Arkansas Repertory Theatre Announces A VERY MOTOWN CHRISTMAS And 2024 Summerstage Season

The Arkansas Repertory Theatre has announced a holiday special performance event, as well as full season of productions in 2024: 

 

“A Very Merry Motown Christmas”

December 20-23, 2023

 

2024 SummerStage Season

Pride & Prejudice | June 18-30, 2024

Footloose | July 9-28, 2024

Into the Side of a Hill | August 6-18

Hello, Dolly! | August 22-24, 2024

Responders | September 3-15

 

Single tickets for “A Very Merry Motown Christmas”, as well as Season Subscription packages for 2024 SummerStage are on sale now at the link below, or by calling The Rep's Box Office at (501) 378-0405.

Existing Rep Subscribers from last season will be contacted by The Rep's Box Office after the New Year to renew their packages for 2024.

ABOUT “A VERY MERRY MOTOWN CHRISTMAS”

This festive musical celebration of the holidays for families and friends features your favorite holiday songs in fresh new arrangements inspired by your favorite Motown artists.  Performers include the versatile singer/songwriter, Bijoux; Director of UAPB Choral Activities, Jerron Liddell; Chicago-based composer, Nygel Robinson; and more to be announced.

Performances are scheduled for December 20, 21, 22 at 7pm and December 23 at 3pm and 7pm. Tickets are $40 for adults and $20 for those under 18.

This musical event is directed by Ken-Matt Martin, the Interim Artistic Director for The Rep.

 

ABOUT THE 2024 SEASON PRODUCTIONS:

 

Pride & Prejudice

By Kate Hamill,  Based on the novel by Jane Austen

June 18-30, 2024

 

A fresh, comedic take on the beloved classic novel, this new adaptation is fast-paced, and filled with surprises, laughs, and romance. Lizzy Bennet does not believe in marriage, or even love. That is, until the handsome, amusing, and impossibly aggravating Mr. Darcy starts popping up at every turn, causing her to question her resolve. This timely theatrical retelling of literature's greatest tale of latent love explores the insanity and exhilaration of finding your perfect (or imperfect) match in life.

 

Footloose

Stage Adaptation by Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie

Based on the Original Screenplay by Dean Pitchford

Music by Tom Snow

Lyrics by Dean Pitchford

Additional Music by Eric Carmen, Sammy Hagar, Kenny Loggins and Jim Steinman

July 9-28, 2024

 

Toes will be tapping and spirits will be soaring when this explosive movie musical bursts onto the live stage! With dynamic new songs, coupled with the powerhouse hits from its bestselling Oscar-nominated score, this musical celebrates the exhilaration of youth, the wisdom of listening to one another, and the power of forgiveness.

 

Into the Side of a Hill

By James Anthony Tyler

August 6-18, 2024

 

Set at a historically black university in 2004, six fraternity brothers rehearse for their homecoming step show. Toxic relationships, mental health, and war bring the young men into battle with each other, threatening, but ultimately strengthening, the bonds of brotherhood. This high-energy, fast-paced comedy is produced in partnership with Flint Repertory Theatre in its world premiere.

 

Hello, Dolly!

Book by Michael Stewart

Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman

Based on the play The Matchmaker by Thorton Wilder

August 22-24, 2024

 

This Broadway blockbuster is a golden-age musical theatre at its finest. Follow the romantic and comedic exploits of Dolly Gallagher-Levi, a turn-of-the-century matchmaker forging her own path in a world that constantly underestimates her. Boisterous and charming from start to finish, “put on your Sunday clothes” for The Rep's concert production, performed at Robinson Center with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra!

 

Responders

By Joseph Scott Ford

September 3-15, 2024

 

Things go from bad to ridiculous in this genre-bending dark comedy, written by Little Rock-native, Joseph Scott Ford. When two small-town paramedics and an ambitious reporter arrive at the roadside scene of an expected suicide, we join them on a journey of trying one's best to do the right thing. This world-premiere production by an Arkansas artist is produced in partnership with TheatreSquared.

 

ABOUT James Anthony Tyler (Playwright of Into the Side of A Hill)

James Anthony Tyler is the recipient of the 3rd Annual Horton Foote Playwriting Award, an inaugural playwright to receive a commission from Audible, and a 2016 Theatre Masters Visionary Playwrights Award recipient. He is currently a Playwrights Center Core Writer, and most recently was the recipient of The Playwrights Center's McKnight National Residency and Commission, a member of The Fire This Time Festival's New Works Lab Cycle 5, and a member of Circle X Theatre Company's Evolving Playwrights Group. His plays include Some Old Black Man (Berkshire Playwrights Lab at St. James Place and 59E59 Theaters, and a University Musical Society filmed production), All We Need Is Us (Keen Company, currently streaming on all podcast platforms) hop thA A (Currently streaming on Audible), Artney Jackson (World Premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival, 2018 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award), and Dolphins and Sharks (LAByrinth Theater Company and Finborough Theatre in London). He's a 2021/2018 MacDowell Fellow, a 2021 Hermitage Artist Resident, a 2018 Djerassi Fellow, 2018-2019 Amoralists Wright Club Playwright, 2017-2018 Nashville Rep Ingram New Works Playwright, 2016-2017 Ars Nova Play Group Resident, 2016 Working Farm Playwrights Group Resident at SPACE on Ryder Farm, 2015-2016 Playwrights' Center's Many Voices Fellow, 2014-2015 Dramatists Guild Fellow, and he was a member of Harlem's Emerging Black Playwrights Group. He has a MFA in Film from Howard University and a MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University. He is also a graduate of The Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. For television, he was the Staff Writer for the OWN Network show “Cherish the Day” created by Ava DuVernay, and was most recently in the writers' room for a new Apple + Drama Series starring an Academy Award winning actress, and he's currently an Adjunct Professor at NYU and Columbia University.

 

ABOUT Joseph Scott Ford (Playwright of Responders)

Joseph Scott Ford is an Arkansan making his Rep and Regional debut as a writer. His writing credits include Not Even The Good Things (Theatre Row, NYC), Sasparilla (Shiyr Productions), Mainly The Rabbit, Penthouse Play, The Only Mountain in Texas, Tripping, The Catch, and Montauk Rising. Acting credits include Dana in the world premiere of Primating by Jennifer Vanderbes (Arkansas Repertory Theater), Austin in True West (Producer's Club, Company of Fools), and various roles with Upstart Creatures Theatre Company, where he was an ensemble member. He studied acting in New York with William Esper and holds a BA in economics and history from Vanderbilt University, where he performed improv with Tongue 'N' Cheek.

 

ABOUT THE ARKANSAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 58th season in 2023–2024. The ASO is the resident orchestra at The Robinson Center Music Hall and performs more than 60 concerts each year for more than 165,000 people through its Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks Series, First Orion Pops Series, River Rhapsodies Chamber Music Series and numerous concerts performed around the state of Arkansas. In addition, the ASO offers numerous community outreach programs and brings live symphonic music education to more than 26,000 schoolchildren and more than 200 schools throughout Central Arkansas. The ASO employs 13 full-time musicians, more than 70 part-time musicians and 18 administrative staff members with an annual operating budget of $4 million. The ASO is a member of the League of American Orchestras and a partner orchestra of the National Alliance for Audition Support, an unprecedented national initiative to increase diversity in American orchestras. For more information about the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, call 501-666-1761 or visit www.ArkansasSymphony.org.
 

ABOUT THE ARKANSAS REPERTORY THEATRE

The Arkansas Repertory Theatre creates vibrant, engaging, and accessible theatrical experiences to make the lives of all Central Arkansans more full, more connected, and more joyful. The Rep embraces the myriad, multi-faceted backgrounds of our community, and prioritizes inclusion on and off our stages.  We seek to represent diverse perspectives, using art to explore our world through the lens of others' experiences. We want our work to be enjoyed by all, regardless of one's familiarity with the art form, and regardless of one's ability to pay. Our core programming includes a summer season of freshly created productions, performed at our downtown Little Rock facilities – including a 340-seat auditorium and 100-seat black box space – or around our broader community.  We tell stories that provide entertainment and escape, that help us process the world around us, and that foster a sense of mutual understanding.  The live experiences of The Rep are distinctly theatrical – immersive and shared, in real time, by the community in a public space. In conjunction with our summer season of productions, The Rep aspires to capture the collective imagination and build community by embracing the art of theatre in all its forms.  We recognize the unique ability of theatrical activities to improve mental well-being and emotional development. We strive to celebrate and develop the artistry of community members regardless of their age or experience.  We provide a platform for the sharing of varied human experiences to drive community conversations.  And we seek out collaborations with, and make our resources accessible to, like-minded community organizations.  

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