields, Nurse, Flick's Mom, Fireman, Policeman and Doctor

• "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out" - Miss Shields and Kids

• "Just Like That" - Mother

• "At Higbee's" - Elves

• "Up on Santa's Lap" - Santa, Elves, Ralphie, Randy and Kids

• "Before the Old Man Comes Home" - The Parkers

• "Somewhere Hovering Over Indiana" - Ralphie, Randy and Kids

• "Ralphie to the Rescue! (Reprise)" - Ralphie and Ensemble

• "A Christmas Story" - The Parkers and Full Company

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A Christmas Story: The Musical

DATES: Dec. 10-15

The Associated Press calls A CHRISTMAS STORY: THE MUSICAL “a joyous Christmas miracle,” while The New York Times writes “I was dazzled. You’d have to have a Grinch-sized heart not to feel a smile spreading across your face.”

Great for all ages!

Celebrate Lights of the Ozarks at Walton Arts Center

The lights are going up and the most magical season is here. Celebrate the Lights of the Ozarks parade at Walton Arts Center on Friday, Nov. 22 from 5-8 pm.

Warm up with hot cocoa and snap photos in the decorated lobby to kick off the holiday season.

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Each year Fayetteville Parks and Recreation workers spend over 3,300 hours decorating the Downtown Square with over 400,000 lights. The amazing winter wonderland of lights on the Downtown Square begin Friday, November 22, at 6 p.m. with the lighting night parade. And this year, the parade route is extending with a pass by the Fayetteville Public Library, Historic Downtown Square and down Dickson Street, with a final turn by Walton Arts Center.

During the parade, Walton Arts Center’s team will have a hot chocolate stand on the Tyson Plaza and A Christmas Story themed gift tags and coloring sheets. Bring your family to sit out on the steps for the best view up Dickson Street, take some family photos in the lobby with all of the holiday decor and if someone needs to hit the restroom, Walton Arts Center will be open to the public.

Delight in this holiday tradition at the corner of Dickson and West with all of the amenities to make it a fun holiday night out.

Lights of the Ozarks Parade

The Lights of the Ozarks parade will weave through downtown Fayetteville at 6 p.m. on the evening of Friday, November 22nd, with a final pass in front of Walton Arts Center’s Tyson Plaza.  

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood is Grounded in Mister Rogers’ Landmark Social-Emotional Curriculum

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood! Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood is coming to Walton Arts Center in February.

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood was created by the Fred Rogers Company in 2012 as a spin off of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Just like Mister Rogers, it's aimed at preschool children and centers around a young tiger, the son of Daniel Striped Tiger, and his friend in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

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This series, for a new generation of children, tells its engaging stories about the life of a preschooler using musical strategies grounded in Fred Rogers’ landmark social-emotional curriculum. Through imagination, creativity and music, Daniel and his friends learn the key social skills necessary for school and for life.

The star of the series is 4-year-old Daniel Tiger, son of the original program’s beloved puppet Daniel Striped Tiger, who invites young viewers into his world, giving them a kid’s eye view of his life. Daniel talks directly to viewers, warmly drawing them in and making them feel like one of his neighbors. As they closely follow and share Daniel’s everyday adventures, preschoolers and their families learn fun and practical strategies and skills necessary for growing and learning.

Each episode of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood consists of two engaging stories that center on a common early learning theme such as dealing with disappointment. One of the key ingredients that sets the new series apart is its groundbreaking use of catchy, musical strategies that reinforce each theme and that preschoolers and parents will both sing — and use — together in their daily lives.

The series’ stories were written based on extensive input from a wide range of early learning specialists, formative research with children and the benefit of more than 40 years of the work of Fred Rogers. It all adds up to a powerful tool for parents: an entertaining and thoughtful guide for today’s families that integrates music, interactivity and a research-based curriculum.

PBS airs episodes of each show that explores similar themes:

• Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood “Daniel’s Fish Dies/Daniel’s Strawberry Seeds” (NEW) and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood “Death of a Goldfish”

• Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood “The Tiger Family Grows/Daniel Learns About Being a Big Brother” and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood “Families”

• Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood “Visiting Grandpere/The Tiger Family Goes Home” and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood “Grandparents”

• Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood “Friends Help Each Other/Daniel Helps O Tell a Story” and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood “Friends”

• Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood “Daniel Gets Mad/Katerina Gets Mad” and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood “Mad Feelings”

Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood LIVE!

DATE: Saturday, Feb. 8, 2:30 & 5:30 pm

Along with “O” the Owl, Katerina Kittycat, Prince Wednesday, Mom and Dad Tiger and many more, Daniel Tiger will take your family on an interactive musical adventure to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, sharing stories of friendship, helping others and celebrating new experiences.

Best for ages 3+

Talkin' Jazz With Art Blakey's Centennial Celebration

The Art Blakey Centennial Celebration with Bobby Watson (Alto Saxophone), David Schnitter (Tenor Saxophone), Donald Brown (Piano), Essiet Okon Essiet (Bass), Carl Allen (Drums) …and introducing Givton Gelin (Trumpet).

Preserving, protecting and honoring the legacy of Art Blakey, The Art Blakey Centennial Celebration Band is an elite line-up of alumni members of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.

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Art Blakey was born 100 years ago, on Oct. 11, 1919, and America's homegrown music — jazz — might not sound quite like it does today if it weren't for the influence of the late drummer.

"I would call Art Blakey's music the spine of the jazz tradition post-World War II," Giovanni Russonello, a music critic for The New York Times, says. According to Russonello, Blakey's rhythmic groove set the pace for jazz in the second half of the 20th century. "He was playing music that was meant to pull people together, and that was why I think he became such a great mentor, such a great carrier of the tradition and passing on of the tradition. That beat was magnetic. That beat was a rallying cry [and] it was also a gathering place."

Blakey himself learned from his elders. He grew up in Pittsburgh and was playing in jazz clubs as a teenager while working in steel mills during the day. In his 20s, the drummer made a name for himself with some of the biggest big bands and the early beboppers before passing on his knowledge to the next generation.

Art Blakey’s band, The Jazz Messengers, was considered the quintessential forum for musicians who wished to hone their talent and leave their own mark on the jazz scene. Preserving, the legacy of Art Blakey, The Art Blakey Centennial Celebration Band is an elite line-up of alumni members, each now a longtime leader on his own and considered among jazz’s most accomplished players – including Bobby Watson (alto sax), Essiet Essiet (bass), Donald Brown (piano), David Schnitter (tenor sax), Carl Allen (drums) and introducing Giveton Gelin (trumpet).

The Art Blakey Centennial Celebration

DATE: Friday, March 20, 7:30 pm

Art Blakey was often called the father of hard bop. He was responsible for producing and developing more jazz talent than any other band leader during his more than six-decade career.

Christmas Bells are Swingin' with Boston Brass

Boston Brass has set out to establish a one-of-a-kind musical experience. From exciting classical arrangements, to burning jazz standards and the best of the original brass quintet repertoire, Boston Brass treats audiences to a unique brand of entertainment, which captivates all ages.

The ensemble’s lively repartee, touched with humor and personality, helps bridge the ocean of classical formality to put audiences at ease for an evening of great music and boisterous fun.

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For 31 years, Boston Brass has worked to create one-of-a-kind musical experience, treating audiences to a unique brand of entertainment and captivating all ages. The philosophy of Boston Brass is to provide audiences with a wide selection of musical styles in unique arrangements in a friendly and fun atmosphere.

Through over 100 performances each year, the members of Boston Brass play to audiences at concerts, educational venues and jazz festivals. In addition to solo performances, Boston Brass regularly performs with orchestras, wind ensemble, brass bands, marching bands and a variety of other ensembles. They have performed in 49 states and 30 countries and have conducted master classes around the world including sessions and residencies at the Eastman School of Music, The Julliard School, Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, Peabody Conservatory of Music, University of North Texas, Royal Academy of Music in London, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory at the National University of Singapore, Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts and Mahidol University in Bangkok. 

Boston Brass is a Yamaha Performing Group and has been featured educators and performers at the Mid West Band and Orchestra Clinic, World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, Japan Band Clinic, Music Educators National Conferences, American Bandmaster Association Conference, The American Band College, Western International Band Clinic and Texas Bandmasters Association Convention.

Boston Brass has been featured on “The CBS Early Show,” National Public Radio’s Performance Today, The Great American Brass Band Festival and has recorded many diverse albums. Their latest recording “Concerto Grosso” is a collaboration with Eric Rombach-Kendall and University of New Mexico Wind Ensemble, “Reminiscing” is a tribute to Rolf Smedvig of the Empire Brass, “Rewired” features new arrangements by the members of Boston Brass, Latin Nights, features a collection of some of the greatest classical and jazz works by Latin composers and performers and features the legendary drummer Steve Gadd, the beautiful voice of Talita Real, percussion and guitar. Other albums include Ya Gotta Try, featuring music from Horace Silver, Chick Corea and Dizzy Gillespie, produced by legendary jazz recording genius Rudy van Gelder andWithin Earshot, featuring classical works by Shostakovich, Ginastera, Dvorak, Liszt and others. 

Boston Brass has two holiday recordings, Christmas Bells are Swingin’, and The Stan Kenton Christmas Carols, featuring the Boston Brass All-Stars Big Band playing the truly phenomenal charts made popular by the Stan Kenton Orchestra. Boston Brass tours a vibrant holiday show each year featuring many of the charts from these two albums, combined with a variety of solo and combo selections and some fun surprises, which has quickly established the show as a perennial audience favorite. 

Boston Brass

Christmas Bells are Swingin’

DATE: Sunday, Dec. 8, 2pm

This all-brass ensemble – made up of trumpets, French horns, trombones and tubas, with a jazz rhythm section – is well-known for their great music and boisterous fun.

A Vital Voice of American Roots Music - Martha Redbone

Martha Redbone is A multi-award-winning musician. the charismatic songstress is celebrated for her tasty gumbo of roots music that embodies Folk and mountain blues sounds of her childhood in the Appalachian hills of Kentucky mixed with the eclectic grit of her teenage years in pre-gentrified Brooklyn.

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Redbone and her long-term collaborator, pianist/composer Aaron Whitby are called “the little engine that could” by their “band of NYC’s finest blues and jazz musicians” (Larry Blumenthal, Wall Street Journal). From grassroots beginnings with residencies at the original Living Room NYC, then Joe’s Pub and nationally at powwows across Indian Country in support of her debut album, Home of the Brave (“Stunning album, the kind of woman who sets trends,” according to Billboard). Redbone has built a passionate fan base with her mesmerizing presence and explosive live shows. Her album Skintalk is described as the soulful sound of “Earth, Wind and Fire on the Rez” (Native Peoples Magazine) and is recognized as an example of Contemporary Native American music in the Library Collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

The Redbone/Whitby team’s newest work is Bone Hill - The Concert, a devised, interdisciplinary musical theater work that brings to light an important piece of American history that has never been told. Inspired by the lives of Redbone’s family in the hills of coal mining Appalachia, Bone Hill - The Concert is the journey of a woman, Red, returning to her homeland in Black Mountain and the coalmines of Kentucky where her family has dwelled for centuries. As a contemporary multi-racial Cherokee/Shawnee and African American family, they are permanently bonded to their culture, identity and the mountain despite its violent past and the ever changing laws of the land that attempt to extinguish them.

The piece was commissioned by Joe’s Pub and the Public Theater NY Voices. Redbone received the NEFA National Theater Project Creation and Touring Grant, and the National Performance Network Creation Fund from Lincoln Center.

In addition to Bone Hill, the Redbone/Whitby team have completed commissions for Plurality of Privacy project for the New York Theater Workshop, and are contributing composers for Primer for a Failed Superpower directed by Rachel Chavkin. In 2018, the team composed music for Other Side of the Mountain/Flood in the Valley, an East-meets-West play for the Liangshan Theater Project in Sichuan, China – collaborating with the Yi minority – a mountain people, making connections between the Nuosu and Indigenous/African American mountain cultures.

Alongside her career as a recording artist and songwriter Martha Redbone has maintained a steady involvement with causes she believes in. Redbone is contracted by The Department of Indian Education - Louisiana, LaFourche Parish and teaches Southeastern Traditional Singing Workshop for the United Houma Nation’s Bayou Healers Cultural Enrichment Camp program.

Redbone was a 2015-16 Fellow of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. She guest lectures on subjects ranging from Indigenous rights to the role of the arts in politics and Native American identity at many institutions including New York University, the University of Michigan and University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Redbone includes workshops and motivational talks with grade school children as part of her touring schedule on numerous reservations including Red Lake, Min., Cherokee, NC; Yuma, Ariz. and Menominee, Wis., among others.

An exemplary ambassador for both Native and African-American Youth for the National HIV/Aids Partnership, she was awarded the Red Ribbon Award for Outstanding Leadership presented on World AIDS Day at the United Nations in 2005. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita ravaged the communities of the United Houma Nation on the Gulf Coast, Martha single-handedly helped generate publicity that raised more than $30,000.

Redbone also performed with Bonnie Raitt and the late Floyd Red Crow Westerman and helped raise over $130,000 in scholarships for the Heart of the Earth Foundation where 12 outstanding Native American students who have overcome adversity receive full tuition to study in higher education. Currently, Martha advocates for Why Hunger’s Artists Against Hunger and Poverty program which raises awareness of poverty and hunger in the United States, with particular attention to Appalachia in Martha’s instance. Redbone supports the Man Up Campaign, the global youth movement to eradicate violence against women and girls for which she served as the indigenous affairs consultant and creative adviser. She is particularly proud of her accomplishment in having the Campaign’s Board of Directors include an Indigenous North American contingent (independent of the U.S.) to the roll call of 50 countries taking part in their Youth Leadership Summit held at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Redbone is currently an Advisory Board member of The Carlisle Indian School Project.

Martha Redbone: Native Roots, Rhythm and Blues

DATE: Saturday, Nov. 16, 7:30 pm

Martha Redbone is one of today’s most vital voices in American Roots music. A multi award-winning musician, the charismatic songstress is celebrated for her tasty gumbo of folk and mountain blues.

Print-At-Home and Walton Arts Center App Place Theater At Your Fingertips

Purchase tickets on-the-go — without worrying about making it to will call or losing tickets — with print-at-home tickets and the Walton Arts Center Ticket App.

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Patrons can now get their tickets emailed to them. The default delivery method for Walton Arts Center tickets purchased after November 1 will be email.

That means after placing a ticket order, you will receive two emails. One will be an order confirmation. The other is a PDF event ticket sent from info@waltonartscenter.org. The ticket can be printed at home or saved on a cell phone and simply scanned at the door.

However, patrons can still choose to have tickets held at will call at no additional charge or have tickets mailed for a $3 processing fee. Orders with 10 or more tickets, season subscriptions or group tickets, will still be mailed or held for pick up at will call for no additional charge

Use our mobile app to purchase tickets and receive day-of-show notifications. Walton Arts Center Tickets App is now available from Google Play™ or the Apple® App Store. The app allows patrons to purchase tickets at either Walton Arts Center or the Walmart AMP one week after a show goes on sale to the public. Patrons can also view information about shows at both venues, and by turning on push-notifications they will be able to stay updated on the latest weather alerts, show information and special offers. Search “Walton Arts Center Tickets” to download on the App Store and Google Play. For any questions on ticket delivery options, please call our box office at 479.443.5600.

Walton Arts Center
Box Office Info

Monday-Friday / 10am-6pm (lobby hours 10am-2pm)
Saturday / noon-4pm
Box Office #: 479.443.5600

Give The Gift of Live Performance This Season

Save the hassle of going store to store and impulse buying your way through Your holiday list. Make one stop at Walton Arts Center and give everyone what they want this season. And the best part, the more you buy the more you save!

Take a look at some upcoming shows that are a great start to your holiday shopping cart. From family-fun performances, date nights or even shows for the littlest patrons, give the gift of excellent experiences instead of things and get a great deal with a Create Your Own Subscription.

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A Christmas Story: The Musical

Dec. 10-15, 2019 | 8 shows!

Nominated for three 2013 Tony Awards including Best Musical, the Associated Press calls A Christmas Story: The Musical “a joyous Christmas miracle,” while The New York Times writes “I was dazzled. You’d have to have a Grinch-sized heart not to feel a smile spreading across your face.”

Great for all ages!

Piano Battle

Jan. 30, 2020

The brainchild of internationally acclaimed pianists Andreas Kern and Paul Cibis, Piano Battle sees the duo go head-to-head on stage, charming and enchanting the audience with a variety of classical pieces. The show is divided into several rounds, each featuring a certain musical style.

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

Feb. 27, 2020

Founded in 1974 by a group of ballet enthusiasts, The Trocks, as the dancers are affectionately known, are a company of critically acclaimed professional male dancers performing the full range of ballet and modern dance repertoire, but incorporating and exaggerating the foibles, accidents and underlying incongruities of serious dance.

Jesse Cook

Jan. 10, 2020

After 16 years of musical training, Jesse Cook’s ability as a performer came to widespread public attention when a cable television company played his recordings as piped in background music for the channel guide.

Delivering notes like no other musician in this field, the twists and turns of genres and mood swings articulate a wide range of emotions that make Jesse Cook’s performances an especially moving musical experience.

The Peking Acrobats

Feb. 25, 2020

The newest generation of Peking Acrobats mixes high-tech special effects and awe-inspiring acrobatic feats with traditional Chinese music and instruments, creating an exuberant show with the festive pageantry of a Chinese Carnival.

They perform daring maneuvers and display their technical prowess with such arts as trick-cycling, precision tumbling, juggling, somersaulting and gymnastics, pushing the limits of human ability, and defying gravity with amazing displays of contortion, flexibility and control.

Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood LIVE!

Feb. 8, 2020

“Won’t you be my neighbor?” Daniel Tiger and all of his friends from the beloved PBS KIDS television series and Fred Rogers Productions are hopping aboard Trolley and heading to Fayetteville!

This live theatrical production is filled with music, dancing, laughter and “grr-ific” surprises that will warm the hearts of multiple generations.

Best for ages 3+

VoiceJam Competition

April 4, 2020

Come cheer on these harmonizing, beat-boxing, mind-blowing groups and cast your vote for aca-fan favorite!

Bollywood Boulevard

April 23, 2020

The vibrancy, emotion and heart-pounding beat of Hindi cinema comes to life on stage with Bollywood Boulevard! Dance, live music, storytelling and stunning visuals combine to create a non-stop journey through more than 100 years of Bollywood movies.

Windmill Theatre Company’s Beep

May 1-2, 2020

What is this annoying interruption to Mort’s breakfast molly melon? Who is this noisy robot girl, and how will she find her home? With Windmill’s trademark design, gentle storytelling, music and puppetry, Beep is a slightly sideways tale about unexpected friendship, finding where you fit and learning to mix it up a little.

Best for ages 2+

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Buy Now and Save $ on each ticket!

With so many great options, it’s hard to choose just one show! With the Create Your Own subscription package, when you buy more, you save more. It’s that simple!

3 show Package - $2 off each

5 show package - $3 off each

7 Show package - $5 off each

Celebrate Arkansas Shares the Story Behind the Farce That You Don't Want to Miss

Rags-To-Riches Comedy from Across the Pond Makes Its Way To Northwest Arkansas Audiences. The Play That Goes Wrong will have you in stitches in your seat at Walton Arts Center.

Celebrate Arkansas Goes BEHIND-THE-CURTAIN of THE NATIONAL TOUR IN October’s ARTICLE. Learn More About the Mystery…

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If ever there were truth in advertising, it’s the hit British comedy The Play That Goes Wrong, says producer Kevin McCollum. “I’ve got to tell you, it’s been a pleasure having a show that I can market, and it is exactly what it says it is!” McCollum (Rent, Avenue Q) has teamed up with famed writer/producer J.J. Abrams (Star Wars, Star Trek, Lost) to present this international sensation about a hilariously disastrous production of a murder mystery here in the United States. Abrams saw the show in London, when he took a Star Wars: The Force Awakens. “I was amazed by the whole construction of it,” he says. “The way it was put together. The rhythm of it. The cleverness. The brilliance of the performers.”

The show is the brainchild of three graduates of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art — Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields and Henry Lewis. Sayer says the three men, who performed improv comedy, “were all living together in West London in a little flat in Gunnersbury. “We were working different day jobs,” Sayer says. “I was working at a telephone call center, Henry was working at a burger joint, the other Henry was working in a pub. And we would come home in the evenings, and we’d start writing together.”

Fans of British comedy, from silent film to Mr. Bean, Fawlty Towers and Monty Python, they drew upon their own theater disaster stories to craft a script filled with outrageous slapstick calamities, Sayer says. “There’s always a little bit of some kind of experience we’ve had, that informs some of the moments,” he explains. “But, obviously we take it to a much, much more excruciating place.”

An hour-long version of The Play That Goes Wrong opened in 2012 at the Old Red Lion Pub in North London, with sets, costumes and props the company members (Mischief Theatre) designed themselves. “When we started, there was an audience of about four people,” Shields says. But word of mouth helped grow the audiences and propel the show to the Trafalgar Studios in the West End, where the show acquired producers to take it on tour in the U.K. The producers said, “Well look, you’ve got half of the show,” Sayer remembers. “Now you need to have a second act.”

So, as the three writer/actors worked on a second act, they teamed up with set designer Nigel Hook to come up with more catastrophic theatrical misfortunes. “We wrote down a list of big visual effects that we’d love to have,” Sayer says. And, Shields adds, “We got pretty much everything that we asked for.” Hook’s two-level set, which won a 2017 Tony Award for scenic design, provides a cascading series of malfunctions, beginning with simple effects like doors sticking and pictures falling off the wall, to some truly spectacular and sidesplitting disasters. U.S. producer Kevin McCollum calls it a “set with personality,” which is “the antagonist” to the 10 actors in the show. “It’s man against the elements,” he says, “and it’s very, very powerful stuff.”

Shields says another key to the expansion of the show was to discover how they could “find one joke and then find 10 other jokes that come out of it.” He points to the large grandfather clock on the set, “Just that one prop is used over and over again. The hands come off the clock face; people walk into it; people get stuck inside it; we play a scene to the clock.” The results are “that I think there are more than a thousand jokes in the show, if you include every little laugh,” he says. “Because we get a laugh at least every six or seven seconds, I believe.”

After the U.K. tour, the new and improved play returned to London to the Duchess Theatre on the West End in 2014, where it captured the Olivier award for Best New Comedy. It’s still running. The Play That Goes Wrong is now the longest-running play on Broadway and has been produced in cities across the globe. “One of the most amazing things about having the show running all over the world is to be able to go and see different people in completely different cultures in completely different countries really laughing and enjoying the show,” Lewis says. “To see people in Norway laughing the same way that they’re laughing in Mexico or in Moscow, or all these different places, is really, really great.”

“It’s too easy to find reasons to be depressed and terrified and unsure and disheartened in this moment.” Abrams adds. “And finding something that is pure, unadulterated, hysterically funny, and bighearted piece of entertainment is no small thing. I think one of the reasons that people are laughing as hard as they are at this show is not just that it is so funny, but also that people are so desperate to have a good time. It’s not just about being distracted by the world; it’s about remembering that one of the great reasons we are alive is to come together and to laugh. And The Play That Goes Wrong does that.”

The Play That Goes Wrong

DATES: Nov. 12-17

Welcome to opening night of The Murder at Haversham Manor where things are quickly going from bad to utterly disastrous.

“Non-Stop Laughs” Take the Stage in The Play That Goes Wrong

The Play That Goes Wrong shows that there’s no denying the hilarity of a troupe that unfailingly turns can-do into can-don’t.

It’s a stage manager’s worst nightmare — and an audience’s cue for side splitting laughter. Corpses refuse to lie still. Mispronunciations run rife. Acting styles, if you can dignify these bungling hams with that term, clash.

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Absolutely everything is right about the transfer of Mischief Theatre’s award-winning Broadway production of The Play That Goes Wrong. While “non-stop laughs” has become something of a hackneyed soundbite, here it’s a 100% accurate appraisal of this hysterically funny British farce of the highest order; literally not a minute goes by in which the audience isn’t howling, from before the show officially begins until the final bows. So be sure to be in your seat early, and don’t forget to read the program, so you won’t miss the clever pre-show set-up of what’s to come.

Written by the uproarious Mischief team of Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, and Jonathan Sayer, and directed with full-out zaniness by Matt DiCarlo (following the original Broadway direction by Mark Bell), the self-referencing theatrical spoof (which, for its world premiere in London, won the prestigious Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2015) is in the format of a play-within-a-play, in which a university drama society presents a fictitious 1920s mystery called The Murder at Haversham Manor. When an unending series of “minor mishaps” wreaks havoc on opening night, the amateur cast and production team take the old maxim “the show must go on” to the extreme and continue their disastrous performance with die hard commitment till the sidesplitting end.

The show’s laugh-out-loud lunacy encompasses everything from mispronunciations, misplaced props, and mismatched action and dialogue, to missed cues, misaligned spotlights, and a malfunctioning set, along with an array of witty wordplay, sight gags, spit takes, slapstick and pratfalls. For all of the faux calamities to be believable, the timing must be impeccable, and it is, as executed with aplomb by a game ensemble that never misses a beat in the increasingly rapid-fire misfires, and never fails to trigger guffaws from the audience with the laughably convincing ‘bad performances’ of the nonprofessional characters (which is perhaps the most difficult challenge for the terrifically talented actors).

The Play that Goes Wrong

DATES: Nov. 12-17

If you love to laugh, then The Play That Goes Wrong is the right choice for you. It is escapist comedy at its most outrageous, so plan your escape now to Walton Arts Center to enjoy the engagement of this irrepressible hit.

A 2-Hour Beach Vacation Takes the Stage and Celebrate Arkansas Has the Scoop

Jimmy Buffett’s Escape to Margaritaville IS COMING TO WALTON ARTS CENTER STAGE

Tour director Amy Anders Corcoran gives up the behind-the-scenes scoop on the National Tour in Celebrate’s September Article.

ARTICLE BY MARISA LYTLE OF CELEBRATE ARKANSAS

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Want a vacation but can’t quite make it to the beach this year? Walton Arts Center may have just the thing for you when it brings the Broadway musical Escape to Margaritaville to the stage in October. Fayetteville will be the fifth stop on the national tour, just before the show travels to Springfield, Mo., and Little Rock, Ark., making Northwest Arkansas audiences the first in the region to see the show.

“It’s a fun party,” says Amy Corcoran, tour director for Escape to Margaritaville. “It’s like you’re going to the beach, and there’s a party, and everyone’s invited. There’s so much joy and so much laughter, and we could all use that these days. There’s great stuff in there — great music, great crowd scenes, a great story, a really fun cast — a 2.5-hour party.”

Shelly Lynn Walsh as Tammy, Peter Michael Jordan as Brick, Chris Clark as Tully, Sarah Hinrichsen as Rachel in Jimmy Buffett’s ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE. © Matthew Murphy

Escape to Margaritaville is a musical comedy featuring both original songs and the most beloved Jimmy Buffett classics, such as “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” “Volcano,” “Fins,” and many more. Margaritaville is the place that people go to get away from it all — and stay to find something they never expected — in this musical with a book by Emmy Award® winner Greg Garcia (My Name is Earl, Raising Hope) and Emmy Award nominee Mike O’Malley (Survivors Remorse, Shameless). Entertainment Weekly enthuses, “It will knock your flipflops off!” while USA Today tags it, “A little slick of paradise!”

Audiences can sit back and enjoy both tunes they recognize and new tunes that will grab their attention. Corcoran herself says that although she was unfamiliar with many Jimmy Buffett songs before becoming involved in the project, she is now obsessed with his music. “You don’t have to be a Jimmy Buffett fan going into the show already,” she attests. “It’s a big Broadway, splashy musical with all the things you expect — great orchestrations and good choreography, and costumes, and really good performers. You’ll come in and have a great time.”

Corcoran started working with Escape to Margaritaville as the associate director of the show when it opened on Broadway in 2018. Having just wrapped up a job directing a mini-tour of Disney’s Freaky Friday, Corcoran joined Margaritaville for its pre-Broadway tour and then for its 5-month stint on Broadway. The process, she says, was a lot of fun because Buffett himself was around, the writers were there and both very funny, and the whole team was respectful of the process and supported the philosophy that “the best idea wins,” no matter where it comes from.

Company of the National Tour, Jimmy Buffett’s ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE. © Matthew Murphy

Transitioning the show from a Broadway stage in New York City to heading out on the national tour is quite a feat, considering that the set had to be redesigned for traveling, to go quickly up and quickly down, and an all-new cast has to meet and learn to work together. “When you walk into rehearsal the first day, the cast is usually nervous; they don’t really know what they’re going to get into,” Corcoran says. “Those first few days you’re trying to crack the nut of who are these people and what do they want; that part of the process is always really special to me.”

From the initial rehearsal to the previews of the national tour before it launches from Providence, R.I., in late September, the entire development period will take only about five weeks. Then, cast and crew will head out on the road together for at least a year, becoming much like a family in the process. “I’m really excited about the cast we have,” Corcoran says. “I love what we do so much. I love collaborating, and everyone’s always ready to work. Everybody’s on their game.”

Specializing in new works, Corcoran is the US Creative Associate for London’s Aria Entertainment, and she helps cultivate the festival From Page to Stage in London every year. Amy received the SDC Noel Coward Fellowship for Comedic Direction and holds a BA in Psychology with Honors from the University of Kansas and an MFA in Directing from Penn State University.

Escape to Margaritaville

Oct. 22–27

Tickets start at $32

Ticketholders can add on tickets to a Tropical Garden Party for just $15 Oct. 26 from 4:30 to 7:30 pm in the Rose Garden. Tickets include live music, and proceeds go to support Serve NWA New Beginnings Community.

Buffett Hits & New Music Take the Stage in Escape to Margaritaville

Welcome to Margaritaville, where people come to get away from it all—and stay to find something they never expected.

Enjoy a two-hour beach vacation at the hilarious and heartwarming musical with the most unforgettable songs from one of music's greatest storytellers—Jimmy Buffett. USA Today calls it “A little slice of paradise!” and Entertainment Weekly raves, “It will knock your flip-flops off!” So don't let the party start without you at Walton Arts Center.

Would you call yourself a Parrothead? Or, just brushing up on your Jimmy Buffet song knowledge? Check out the background of some of Buffett’s hits and get ready for the island musical, Escape to Margaritaville.

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Shelly Lynn Walsh as Tammy, Peter Michael Jordan as Brick, Chris Clark as Tully, Sarah Hinrichsen as Rachelin Jimmy Buffett’s ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE. © Matthew Murphy

“Fins”

"Fins" is a song written by Buffett, Coral Reefer Band members Deborah McColl and Barry Chance, and author Tom Corcoran. It was first released on his 1979 album Volcano. It reached No. 35 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 42 on the Easy Listening chart.

The title refers to the fins of metaphorical sharks, i.e. "land sharks," men who attempt to pick up the woman who is the subject of the song.

“It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere”

"It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" is a song performed by Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett, and written by Jim "Moose" Brown and Don Rollins. It was released on Jackson's compilation album Greatest Hits Volume II. It spent eight non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in summer of 2003. In addition, the song hit No. 17 on the US Hot 100, making it the biggest pop hit for Jackson and the first top forty hit for Buffett since the 1970s.

“Why Don’t We Get Drunk”

Rachel Lyn Fobbs as Marley, Matthew James Sherrod as Jamaland Companyin Jimmy Buffett’s ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE. © Matthew Murphy

The song is a parody of standard country music love songs. Buffett states that he made the song "as a total satire [and] wasn't even going to put it on the album. We did it foolin' around in one take. But immediately that song became controversial, and there were jukebox sales." The song is a fan favorite and, up until the 2007 Bama Breeze tour, was almost always performed at Buffett's live concerts.

“Son of a Son of a Sailor”

"Son of a Son of a Sailor" is the opening track of the 1978 album of the same name. The song is a fan favorite, although it was not a concert staple until the 2005 Salty Piece of Land tour. The song has gone through several changes during live performances over the years. See what style they go with in Escape to Margaritaville.

“Margaritaville”

This song was written about a drink Buffett discovered at Lung's Cocina del Sur restaurant on Anderson Lane in Austin, Texas, and the first huge surge of tourists who descended on Key West, Florida around that time. He wrote most of the song one night at a friend's house in Austin, and finished it while spending time in Key West. In the United States, "Margaritaville" reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and went to number one on the Easy Listening chart, also peaking at No. 13 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Billboard ranked it No. 14 on its 1977 Pop Singles year-end chart. It remains Buffett's highest charting solo single. "Margaritaville" has been inducted into the 2016 Grammy Hall of Fame for its cultural and historic significance

“Volcano”

The song and album are named for the then-dormant Soufrière Hills volcano on the island of Montserrat in the British West Indies where Buffett recorded the album in May 1979 at AIR Studios. The studio was destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and Soufrière Hills erupted again in 1995. The lyrics describe the narrator's anxiety about his possible whereabouts following the impending eruption of a volcano.

Shelly Lynn Walsh as Tammy and Peter Michael Jordan as Brick in Jimmy Buffett’s ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE. © Matthew Murphy

“Cheeseburger in Paradise”

The song is about a man who "is trying to amend his carnivorous habits" with health food such as sunflower seeds, but it was inspired by the artist's experience: he had been forced to eat only canned food and peanut butter due to a boating mishap in the Caribbean, but eventually made it to landfall and managed to order the song's titular dish in paradise.

“Come Monday”

Buffett wrote the song to his wife while he was on tour. At a live performance in 1974, Buffett mentioned that he had written the song heading out to California the previous year, meaning that it would have been written as he was "heading up to San Francisco for the Labor Day Weekend show" in 1973. The single version replaces the third line, "I've got my Hush Puppies on," with "I've got my hiking shoes on."

Company of the National Tour,Jimmy Buffett’s ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE. © Matthew Murphy

It is one of Buffett's more popular songs, and is part of "The Big 8" that he has played at almost all of his concerts, typically changing the line "I just can't wait to see you again" to "It's so nice to be in...(location of show)...again".

“One Particular Harbor”

Buffett has said in radio interviews about the song that he wrote it while travelling the islands and that he was moved to write it one afternoon during his journeys, as he sat on the balcony of his hotel room watching the local children (memorialized in the lyric "Where children play on the shore each day").

The song begins with lyrics in Tahitian:

Ia ora te natura
E mea arofa teie ao nei

The translation given is:

Nature lives (life to nature)
Have pity for the Earth (Love the Earth)

It concludes with the same verse plus:

Ua pau te maitai no te fenua
Re zai noa ra te ora o te mitie

This is translated as:

Bounty of the land is exhausted
But there's still abundance on the sea.

Enjoy all of these songs, and more, at Jimmy Buffett’s Escape to Margaritaville, playing at Walton Arts Center on Oct. 22-27. Come for the island-vibes and escape the day to day in the comfort of the theater.

You can also add-on our Friday cocktail class and Saturday Tropical Garden Party from 4:30-7:30 pm.

Shelly Lynn Walsh as Tammy, Peter Michael Jordan as Brick, Chris Clark as Tully, Sarah Hinrichsen as Rachelin Jimmy Buffett’s ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE. © Matthew Murphy

JIMMY BUFFETT'S

Escape to Margaritaville

DATES: Oct. 22-27

LOCATION: Baum Walker Hall at Walton Arts Center

TICKETS: starting at $32

Powerful & Joyous Theater - The Nature of Forgetting

At the intersection of art and science, The Nature of Forgetting bursts with creativity, joy and heartache.

Collaborating with London neuroscientist Kate Jeffery, Theatre Re has created a moving articulation of the countless dimensions of memory and amnesia, linking science with real life experiences.

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The Nature of Forgetting follows the story of 55-year old Tom, a man living with early onset dementia. On his birthday, we watch as he fights to keep his memories alive, and we are taken back to his school days, where he meets his future wife Isabella. Through a series of intense physical sequences, primarily made up of a theatrical dialogue spanning the intersection of mime and physical theater, we see Tom discover the innate, human sense of presence and belonging that will always survive even when memory is gone.

Speeding along in just over an hour and fifteen minutes, The Nature of Forgetting is nothing short of fast-paced, and its ensemble of performers must be commended for their relentless energy as they navigate the turbulent pulses of their vignettes of physical theatre. Bound together by both performative and design motifs, there is a real sense of slickness present within their work – and as a physical representation of the often chaotic fluidity of memory, The Nature of Forgetting works well.

THEATRE RE’S

The Nature of Forgetting

10x10 Arts Series - Tickets are just $10

DATE: Tuesday, Nov. 5, 7pm

The Rocky Horror Picture Show & Halloween Party

Rocky Horror is a legend of cult cinema - one of the few movies that has earned that title again and again.

The film follows what appears to be a wholesome couple, Brad and Janet (Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon), as they stay the night at a spooky old mansion owned by Dr. Frank N. Furter (Tim Curry, in the performance that rocketed him to stardom). What ensues is a celebration of kitsch, camp, horror and science fiction cinema, a musical that makes very little logical sense but is a ton of fun.

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Join Us For A Halloween Party You’ll Never Forget!

Ultra Suede will take the stage at 7 pm to kick off the party, costume contests, drink specials, Time Warp dance and movie to follow. Bring your own props or buy a bag at concessions to fully participate in all aspects of the fun!

*Approved BYOP (Bring Your Own Props)

• You'll want to remember to pack your sequined evening bag with these approved props: Newspaper, Flashlight, Rubber Gloves, Noisemakers (Kazoos), Toilet Paper, Toast (unbuttered!), Party Hats, Cowbell and Cards!

• Prop bags will also be available for purchase from concessions ($10).

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About 20 minutes into the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, an elevator door opens and the actor Tim Curry steps out. His face is heavily mascaraed, the portrait of a commedia dell’arte drag queen. Everything below that striking visage is covered in a magnificent cape. He struts out, to the beat of a Stonesian guitar riff, and a few moments later he turns and rips off the cape: We can see he sports a glistening string of giant pearls and, not least, a silver-spangled ensemble of women’s lingerie.

It was originally a campy U.K. production called The Rocky Horror Show. The movie version, which was brought to America by producer and manager Lou Adler, became an unaccountable cult hit for years and then decades, and now takes its place on the list of the most profitable films of all time. While this anniversary has been duly noted, the film’s real sociological significance has not been.

The film, if you haven’t seen it, is a potent but gentle rock musical with a slate of irresistibly catchy songs. The story is a pastiche: a magnanimous spoof of old-time horror and sci-fi movies. Many of those old movies were black and white, but it’s one of the film’s charms that it’s filled with jarring colors and a goofy cast of characters. It opens with a pair of luscious red lips singing the opening song, which name-checks some of the film’s beloved predecessors:

 Michael Rennie was ill
The Day the Earth Stood Still
But he told us where we stand
And Flash Gordon was there
In silver underwear
Claude Rains was the Invisible Man … 

The story follows a hopelessly square couple, Brad and Janet, who get a flat in a rainstorm and end up at a mysterious mansion. This turns out to be the domain of Curry’s character, who is a mad scientist, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, who oversees, in sometimes sadistic fashion, a cast of supporting freaks. One of these is his Igor-like assistant, Riff Raff, played by Richard O’Brien, the show’s creator. They are aliens, we are given to understand, from the planet Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania. The film’s masterful, lancing conceit is to make Frank-N-Furter a hugely likable, genially sex-crazy transvestite who preaches a mantra of “absolute pleasure.” His fateful project is to create a Frankenstein’s monster — a hunka-hunka burning bodybuilder named Rocky. Frank-N-Furter’s issues are sometimes just kinky — there’s a set of video feeds that capture the mansion’s various shenanigans on video, for example, and he’s not above making his guests perform in a naughty floor show. But they can also be more severe: He can be homicidal and even — gulp — a cannibal, but we forget that as he cheerfully debauches both members of the young couple. The good doctor looks spectacular in a bustier, but things don’t end well. He’s deemed “too extreme” by his overlords and is spectacularly dispatched by Riff Raff.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Halloween Party

DATE: Thursday, Oct. 31 - 7 pm (music starts) & 9 pm (movie starts)

Hear Ye, Hear Ye & See With Thine Own Eyes- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised]

All 37 plays in 97 minutes! Three madcap men in tights weave their wicked way through all of Shakespeare's comedies, histories, and tragedies in one wild ride that will leave you breathless and helpless with laughter.

An irreverent, fast-paced romp through the Bard's plays, THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) was London's longest-running comedy.

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“PITHIER THAN PYTHON. IRRESISTIBLE.” - The NEW YORK TIMES

An irreverent, fast-paced romp through the Bard’s plays, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) was London’s longest-running comedy having clocked a very palpable nine years in London’s West End at the Criterion Theatre! Join these madcap men in tights as they weave their wicked way through all of Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories and Tragedies in one wild ride that will leave you breathless and helpless with laughter.

“STUPENDOUS, ANCHORLESS JOY!” - THE TIMES OF LONDON

The Reduced Shakespeare Company is a three-man comedy troupe that takes long, serious subjects and reduces them to short, sharp comedies. Since 1981, ‘The Bad Boys of Abridgement’ have created nine stage shows, two television specials, several failed TV pilots and numerous radio pieces – all of which have been performed, seen, heard and translated into Klingon the world over.

“ROLLICKING, FAST-MOVING AND HILARIOUS!” - THE GUARDIAN

The company’s first three shows, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), The Complete History of America (abridged) and The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged) enjoyed a nine-year run at the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus. Not only were they London’s longest-running comedies, but at one point the Reduced Shakespeare Company had more shows running in the West End than Andrew Lloyd Webber. Some of them were funnier too…

“IF YOU LIKE SHAKESPEARE, YOU’LL LOVE THIS SHOW. IF YOU HATE SHAKESPEARE YOU’LL LOVE THIS SHOW!” - THE TODAY SHOW

Warning! This show is a high-speed roller-coaster type condensation of all of Shakespeare’s plays and is not recommended for people with heart ailments, bladder problems, inner-ear disorders, outer-ear disorders, Shakespearean scholars, degrees in Elizabethan history and/or people inclined to motion sickness.

HISTORIES

Henry IV, Part I
Henry IV, Part II
Henry V
Henry VI, Part I
Henry VI, Part II
Henry VI, Part III
Henry VIII
King John
Pericles
Richard II
Richard III

COMEDIES

All's Well That Ends Well
As You Like It
Comedy of Errors
Love's Labour's Lost
Measure for Measure
Merchant of Venice
Merry Wives of Windsor
Midsummer Night's Dream
Much Ado about Nothing
Taming of the Shrew
Tempest
Twelfth Night
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Winter's Tale

TRAGEDIES

Antony and Cleopatra
Coriolanus
Cymbeline
Hamlet
Julius Caesar
King Lear
Macbeth
Othello
Romeo and Juliet
Timon of Athens
Titus Andronicus
Troilus and Cressida

Reduced Shakespeare Company

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)[revised]

DATE: Thursday, Oct. 17, 7pm

These theater classics undergo some changes, of course – Titus Andronicus becomes a cooking show, Othello is summarized in rap and Hamlet is pared down to under a minute. But you’re sure to be mightily entertained by the madcap goings-on, which include satire, sight gags, improvisation, audience participation and more!

The Legendary Music of Lyle Lovett

Lovett's music career began as a songwriter. while typically associated with the country genre, Lovett's compositions often incorporate folk, swing, blues, jazz and gospel music.

He has won four Grammy Awards, including Best Country Album (The Road to Ensenada, 1996), Best Country Duo/Group with Vocal ("Blues For Dixie" with the Texas swing group Asleep at the Wheel, 1994), Best Pop Vocal Collaboration ("Funny How Time Slips Away" with Al Green, 1994) and Best Country Male Vocal (Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, 1989).

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A demo tape of Lovett's music made its way to MCA Records in 1984 and the label immediately began drafting a recording contract. Lovett signed with MCA/Curb in 1986 and released his self-titled debut album that year to positive reviews.

The singles "Farther Down the Line," "Cowboy Man," "God Will," "Why I Don't Know" and "Give Back My Heart" all reached the country Top 40. It was clear that Lovett was a country music success, but it was also very obvious that his style didn't rely on the genre entirely even though his sound was rooted in country.

Lyle Lovett was a success, peaking at No. 14 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, but his sophomore effort, 1987's Pontiac, is what really affirmed his talent. It was decidedly less country than his debut, but it still received rave reviews from country and mainstream critics, making Lovett a crossover success.

Pontiac introduced Lovett to a pop audience. While his success in that market grew, his country audience shrank. "She's No Lady" and "I Loved You Yesterday" was the last of his singles to crack the country Top 30.

Lovett's country audience may have been dwindling, but that certainly wasn't an indication of his future. Pontiac brought him an entirely new mainstream pop fan base and a loyal following. Lovett stayed true to his eclecticism, assembling a modified big band, His Large Band, which incorporated a range of instruments including guitars, cello, piano, a horn section and a backup singer, gospel trained Francine Reed.

Lyle Lovett and His Large Band was released in early 1989. Critics and fans lauded the album, which eventually went gold. The album was heavily influenced by jazz, R&B and swing, but it still managed to produce the minor country hit "I Married Her Just Because She Looks Like You." His rendition of Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man" also received a good deal of attention.

Lovett relocated to Los Angeles and spent the next years cutting his fourth effort. He produced Walter Hyatt's King Tears, sang in Leo Kottke's Great Big Boy and covered "Friend of the Devil" for the Grateful Dead tribute album Deadicated. Then he starred in the Robert Altman film "The Player" in 1992 and met co-star Julia Roberts. The two wed after just three weeks of dating and embarked on a very high-profile yet short-lived marriage.

Lovett's fourth album, Joshua Judges Ruth, was released shortly after "The Player" premiered. The gospel and R&B-heavy album became his most successful release to date. Pop audiences revered the record, making Lovett a mainstream staple.

Lyle Lovett was given the Americana Music Association’s inaugural Trailblazer Award, and was named Texas State Musician.

Lyle Lovett and his Acoustic Group

DATE: Friday, Oct. 4, 8pm

Coupled with his gift for storytelling, the Texas based musician fuses elements of country, swing, jazz, folk, gospel and blues in a convention-defying manner that breaks down barriers.