Arkansas New Play Festival: Trail-blazing new plays, and re-imagined Shakespeare

​The Arkansas New Play Festival returns to Fayetteville with two full weekends of performances, including a fully staged new work, staged reading performances and other special events. This year’s festival is June 16-26, and features four trail-blazing new plays and one bold new adaptation of a Shakespearean classic.

The Workshop production is Andromeda. Two women, Alma and Myra – both old enough to retire, but both on the financial brink – find themselves vying for the same low-paying job at a planetarium. An unflinching comic drama by Pittsburgh playwright Gayle Pazerski.

Performances at TheatreSquared 6/24, 8 p.m.; 6/25, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and 6/26, 2 p.m.

Staged readings:

The Champion - It’s 1962 and R&B legend Nina Simone is holed up in a snowstorm in a small-town café somewhere in North Carolina. Tempers flare between band members, and as secrets start to surface, it’s soon clear this small room in unfriendly territory may well be the place where life-changing decisions are made. A sharply drawn, exciting new play by Brooklyn-based playwright Amy Evans.

Performances: 6/18, 1:30 p.m. at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; 6/25, 5:30 p.m. at TheatreSquared.

A Little War In Little Rock is a new folk musical-in-progress inspired by one of the most bizarre episodes in Arkansas history: the 30 days of near-anarchy in 1874 when the state had two sitting governors, each backed by his own militia. Amid the high-stakes madness and political mayhem, Helena, a former slave, tries to just run her boarding house — but it’s easier said than done.

The book is by David Eshelman, with original folk music by Charley Sandage and Charlie T. Crow. The single performance is 6/26, 5:30 p.m. at TheatreSquared.

Tectonic Mélange – This up-to-the-minute take on the boom and-bust frontier of the North Dakota oil business mixes matters geological with matters of the heart. When Steve, ardent environmentalist, approaches Tara, brilliant geologist and oil explorer, are his intentions as innocent as he claims? And what of the farm couple whose relationship is tested by the mention of a possible motherlode of shale oil beneath their property? A smart and entertaining new play from Austin-based playwright Deborah Yarchun.

Performances: 6/18, 3:30 p.m. at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; 6/24, 5:30 p.m. at TheatreSquared.

Romeo and Juliet: Damascus, a special feature of this year’s festival, is a re-imagined production of Shakespeare’s classic play within the present-day civil strife of Syria’s capital city, directed and co-adapted by Kholoud Sawaf.

On the streets of Damascus, a brawl breaks and an edict is handed down: whoever incites the next uprising will be sentenced to death. A young man and woman from rival families fall passionately in love, but know their relationship is forbidden and that violence may result. They choose to defy fate and their families in one of the most enduring love stories of our time.

Performances: 6/17, 6:30 p.m. at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; 6/23, 8 p.m. at TheatreSquared.

The festival closes with the free Young Playwright Showcase, Sunday, June 26 at 4:30 p.m.

All readings are $10; Andromeda is $15-$25. Festival passes are $45. The Young Playwright Showcase is free. Tickets may be purchased online at www.theatre2.org, or by phone at (479) 443-5600.

The Gayly - 6/11/2016 @ 4:09 p.m. CDT