What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1492945
Acoustic Rooster's Barnyard Boogie Starring Indigo Blume March 5 | Tickets start at $10 Ulysses Owens Jr.'s Generation Y March 4 Arkansas Filmmaker's Showcase Curated by Fayetteville Film Fest March 11 | Tickets $15 Complexions Contemporary Ballet's STAR DUST: From Bach to Bowie March 16 LADAMA March 30 | Tickets $10 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 1 5 Media support: KUAF | NWA Business Journal Upcoming Events SCAN for full season listing Show Underwriters: Anton & Linda Myers Series Sponsors: 6 What's up! February 19-25, 2023 Gabler Continued From Page 5 nature, specifically about the roles of women nature, in society, that I think are so needed to be heard at any given time but especially now. "Ibsen wrote deep three- dimensional characters far beyond their time period but products of their time period," she adds. Smith grew up on stage as a kid in Cleveland, Ohio, as did Post in Claremore and Tulsa, Okla. But while Post studied theater in college in New York, Smith chose the "practical" career path she was encouraged to take, getting a bachelor of arts in communications from St. Louis University. Post worked "as an actor, director, stage manager, producer — anything theater related, really" before deciding to pursue her MFA at the university. Smith spent about five years working in communications in the nonprofit sector in Cleveland before auditioning for a musical and finding her way into professional theater for another five years. UA professor Amy Herzberg recruited her for the MFA program in acting. "My passion for directing comes from my love of working with people, storytelling, and problem-solving, or 'putting it all together,'" says Post. "The reward is getting to work with designers and playwrights and actors with all of their different brains, which is never boring. "Hopefully our cast and crew learn how an old play can feel just as fresh as a new play with the right focus and intent, how much fun it can be to recontextualize a classic, and that, as with anything, the worth is the work put into it." Smith says there's also a personal dimension involved in playing Hedda — not letting the lonely and bitter character follow her home. "I've struggled with mental health issues for a large portion of my adult life, so this has been challenging but also cathartic in that I am able to see and understand where somebody like this is coming from," she says. "And it helps to come home and recognize that I have a lot more autonomy than Hedda did or that a lot of people do when they're stuck in a marriage or situation they can't get out of." Post leaves playgoers with both a warning and a promise. "Audiences should come in knowing it's a tragedy, so unfortunately there is no happy ending to this story," she says. "It is not a show to bring the kids to. But knowing that, you can be prepared to look for the reasons to appreciate it and recognize it for the cautionary tale that it was over 130 years ago and still is today."