What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1497676
BECCA MARTIN-BROWN NWA Democrat-Gazette S tephanie Freeman has a message for fans of live theater in Northwest Arkansas. "NWACC Theatre is here! Our students are AMAZING!" This is Freeman's first semester as professor of theater/theater program coordinator at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville, but she has a resume that speaks for her — Bachelor of Arts in English from The University of Alabama, Bachelor of Science in Theater Performance from Middle Tennessee State University and Master of Fine Arts in Theater (Acting Emphasis) from West Virginia University. She's also studied at Stella Adler Studio in New York, taught around Arkansas and performed with Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre and TheatreSquared. NWACC offers an Associate of Fine Arts in Theater with courses such as Playwriting, Acting, Directing, Theater History, Musical Theater Production, and Drama Practicum, and Freeman is delighted to be able to offer theater majors "opportunity — there's no waiting in line. We want to give you as many performance opportunities as we can!" She's also aware that many of her students aren't there to study theater. "Helping students find theater, most for the first time, and then, hopefully, fostering a lifelong passion for performing arts, is the goal of our program," she says. "We are very lucky to have these fantastic students bringing their talents, energy, and time" to the current project, a "quirky dramedy" titled "Circle Mirror Transformation." Written by Annie Baker, "Circle Mirror Transformation" opened Off- Broadway in 2009 and received the Obie Award for Best New American Play. Set in an adult creative drama class at a local community center, the play, according to Baker, lets the audience learn about the characters through formal theater exercises. "I knew I wanted there to be excruciating silences. I knew I wanted a doomed class romance that left one character embarrassed and the other heartbroken. I knew I wanted the characters to deliver monologues as each other … Eventually I realized that the fun of the play is the fact that it's confined to this dull, windowless little space." Critics called the play "absorbing, unblinking and sharply funny." "The artificiality of the acting games just emphasizes the naturalness of the characters' real lives and feelings," The New York Times wrote. "Group members pose as trees, beds and baseball gloves. They perform emotional scenes using only the words goulash and ak-mak. They pretend to be one another, telling their life stories. They write deep, dark secrets (anonymously) on scraps of paper and listen, sitting in a circle on the floor, as the confessions are read aloud." The characters are Marty, the APRIL 23-29, 2023 WHAT'S UP! 5 FAQ 'Circle Mirror Transformation' WHEN — 7 p.m. April 27-29 WHERE — White Auditorium (Burns Hall) at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville COST — $6-$8; tickets available at the door via cash, check or Venmo INFO — Email sfreeman7@nwacc. edu See NWACC Page 6 Freeman Theatre back at NWACC with 'quirky dramedy' Just Like Real Life NWACC actors rehearse for "Circle Mirror Transformation," a quirky dramedy set in an adult acting class. The show runs April 27-29 in White Auditorium (Burns Hall) at the Bentonville community college. (Courtesy Photo) BENTONVILLE