What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/921773
University Theatre this year confirm that Mayo is, indeed, where she's supposed to be. Mayo will be appearing on the TheatreSquared stage again in January and February in "The Humans." She's almost exactly halfway through her graduate program at the UA, and, currently, she's unsure what comes next. "I grew up thinking I was a city girl," she says. "[But] I might stay in Fayetteville a little longer. I'm sort of open for whatever happens." JOHN JETER In 2016, John Jeter celebrated his 20th anniversary year with the Fort Smith Symphony. In 2018, the symphony will once again be recording for Naxos Records. This time, it will be the music of Arkansan Florence Price (1887-1953). Jeter points out that the concert, which takes place on May 12, before the recording sessions, will also be the first time Price's Symphony No. 4 in D Minor (1945) has "ever been performed, ever." The sheet music was copied from a handwritten manuscript in Special Collections at the University of Arkansas. He's also particularly excited about involving two regional bands in a performance on April 21. The Crumbs will perform "Fort Smith heritage songs" and the Ben Miller Band will present its own unique "Ozark stomp" classics in a celebration of Fort Smith's bicentennial. "We're sort of the unofficial official concert for a year of stuff the city's doing," Jeter says. "And we'll perform a world premiere work — 'Good Night Fort Smith' — that is the official commissioned work for the anniversary." SAMUEL LOPEZ Springdale's Samuel Lopez has been expressing himself through various artistic mediums since he was a child. But it's not just about creating art for Lopez — it's about communicating with his community and making positive changes through that communication. In 2017, Lopez expanded his reach when he got involved with the Latinx Youth Theatre Project, a collaboration between University of Arkansas and Northwest Arkansas Community College faculty members and Springdale youth. Though Lopez had been involved in many art forms over the years, theater was still uncharted territory. Latinx presented its first production, "Follow Me @ TioSam," after a months-long period of workshopping and collaboration. "I loved it," says Lopez of his first experience in theater. "We're in development for a new play that will be performed in April. We have plans to go to Chicago this summer. Little by little, things keep popping up." 2 WHAT'S UP! JANUARY 7-13, 2018 PREVIOUS PEOPLE 2017 Stephen Caldwell Jenni Taylor Swain Laura Shatkus Kholoud Sawaf Mike Shirkey Katy Henriksen Joseph Farmer Hannah Withers Morgan Hicks Kat Robinson 2016 Jason Suel Dana Idlet Jennifer McClory Kelly & Donna Mulhollan Sabine Schmidt Erika Wilhite Jenny McKnight Eve Smith Gina Gallina Bob Stevenson 2015 Sara Parnell Luetgens Justin & Virginia Scheuer Mark Landon Smith Missy Gipson John Rankine Sons of Otis Malone 2014 Zeek Taylor Eve Smith Amy Herzberg & Bob Ford Michael Riha Amber Perrodin Kyle Kellams Zach Denison Bryan Hembree Janet Alexander COVER STORY MARK LANDON SMITH Mark Landon Smith has a way of making things happen — for himself and for others. The executive director of Arts Live Theatre in Fayetteville, Phunbags Improv group ensemble member and Northwest Arkansas actor had worked his way into producing and casting independent films when he had an epiphany. "I had been casting theater for years, but I realized what I really wanted to do was establish a casting agency — the kind of agency I would like to have as an actor," says Smith. And when Smith decides he wants something, he makes it happen. He created the Actors Casting Agency in 2013 and hit the ground running. MICHAEL MYERS Michael Myers popped on to the theater scene in the River Valley as a teenager working backstage with director Missy Gipson at the Young Actors Guild. "Michael is one of those rare people that you want in your life as much as you want him in your show," Gipson says. "He's a generous person as an actor and as a human. And he's still not at the peak of his potential!" Since moving to Northwest Arkansas, Myers has blown the top out of half a dozen coveted roles for Arkansas Public Theatre — the Emcee in "Cabaret," Bert in "Mary Poppins," Lucas in "The Addams Family," Igor in "Young Frankenstein," the Boy George character in "The Wedding Singer," Dr. Frank N. Furter in "The Rocky Horror Show" in addition to playing Ren in November in "Footloose," the first show for Gipson's new Pilot Arts theater company, based in Fayetteville. Let's see who provides the vehicles in 2018! HALLEY MAYO Halley Mayo is going places. Which is not to say that the University of Arkansas MFA theater student and Fayetteville native hasn't already been places — after graduating from Hendrix College, she gave New York City living a try before moving briefly to Chicago. Back home, "I didn't want my career to stagnate, so I thought I should try to do the program at the University of Arkansas," she says. Show-stopping, scene-stealing performances in "Fun Home" at TheatreSquared and "Avenue Q" at the Smith Myers Mayo Lopez Jeter I t was a whim. We thought it would be fun to spotlight some of the people we expected to change the Northwest Arkansas arts scene in 2014. Readers liked it. And here we are, five years later. There is no fixed list of selection criteria. The people to watch in 2018 are those we think are making a difference and likely to continue to in the new year ahead, this time selected by What's Up! staffers Jocelyn Murphy, Lara Hightower and editor Becca Martin-Brown. We salute you, movers and shakers! Without you, Northwest Arkansas would be culturally so much poorer. (Please note: The order is random. So no one "beat" anyone else!) THE FIRST FIVE Announced last week: