Fayetteville-based TheatreSquared will offer four "trailblazing new plays" and "one bold new Shakespearean adaptation" during the eighth annual Arkansas New Play Festival, Friday-June 26 at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 600 Museum Way, Bentonville, and in the studio theater in Walton Arts Center's Nadine Baum Studios, 505 W. Spring St., Fayetteville.
The festival will include a fully staged workshop production of Andromeda by Pittsburgh-based playwright Gayle Pazerski, 8 p.m. June 24, 2 and 8 p.m. June 25 and 2 p.m. June 26 in Walton Arts Center's Nadine Baum Studios, 505 W. Spring St., Fayetteville. Tickets are $15-$25.
On the schedule -- staged readings of:
• The Champion by Amy Evans, 2 p.m. Thursday in the Great Hall at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 600 Museum Way, Bentonville; 5:30 p.m. June 25 at Nadine Baum Studios. $10.
• A Little War in Little Rock by David Eshelman, with original folk music by Charley Sandage and Charlie T. Crow, involving the 30 days of near-anarchy in 1874 when the state had two sitting governors, each backed by his own militia, 5:30 p.m. June 26 at the Nadine Baum Studios. $10; pass holders get priority reservations.
• Tectonic Melange by Deborah Yarchun, an up-to-the-minute take on the boom-and-bust frontier of the North Dakota oil business, 4 p.m. Saturday, Crystal Bridges Museum, 5:30 p.m. June 24, Nadine Baum Studios. $10.
• And with support from a major grant from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Arts, the theater will also feature the first staged reading of Romeo and Juliet: Damascus, a reimagining of Shakespeare's tragedy in contemporary Damascus, Syria, through an adaptation in collaboration with Syrian director Kholoud Sawaf, the first step in a three-year process leading to a full production, 7 p.m. Friday at Crystal Bridges, 8 p.m. June 23, Nadine Baum Studios. $10.
The festival will also include the sixth annual Young Playwright Showcase, one-act scripts by students from across the state, 4:30 p.m. June 26.
Passes are $45; a limited number of 30 Under 30 passes for patrons under age 30 are available. Call (479) 443-5600 or visit arkansasnewplayfest.com.
Summer season
Opera in the Ozarks kicks off its 66th season with a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Inspiration Point Fine Arts Colony, 16311 U.S. 62 West, Eureka Springs.
The festival will also offer fully staged and costumed performances of Benjamin Britten's Albert Herring and a double-bill of one-act operas I Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo and Il Tabarro by Giacomo Puccini through July 19 at Inspiration Point, with one performance each at the Arend Arts Center, 1901 S.E. J St., Bentonville. A complete schedule is available at opera.org.
Single mainstage production tickets are $25 and $30 at Inspiration Point, $25 at Arend Arts Center, $10 for children and students with ID. Three- and six-ticket season packages at Inspiration Point are $70-$150; three-ticket packages at Arend Arts Center are $60. Call (479) 253-8595.
Morrie talkback
Arkansas Public Theatre and the Fayetteville Public Library will hold a talkback following the 8 p.m. Thursday performance of Tuesdays With Morrie by Jeffrey Hatcher and Mitch Albom at the Victory Theater, 115 S. Second St., Rogers. Kelly Haley with the library and Jennifer Necessary, executive director for ALS Association-Arkansas Chapter Inc., will explore the play's themes and lessons with the audience, actors and directors. Tickets are $30, $50 per cabaret table (includes two seats), $17 balcony. Call (479) 631-8988 or visit arkansaspublictheatre.org.
Crue uncut
Motley Crue: The End, a concert film -- the Dec. 31, 2015, end of the band's (Vince Neil, vocals; Mick Mars, guitars; Nikki Sixx, bass; and Tommy Lee, drums) 35-year touring career -- will be on-screen at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Tinseltown in Benton. Visit FathomEvents.com for ticket information.
Great and powerful
The North American tour of the new stage adaptation of The Wizard of Oz (original songs by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, new songs by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, adaptation by Webber, based on the 1939 MGM classic film) will be staged 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 1 and 6:30 p.m. June 19 at the Orpheum Theatre, 203 S. Main St., Memphis. Tickets are $25-$125. Call (901) 525-3000 or (901) 743-2787 (ARTS) or visit orpheum-memphis.com.
Pushing Paper
July 22 is the deadline to submit entries for the Arkansas Arts Council's 2017 "Small Works on Paper" exhibition, a competitive visual art exhibition showcasing artwork no larger than 18 by 24 inches. Arkansas artists who are members of the Arkansas Artist Registry may enter up to three works ($10 per entry, $25 for three entries) that have been completed within the last two years.
Juror David Houston, executive director of the Bo Bartlett Center at Columbus State University's College of the Arts in Columbus, Ga., will select a maximum of 40 pieces to tour with the exhibition. Up to $2,000 is available for juror-selected purchase awards; the recipients become part of the Small Works on Paper permanent collection. Artists whose work is selected for the exhibition will be notified in September. The exhibition opens at East Arkansas Community College in Forrest City in January. Entry forms are available online at arkansasarts.org; call (501) 324-9766.
Style on 06/12/2016