What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1250205
Independent & Level 2 Assisted Living Community 2300 SE 28th Street | Bentonville 479.273.9969 www.themeadowsinbentonville.com We are a Family Owned and Operated Award Winning Level 2 Assisted Living Community located in Bentonville Best of Northwest Arkansas the Best Meat in NWA Deli Fresh Produce Areas Largest Selection of Natural Foods allENsFoodmarkEt.Com Open 7 days a week ButChErs oN duty Nightly uNtil 7pm 60 Sugar Creek Center • Bella Vista, AR 479-876-6190 6 WHAT'S UP! MAY 24-30, 2020 FYI New 2019 Plays You Might Recall Last year's Arkansas New Play Festival introduced TheatreSquared audiences to these plays: "Blanket Statements" — By the LatinX Theatre Project, it was a devised work created by the members of the company, under the mentorship of Ashley Edwards. "Ain't I a Woman" — By Na'Tosha De'Von, was a one-woman show that was "a funny, heartfelt story of the woes and wonders encountered by girls on the journey to womanhood, as seen through the eyes of the playwright and performer." De'Von was an MFA acting student at the University of Arkansas. "Carlo at the Wedding" — By Bryna Turner, was a "comic and heartfelt play about a woman attending an ex's wedding." Turner is a Brooklyn-based playwright whose play "Bull in a China Shop" premiered at Lincoln Center, where it was a New York Times Critic's Pick. "He Did It" — By Rachel Lynett, was a story about three friends who "are about to get the green light from a major production company. They're about to get everything they ever wanted. Except that Jefferson has been recently accused of violent crimes. Ada and Lex both know he did it. Now, they both must decide what's more important: their career success or ending a vicious cycle?" Lynett's work has been featured at the Kennedy Center and Barrington Stage Company. "Teen Dad" — By Adrienne Dawes, "subverts the popular regional theater 'kitchen-sink beach house play,' when Abby, a precocious emo-goth teenager, orchestrates a surprise reunion for her mother, Tanya, and birth father, Tom, with the help of her mom's fiance/healer, John." Dawes is an Afro-Latina play- wright originally from Austin who studied comedy at The Second City in Chicago. Friend Or Foe? LARA JO HIGHTOWER NWA Democrat-Gazette R ussell Leigh Sharman, a featured playwright for TheatreSquared's 2020 Arkansas New Play Festival, is currently an assistant professor of practice in the Department of Communication at the University of Arkansas, but even before that, he's lived a big life. The filmmaker, writer and anthropologist, who pens both screenplays and plays, worked in Hollywood for more than a decade; his resume includes studios and production companies like Warner Bros., Disney and Real FX. His film credits include "Apartment 4E," which he both wrote and directed, and his book credits include "The Tenants of East Harlem" and "Nightshift NYC." Sharman answered three questions for us about his upcoming involvement with TheatreSquared's 12th annual Arkansas New Play Festival. Q. How long have you been writing plays? What do you find most compelling about the medium? A. I've been engaged in some form of dramatic writing since my undergraduate days back in the early '90s — mostly for film and television, which I've been doing professionally since 2008. I wrote my first stage play around that same time, and it had a short run way Off-Broadway in New York, where I was living at the time. What I found most compelling about Developing new play reveals old secrets Russell Leigh Sharman is a screenwriter and playwright whose play, "The Interrogator," will be featured at the TheatreSquared Arkansas New Play Festival. The Festival, previously scheduled for April, will be re-scheduled for later in the summer; dates are TBD. (Courtesy Photo) FAYETTEVILLE See Sharman Page 38