The best theater season is a lot like a well-done dinner party. Guests are served up something hearty and something nutritious. They don't skimp on dessert and can't bear to miss a single course.
The 10th anniversary season of TheatreSquared promises to be filling. With a record number of performances (220), the most plays presented in one season (six) and the largest production yet (15 actors, period costumes, wigs and epic themes), there is more than enough in this ambitious lineup to feed your entertainment soul, agree artistic director Robert Ford and executive director Martin Miller.
"At this dinner party, you want every dish to be delicious and dazzle, but they need to fit together," Ford says. "You can't have dinner without dessert or without something savory, and you want to eat your vegetables also."
Miller contends that each play could be a dinner unto itself as long as you have the right actors on stage and an audience with a healthy appetite. He believes they have both.
"We like to prove that a comedy can have a lot of heft, and a drama can be really fun," Miller says. "People who come expecting one or the other sometimes walk out of TheatreSquared saying, 'I'm not sure which one that was, but I enjoyed myself. Maybe that's enough.'"
The 10th anniversary season will commence with "Amadeus," a modern classic about the life of musical prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose rising prominence threatens Antonio Salieri's place on the musical scene in 18th century Vienna. A popular movie of the same name was released in 1984.
In choosing which productions they will run with, Miller and Ford immerse themselves in relatively new plays. They go see the plays live. They ask people about the plays. They petition trusted artists and friends for recommendations of a good play.
Months of building up the list and whittling it down later, five -- or in this case six -- are still standing. "Amadeus" was the one that made them at once excited and perplexed.
"When Martin mentioned 'Amadeus' first, I went 'Yes!' and then, 'Are you sure?'" Ford says.
The play is well known, immensely detailed and has both a slew of characters and a variety of places that they visit. For a small company, the first reaction was to wonder whether they could handle it. But Miller says that's when they know they're on to something.
"Usually it's when we find [ourselves] asking 'Can we really do that?' that's when we know it's the right one to do," Miller says. "We really want to challenge ourselves and by the time the audience shows up, it's a given. 'Of course ... we can do this.'"
Just because the performance has the broadest scope of any TheatreSquared production to date doesn't mean it will lose any of the intimacy. Fans who enjoy the versatility of its actors, who often play multiple roles in one performance, can look forward to seeing the same, front and center, in "Peter and the Starcatcher," in which a dozen actors will portray 100 characters in the play about the orphan whose story became immortalized as Peter Pan.
After its run at TheatreSquared during the holiday season, the production will have the honor of being the first shared play in a partnership with the Arkansas Repertory Theater in Little Rock.
Showcasing Northwest Arkansas talent in the capital is one sure-fire way to keep growth stoked for TheatreSquared.
Recent years have seen enough sold-out productions that Miller and Ford will introduce a Wednesday night series where fans have an extra evening and a chance at better seating.
"We look around and basically want TheatreSquared to be a regional theater, for everyone," Miller says. "We don't want a price barrier, and we don't want them to have difficulty getting a ticket." This season, fans can see all six plays for $70.
Drama-lovers might watch out for "Water by the Spoonful," a Pulitzer Prize winning play about a veteran who tries to find his place back home, and "Rapture, Blister, Burn," which focuses on the dichotomy of two women, one an academic and the other family-centered. "Murder for Two," a musical comedy, is the season's extra, add-on show, and "Fault," written by Robert Ford, will make its premiere.
Ford's latest production will involve a disaster that brings nuclear ruin to the Arkansas River Valley and focuses on a football player who returns to save the family farm and surprisingly meets someone else who has returned to the contaminated area.
After scouring Arkansas history and boning up on emerging theater classics, the pair's hard work has led to a season so great with promise, Miller says, that you won't want to miss a single one.
"We don't want to [simply] say there's something for everyone. We want them to say, every [play] is for everyone."
NAN What's Up on 06/26/2015