What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1151243
8 WHAT'S UP! AUGUST 4-10, 2019 FYI WAC 2019-20 Broadway Season • Escape to Margaritaville* — Oct. 22-27 • The Play That Goes Wrong* — Nov. 12-17 • A Christmas Story: The Musical* — Dec. 10-15 • Once on This Island — Feb. 11-16, 2020 • Anastasia* — March 10-15, 2020 • Fiddler on the Roof — April 14-19, 2020 • The Band's Visit* — May 19-23, 2020 Add-Ons: • Blue Man Group "Speechless" — Sept. 10-19 • The Book of Mormon — July 21-26 COST — Seven-show subscription packages range from $316 to $515; Broadway subscriptions are on sale now, with single tickets coming soon. *Arkansas premiere That's The Whole Pointe WAC season reaches every corner of community COVER STORY JOCELYN MURPHY NWA Democrat-Gazette W hen it comes time to build each new season at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville, staff and organizers have to factor in so much more than artist availability, explains programming director Jennifer Ross. Are the performers artistically relevant? Are they wonderfully talented? Do they tell the right story? And, most importantly, do they speak to and are they inclusive of the Northwest Arkansas audience? The resulting eight series — in addition to the Broadway season — bring entertainment from all over the world to Fayetteville to captivate guests of all ages. Here, Ross and some of her coworkers look excitedly toward the coming year as they break down the full 2019-20 season. Several ticket packages for individual series are available for purchase already at 443-5600 or waltonartscenter.org. Create-your-own subscriptions begin Aug. 6, and individual tickets for most performances go on sale Aug. 9. But keep an eye out, as Ross promises a few more shows are likely to land on the season lineup before the autumn leaves fall. Arkansas BlueCross Blue Shield Family Fun Series SEPT. 10-19 — Blue Man Group: "Speechless" DEC. 22 — SoNA: "The Snowman: A Family Concert" FEB. 25 — The Peking Acrobats MARCH 7, 14, 21 — Trike Theatre: "Sideways Stories From Wayside School" "One thing that's great about working with Trike Theatre is, not only are we able to offer those performances as part of our public offering, we also offer those for our classroom series," Laura Goodwin, WAC vice president of learning and engagement, says of the venue's artistic affiliate. "So, kids will be coming with their schoolmates and talking about those big life questions, or coming with their families." 10x10 Arts Series "This year, 10x10 as a whole, it's a tour of the world," Ross begins proudly. "Tiempo Libre is Cuban-based; Nobuntu is African; Theatre Re is a theater company from England; Piano Battle [comes from Germany]; Ballet Memphis is not from Arkansas; Apollo's Fire are from Cleveland, Ohio; Socks in the Frying Pan is an Irish company; The Real Group is Swedish; and then 'Äbhä' is from an Indian company that's coming. And then we have the Artosphere Festival Orchestra, which is a mishmash of [artists] from all over the world!" OCT. 3 — Tiempo Libre OCT. 11 — Nobuntu NOV. 5 — Theatre Re's "The Nature of Forgetting" JAN. 30 — "Piano Battle" FEB. 6 — Ballet Memphis "Contempo- raryx3" FEB. 29 — Apollo's Fire - Baroque Orchestra "Vivaldi's Four Seasons: Rediscovered" MARCH 5 — Socks in the Frying Pan APRIL 3 — The Real Group APRIL 21 — "Äbhä" by Parshwanath Upadhye and Punyah Dance Company MAY 6 — Artosphere Festival Orchestra 10x10 Concert West Street Live Series "I'm curating to people who really love music and songwriting for the songwriting and for the interpretation of the music," Ross muses on the series that's particularly close to her heart. "What I hear a lot from the people who come to West Street Live is, 'I've never heard of this person before, but now that I've come and heard them, I'm going to listen to them more.' And so that crowd is there because they love music, and they're being introduced to more and different music than they've heard before." "It's less dependent on the genre," adds Scott Galbraith, executive producer and vice president of programming. "Folk is certainly a signif- icant part of it, but both the writers and the listeners of West Street Live are so keyed into the lyric. They're really inter- ested in the storytelling, in the personal expression. And more than a lot of contemporary music, which may be more rhythmically oriented or [about] instrumentation, this is about a human voice and the storytelling." Photo courtesy Tom Meinhold Photography An audience favorite, the Peking Acrobats return to Walton Arts Center as part of the Family Fun Series in 2020.