Arkansas Repertory Theatre to resume live productions with diverse '21-22 season

FILE — The Arkansas Repertory Theatre in downtown Little Rock at 6th and Main streets.
FILE — The Arkansas Repertory Theatre in downtown Little Rock at 6th and Main streets.

Charlie Brown, Julia Sugarbaker and Little Red Riding Hood will take the main stage at Arkansas Repertory Theatre as it returns to live productions, starting Dec. 2-23 with "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

Eric Schaeffer adapted the show for the stage from the classic 1965 animated TV special, with credits for Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, director Bill Melendez and executive producer Lee Mendelson.

At the helm will be Anna Kimmell, former director of education at the Rep, now director of education at Flat Rock Playhouse at her alma mater, Elon University, in the town of Elon, N.C., just east of Greensboro.

"I'm thrilled that Anna is coming back to direct," says Will Trice, the Rep's executive artistic director.

Anna Kimmell, former director of education at Arkansas Repertory Theatre, returns to direct “A Charlie Brown Christmas” to lead off the theater’s 2020-21 season. (Democrat-Gazette file photo)
Anna Kimmell, former director of education at Arkansas Repertory Theatre, returns to direct “A Charlie Brown Christmas” to lead off the theater’s 2020-21 season. (Democrat-Gazette file photo)

He cites Kimmell's existing relationships with area kids and particularly praises the summer 2019 Rep production of "Willy Wonka Jr," which he calls one of the best things he's seen since his return to Little Rock that same summer. (Trice semi-retired from a career as a Tony Award-winning producer of Broadway shows to come "home" to Arkansas.)

Like "Willy Wonka Jr.," the cast for "Charlie Brown" will consist of youngsters ages 12-18. Auditions are set for Sept. 7-8.

[RELATED: Rep seeking youngsters for 'Charlie Brown' show]

The show has the potential to "please people of all ages in multiple ways," Trice says. Composer Vince Guaraldi's score is "some of the best jazz music ever, not even remotely juvenile." The short, one-act show will use a live band.

And for weekend performances, he plans to surround the show with a carnival of activities throughout the building, with pre- and post-shows, food and vendors, all anchored in show.

The production will be onstage Thursday and Friday evenings and throughout the weekend with multiple shows each weekend day and on the four days leading up to Christmas Eve. General admission tickets will be $30, $15 for youngsters under 18.

Will Trice announces the Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s January-July 2020 “mini-season” in the theater bar. (Democrat-Gazette file photo/Eric E. Harrison)
Will Trice announces the Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s January-July 2020 “mini-season” in the theater bar. (Democrat-Gazette file photo/Eric E. Harrison)

SPRING SEASON

The spring season at the Rep, 601 Main St., Little Rock:

◼️ Jan. 18-Feb. 6: "Designing Women" by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, co-creator of the hit TV series of the same name. It'll receive its pandemic-delayed world-premiere in October at TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, moving to Little Rock in January.

The theater piece, which the Rep is rating PG-13 for adult themes and language, brings Julia, Suzanne, Mary Jo and Charlene "into our current age," Trice says.

Through Bloodworth- Thomason's theatrical device, the characters will be roughly the same ages they were in the TV series, but "as though they existed now," or in particular in the spring of 2020, "amid the initial hype of covid, but prior to the election." For the most part, the same cast will come down from Fayetteville, though some replacements may be necessary, Trice explains.

Bloodworth-Thomason's script, still a work in progress, "made me laugh out loud. She's done a great job."

◼️ March 1-20: "School Girls: Or, The African Mean Girls Play" by Jocelyn Bioh. The reigning "queen bee" at Ghana's most exclusive boarding school has her sights set on the Miss Global Universe pageant until a new transfer student from America with undeniable talent and beauty captures the attention of the pageant recruiter. TheatreSquared streamed its production of the show (rated PG-13 for adult themes and language) in February and March, but Trice says that production didn't specifically affect his choice of the off-Broadway play.

"It's getting done at every major regional theater in the country," he says. "It's taken American theater by storm. It's a big-girl play, focusing in a very funny way on a range of topics that are just so powerful."

They'll be casting six girls (not, Trice says, actual teenagers but young women who'll be playing teenagers) and two adult women.

◼️ April 19-May 22: "Into the Woods" — music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by James Lapine — focusing on fairy-tale characters (including a childless baker and his wife, Cinderella and her step-family, Jack and his beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf) for whom, come the second act, ever-after isn't quite so happy. Trice says he's excited about bringing in "very gifted" New York-based scenic and costume designer An-Lin Dauber.

Trice says he anticipates Minneapolis-based director Addie Gorlin-Han being able to cast "as many locals as possible" in the dozen principal roles, though the Rep's contract with Actors Equity will by necessity limit the options.

Trice says he's currently in negotiations with the union as the Rep's existing agreement expires, seeking "a little more flexibility" in casting. The current contract requires 11 Equity contracts per production before the Rep can hire any non-union actors.

"Physical house size drives that negotiation," but "we'll see what kind of creative thinking" can be worked out, he says.

The Rep is rating the show PG for adult themes.

Season ticket information will be available online at TheRep.org and by calling (501) 378-0405.

IN THE MEANTIME

The Rep's current production of "Primating," a world- premiere romantic comedy by Jennifer Vanderbes, runs through Aug. 29 in the semi-outdoor Civitan Pavilion at the Little Rock Zoo. Pandemic protection protocols have involved increased air circulation, limited capacity, and two performances for which the Rep required all audiences to wear masks. All the Rep's employees and guest artists have been vaccinated, Trice says. "That was a no-brainer."

And the Rep finals out a three-performance collaboration with Little Rock Parks & Recreation with a free outdoor semi-staged concert performance of "The Fantasticks" (music by Harvey Schmidt, book and lyrics by Tom Jones), 4 p.m. Oct. 3 in Little Rock's Murray Park. (Rep patrons will get a chance to hear the performance Oct. 2 at a garden gala fundraiser at west Little Rock's Chateau Saint-Cloud.)

"I'm doing that one myself," Trice says, with a cast of "primarily local performers."

The space is in a "lovely little glade" near the dog park, he adds, and with patrons on blankets or in chairs and a piano in the grass, it'll be "a pastoral evening of really great music."

FINANCIAL FOOTING

Trice says the Rep, between a financial crisis that nearly killed it — forcing the total suspension of operations in April 2018 — and the pandemic, is currently on fairly firm financial footing.

"Going into this season, I feel as secure about our finances as I've been since I started," he says.

"Of course, we still don't know, long-term, what the impact of covid will be on our industry." The survival of theater in general and this theater in particular, he says, "requires everyone getting on board, coming to the shows and supporting us." A lot of people lost their jobs in the past year and left the industry.

"It has always been tough to make theater work financially," he adds. "You can't sustain the weight of [a] fundamental crisis like a pandemic."

While at the moment well positioned now to return to operations, he says, "we'll only be able to continue if the community comes out. To preserve theater, you actually have to attend it."

CORRECTION: Elon University is in the town of Elon, N.C., just east of Greensboro. An earlier version of this story misplaced the university.

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