What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1212663
LARA JO HIGHTOWER NWA Democrat-Gazette O ver the course of decades in the public eye, Texas politician Ann Richards gained nearly mythic status, despite the fact that she served but one term as Texas governor and never held national office. Richards' countrywide popularity was gained through the sheer force of her personality and amplified during her 1988 Democratic convention speech, when she zinged the Republican presidential candidate George Bush by saying he was "born with a silver foot in his mouth." TheatreSquared's one-woman production of Holland Taylor's affectionate tribute to Richards opens this week and helps shed the light on what made Richards such a unique political superstar. "She's real," sums up actor Sally Edmundson, who plays Ann. "What you see is what you get. It's not just that she gave voice to people who didn't have one. It's also that she was a model for what you can achieve, what you can accomplish, if you just believe in yourself and bet on yourself." At a rehearsal a week before opening night, Edmundson is not yet wearing the wig that will give her Richards' iconic, silver, hair-sprayed-within-an-inch-of-its- life updo, and she's in comfortable soft pants instead of Richards' customary neat, Chanel-like suits. However, it's obvious that Edmundson could not be more perfectly cast. She cuts a slim, neat figure on stage, flawlessly capturing the dichotomy the was Richards' style: hand demurely clasped, standing with beatify pageant-perfect "pretty feet" — the very essence of a proper Souther lady. But FEBRUARY 23-29, 2020 WHAT'S UP! 3 FAQ 'Ann' WHEN — 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday- Sunday, through March 22 WHERE — TheatreSquared, 477 W. Spring St. in Fayetteville COST — $10-$55 INFO — 777-7477 COVER STORY See Ann Page 4 T2 brings legendary Texas governor to life Texas-based actor Sally Edmundson portrays Texas politician Ann Richards in TheatreSquared's production of "Ann." (Wesley Hitt)