What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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Upcoming Events +LIVE+ & Bush with Our Lady Peace August 14 | THIS WEEK! Thomas Rhett with Dustin Lynch, Russell Dickerson & Rhett Akins August 15 Nelly, TLC & Flo-Rida August 20 The Smashing Pumpkins & Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds with AFI August 23 Sheryl Crow & Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit August 30 Rascal Flatts with Morgan Evans August 31 Breaking Benjamin with Chevelle, Three Days Grace, Diamante and Dorothy September 6 Maze featuring Frankie Beverly with Lalah Hathaway and Johnny Gill September 8 4 WHAT'S UP! AUGUST 11-17, 2019 new West Theater. The production even has two directors: T2 co-founder and associate artistic director Amy Herzberg and Aimée Hayes, the producing artistic director at Southern Rep Theatre in New Orleans and returning T2 director. In other words, T2 patrons: Get ready for one of the most awe- inspiring theater experiences of your life, made even more exciting by the fact that it will be audience's first glimpse at the company's new digs. "Prepare to be amazed," says Goodrich with a smile. "The economics of theater is such that most of the time, you're doing small shows with only four or five actors — what a theater can afford — and corners may get cut. But here, we're all about putting on a good show. And it's an 18-person cast: You don't really get to work with that very frequently." Joanna Sheehan Bell, T2 director of marketing and communications, says that, while the play was certainly chosen to show off everything the new theater has to offer, there is also a deeper meaning to the choice. "I think [choosing it] had a lot to do with the script being a love letter to theater," she says. "It's all the things you love about the stage, put on the stage." "We are all so in love with our new space and the prospect of all the art that will be created there — this play just seemed like the perfect expression of what is in our hearts," adds Herzberg. The play, an adaptation of the 1998 Oscar-winning movie, follows the trials and tribulations of young Will Shakespeare as he struggles to complete a play that he's promised to two separate theaters. When he meets the beautiful and talented Viola de Lesseps, their relationship inspires Shakespeare to write "Romeo and Juliet." Mistaken identities, gender swapping and hilarity ensue. "It's everything that an actor wants to talk about," says Stephanie Bignault, who plays Viola. The University of Arkansas MFA graduate was last seen in "Great Expectations" at T2. "It's the passions of theater and the reason why we love to do it. Amy has been reiterating over and over that it's like a love letter to theater, as well as a love letter to love in general — all different kinds of love. Love between friends, love between lovers. I get to kind of go up there and speak from my heart. It didn't have to really turn a lot of knobs for this one, which was nice." Bignault and Goodrich agree that the theatrical adaptation of the original movie does a great job of delivering the spectacle to the stage. "When I first read the play, I was really curious how it was going to translate from film to stage," says Bignault. "There are so many theatrical devices that are inherent to this story. But it's amazing — we've got things that are so much more exciting to see in person than to see onscreen." "We've got sword fighting and music," adds Goodrich. "Live music! Roaming musicians!" says Bignault. "Traps in the stage!" says Goodrich. "And a dog," they finish together, laughing. "It's no-holds-barred," concludes Goodrich. FAQ 'Shakespeare in Love' WHEN — 7:30 p.m. Wednes- day through Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 14-Sept. 8 WHERE — TheatreSquared, 477 W. Spring St., Fayette- ville COST — $26-$55 INFO — 777-7477 T2 Continued From Page 3 COVER STORY