What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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"I was finishing 'Rock of Ages' and other things were coming to a close, and I realized I needed to try something different," she says. 'Josephine' created itself in our laps." Its first run was in 2016, and it has become what Harris calls her bread and butter. She finds a lot of parallels between her life and Josephine's, as a Black woman in her own show who's always trying something new and interacting with audiences all over the world. Now Harris is even the same age that Baker is in the play, which she believes gives her a unique perspective. "Bringing awareness and reacquainting/reintroducing people with her is such a great moment for me," Harris says. Some of the greatest moments of being Josephine are after the show, when she's met audience members who saw Baker perform when they were children. It's wonderful "to know they felt like I brought her alive … or that I'm opening their eyes to an icon in a beautiful, lovely way that's offering tribute to a story that was lost." Marinaccio and Harris wondered whether it would have legs for a wider audience, so they took it to the San Diego International Fringe Festival, which is full of independent producers floating their own work — a generally unjuried space that allows artists to create works entirely as they want. "Josephine" took home Best Show, and Harris was named Best performer. It showed us that "we're on to something special here. People responded to the story," Marinaccio says. "It was a huge gift." Marinaccio, Harris and script writer Tod Kimbro were working to expand the story from "Josephine" into a new, separate production "Josie & Grace" by May 2018. The story began to evolve into showcasing two icons because, Marinaccio says, there was plenty of evidence of Baker's friendship with Grace Kelly, but "not a lot written about it or the depth of relationship known." Baker lost her chateau and went bankrupt in 1968, but Kelly invited her to headline the Red Cross Gala. Then she offered her an apartment near Monaco, where Baker could bring the rainbow tribe, the 12 children of differing nationalities she adopted and raised. Kelly produced Baker's shows and later paid for her funeral. They buried her remains at Monaco during a private ceremony with royalty and the rainbow tribe. "So little is written about it," Marinaccio says. "That's what kept ringing for me." The connection to Grace Kelly also happens to be a great catalyst for American audiences to learn more about Josephine Baker, Marinaccio says, because Kelly was so much more famous here. "So much of our audience is older and white. To see them learn more of her, a woman who had to fight for everything she got, is rewarding," he says. Ever since they brought "Josephine" back from the San Diego International Fringe Festival and revamped it, they've been ready for more people to see it. What makes it exciting, they both say, is that it's a show about allyship and female friendship. "Josie & Grace" opened in May 2021 and quickly became winner of the Critic's Choice Award for Best Play, Musical at the 2021 Orlando International Fringe Festival. For Marinaccio and Harris, it's personally exciting in part because they're a couple and this is something they've created together. It's allowed them to travel together and do things they might not have otherwise. Harris hopes it will inspire folks to take a friend of their own to see two remarkable women in friendship and support a new work. 38 WHAT'S UP! JANUARY 16-22, 2022 PRESIDENT Brent A. Powers EDITOR Becca Martin-Brown 479-872-5054 bmartin@nwadg.com Twitter: NWAbecca REPORTERS April Wallace awallace@nwadg.com Monica Hooper mhooper@nwadg.com DESIGNER Deb Harvell ! UP WHAT'S ON THE COVER Arkansas Public Theatre celebrated the announcement of its Season 37 lineup at a Season Leaks party Jan. 14, and Fort Smith Little Theatre announced its 75th season this month. (SHUTTERSTOCK IMAGE) What's Up! is a publication of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. FAYETTEVILLE Josie & Grace Continued From Page 12 Baker lost her chateau and went bankrupt in 1968, but Kelly offered her an apartment near Monaco, produced Baker's shows and later paid for her funeral. (Courtesy Photo/Swamp Witch Photography) FYI Coming Soon! Robin Spielberg will be playing at the Faulkner Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. April 30. One of America's most popular contem- porary female pianists/compos- ers, she has been featured in live performances on such programs as "The Soul of Christmas: A Celtic Music Celebration with Thomas Moore" and "The Great American Ballroom Challenge" on PBS, CBS Saturday Morning, ABC News, Lifetime Live and NPR. "Music smoothes the rough edges of life," says Robin Spielberg in a recent interview. "It speaks to us when words fail, and expresses our deepest emotions." INFO — faulkner.uark.edu, robin- spielberg.com