What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1455210
6 WHAT'S UP! FEBRUARY 27-MARCH 5, 2022 FAQ Josie & Grace WHEN — 7:30 p.m. March 8; postponed from Jan. 20 WHERE — Faulk- ner Performing Arts Center, 453 N. Garland Ave. in Fayetteville COST — $20 INFO — 575-5387, faulk- ner.uark.edu, uark. universitytickets. com 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 contempo- rary female pianists/ composers, 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 Spiel- berg in a recent inter- view. "It speaks to us when words fail, and expresses our deepest emotions." INFO — faulkner.uark. edu, robinspielberg. com More About Josephine Tymisha Harris is back as Baker in 'Josie & Grace' APRIL WALLACE NWA Democrat-Gazette I f someone says the name Josephine Baker, what springs to mind? The famous singer of the jazz age? The spy in World War II, celebrated for her part in aiding the French Resistance? Most people probably don't know much more than that, artistic director Michael Marinaccio and actress Tymisha Harris agree. That's a big part of the reason they created "Josie & Grace," a production that explores the life of Josephine Baker and her friendship with Grace Kelly. "It's a musical, it's history, and it'll make you laugh and cry, these incredible performances by remarkable women," Marinaccio says. "Josie & Grace" was originally scheduled for Jan. 20 at the Faulkner Performing Arts Center on the University of Arkansas campus, but due to covid-19 surges will finally take the stage March 8. Marinaccio started directing and producing in 1997 as a way to create the roles he wanted to play himself. Once he started working with Harris in 2015, he says he wanted to give her a starring role, something that would highlight her talents. Harris stars as Josephine in the musical. "Her life was so remarkable and extraordinary at the time that she became famous," she says. "It's a chunk of history that wasn't talked about." Marinaccio's first thought was to cast her as Tina Turner, until a friend mentioned Josephine Baker. Baker's story was so compelling to craft for the stage because "she did so much throughout her life … it was groundbreaking in so many ways but wasn't acknowledged, didn't get the respect it deserved." Baker rose to fame as an entertainer mostly in Europe. She married French industrialist Jean Lion and renounced her American citizenship in the mid-1930s. Her status as a performer at nightclubs gave her an unassuming excuse to travel the country and be privy to crucial conversations among German soldiers. She collected information on airfields and troop concentrations for French military intelligence and housed people helping the Free French effort, according to "Jazz Age Cleopatra." "She was a huge star who (became) a World War II hero, the wealthiest Black woman in the world, and the most famous woman in France," Marinaccio says. "It's incredible that people haven't heard all this." Marinaccio and Harris' collaboration first started with the creation of the play "Josephine," a one woman off- Broadway show, which was part cabaret and part dance to tell Baker's story. Its first run was in 2016, and it has become what Harris calls her bread and butter. Marinaccio and Harris wondered whether it would have legs for a wider audience, so they took it to the San Diego International Fringe Festival, where "Josephine" took home Best Show, and Harris was named Best performer. 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." "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. 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. Harris hopes it will inspire folks to take a friend of their own to see two remarkable female friends and support a new work. 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 Photos/Swamp Witch Photography) FAYETTEVILLE Tymisha Harris (left) returns to the role of Josephine Baker in "Josie & Grace," a look at Baker's friendship with Grace Kelly. The show was originally scheduled to stop Jan. 20 at the Faulkner Performing Arts Center in Fayetteville, but due to covid-19 concerns, it will now be performed March 8.