What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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Upcoming Events The Polar Express Dec. 23 | 2 Screenings! All aboard! Next stop… The North Pole. Put your PJs on and bring your whole family together to see this heartwarming holiday film on the big screen. Pop in for a family-friendly festive beverage and sweet treats at Holidaze before or after the screening! Opens daily at 5pm. Holidaze Now thru Dec. 23 Holidaze at Walton Arts Center is a family-friendly destination offering festive cocktails, non-alcoholic beverages, snacks and activities for kids and adults. Santa's coming down our chimney on Monday, Dec. 13! Don't miss your chance to get a photo with 'ol Saint Nick! Trike Theatre presents Digging Up Arkansas Jan. 22 | 2 SHOWS! This educational play produced and created by Walton Arts Center in partnership with Trike Theatre of Bentonville uses artifacts, songs, stories and student participation to teach Arkansas history from the year 1000-1936. Tickets just $10 for children and $15 for adults! Recommended for ages 9+. Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom Feb. 3 | Tickets $10! A new musical adapted from the award-winning memoir by Lynda Blackmon Lowery that tells her inspiring true story of being the youngest person to walk from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama during the Voting Rights March in 1965. A Conversation with Fran Lebowitz Feb. 4, 2022 Straight from her hit Netflix special "Pretend It's a City," directed by Martin Scorsese, get ready for a night of no-holds- barred conversation with the queen of "tell it like it is!" Known for her sardonic social commentary, the cultural satirist and purveyor of urban cool offers her acerbic view on- stage moderated by KUAF's Kyle Kellams. 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville, AR 72701 waltonartscenter.org | 479.443.5600 The Polar Express Series Sponsors: Holidaze Additional support provided by Eric & Elda Scott | Ted & Leslie Belden Media support: Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette | Northwest Arkansas Business Journal KUAF | KNWA Show Sponsors: Digging Up Arkansas Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom Fran Lebowitz Tickets and certificates make great gifts! 6 WHAT'S UP! DECEMBER 12-18, 2021 Mean Girls Continued From Page 5 you wish wouldn't happen anymore in your life, that all of a sudden [sometimes] you feel like you're right back in high school." And it is, quite simply, a great night in the theater, Vice President of Programming and Executive Producer Scott Galbraith adds. "It is really well- staged. It is so energetic. It moves beautifully. So even traditional musical theatergoers who appreciate that style, they will love the storytelling, contemporary music, phenomenal choreography." For Haley, who guesses she's seen the film upwards of 50 times, the story is a personal favorite. Haley originated the role of Gretchen in the touring version of the musical, and she spent several years prior to its 2018 debut auditioning for the cast. But her roots performing "Mean Girls" go even deeper than that. "I actually, in college, as like a college project, made my own 'Mean Girls' musical," she reveals. "It was for a dance class, where we had to adapt an existing work with music and choreograph an opening number. I did 'Mean Girls' … but I just used songs from the movie, so I had 'Milkshake' in it, I had 'Dancing With Myself' in it. It was really fun. "I never told Tina so, maybe one of these days I'll tell her that I did an unofficial 'Mean Girls' opener," Haley concludes with a laugh. "I love this character," she says, turning back to Gretchen. "I feel like there's not a person out there who hasn't been a little Gretchen-y in their lives. She's in the mean girl clique, but she also is horribly anxious and stressed out and trying to project something that she isn't in a way that is sometimes mean but always funny. And I think there's a heart in there that people know she's not a bad person, but she's just misguided — in a way that I think we all have been at some point in our lives." It's that relatability that Haley, Ross and Galbraith all earnestly point to as proof that the show isn't just a "chick flick." "Let me just tell you, my brother and dad love the show. My brother loves the movie; we all grew up on it," Haley demonstrates. "And I think it's a universal message of like, boy, girl, somewhere in between — everyone is trying to figure out who they are in whatever context. … We're all trying to fit in, trying to toe the line of being yourself, but then also pleasing the people around you. And so I think it's really for everyone. Take your girlfriends but also, like, grab your dad."