What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1490449
BECCA MARTIN-BROWN NWA Democrat-Gazette M organ understands comedy on a cellular level. She knows what works and what doesn't and how to mine a script for all it's worth. Beyond that, she knows how to find the beating heart of a play and marry it with the laughter, so any production directed by Morgan leaves you walking out of the theater feeling a bit better about our world." That's what Jenny Guy, artistic director of Tulsa Project Theatre, has to say about longtime friend and colleague Morgan Hicks, who is directing "Clue: On Stage" Jan. 27-Feb. 5 for the eastern Oklahoma theater company. "Through the years, when you are working in theater, you tend to find people that you love working with so much that you are constantly hoping and waiting for a chance to work with them again," Hicks returns the compliment. "That's the case with Jenny Guy. I have had the opportunity to work with her on a number of projects and have always had an amazing collaborative experience." It's not like Hicks doesn't have enough to do in Northwest Arkansas. She's just stepping into the role of interim head of the master of fine arts program in directing at the University of Arkansas. "That means that for at least the next three years, I will be serving as a primary mentor for the directing- emphasis graduate students," she explains. "I will work with them in classes, on their directing projects and their thesis productions," while also "staying connected to the undergraduate students and serving our department in any way it needs." She's also one of the founders of TheatreSquared, working with Bob Ford and Amy Herzberg to create a professional theater company in Fayetteville in 2004. "By a gift of timing, I was just about to graduate with my MFA [in directing]," she says. "Before I had come back to school, I had been working at a professional theater in Chicago — Writers Theatre — as their general manager, so we talked through all the steps of getting a new company off the ground, and I was excited to jump in and help convert the idea of a company into a reality. "For the first five years, I was wearing so many hats," Hicks remembers. "I was serving as the general manager and handling the day- to-day operations — I was the only TULSA 4 WHAT'S UP! JANUARY 22-28, 2023 FAQ 'Clue: On Stage' WHEN — 7:30 p.m. Jan. 27-28; 2 p.m. Jan. 29; again Feb. 3-5 WHERE — Lorton Performance Center at the University of Tulsa, 550 S. Gary Place in Tulsa, Okla. COST — $25 general admission INFO — tulsaprojecttheatre. com See Clue Page 38 In The Theater, With The Script T2's Morgan Hicks isn't playing games with 'Clue' "I grew up in Harrison, where I had the good fortune of being able to find my love for theater both in high school classes and at the local community theater," Morgan Hicks says. "I think I'm in that small percentage of the population that knew from earliest memory that I was going to be a theater artist for the rest of my life." (Courtesy Photo)