Tony Award-Winning Play THE HUMANS Takes The Stage at TheatreSquared, Today

The winner of the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play, Stephen Karam's The Humans, begins performances on January 24 in Northwest Arkansas. In its 2016 Broadway production, the play was a breakout critical and popular success, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and called the "best play of the year" by nearly a dozen top publications ranging from The New York Times to the Washington Post. Performances are scheduled January 24-February 18, and tickets are on sale now from $17-$48 at (479) 443-5600 or theatre2.org.

"Choosing the TheatreSquared season is made so much easier when an exceptional play emerges," said T2 Artistic Director Robert Ford. "The Humans is a brilliant new comic drama-funny, profound, even frightening at times. W. May not know the Blakes, but we certainly know this family. The Humans has been universally praised as one of most deeply resonant new American plays of the past decade, and I'm thrilled that Northwest Arkansas is home to one of the first independent productions since its New York debut."

Breaking with tradition, Erik Blake has brought his Pennsylvania family to celebrate and share a Thanksgiving dinner in his daughter's new basement apartment in Lower Manhattan. The movers haven't arrived, so they make do with folding chairs, paper plates, and-eventually-emergency lighting. As darkness falls outside the ramshackle split-level duplex, mysterious things start to go bump in the night, and the Blake clan's deepest fears and greatest follies are laid bare. Our modern age of anxiety is keenly observed with humor and compassion in this new American classic.

The Humans is the winner of five major national awards for Best Play and four Tony Awards, and it was honored as a 2016 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Review highlights include:

"The finest new play of the Broadway season. The Humans is a major discovery, a play as empathetic as it is clear-minded, as entertaining as it is honest. A bright light shines forth from it, the blazing luminescence of collective artistic achievement." - The New York Times

"It's hard to think of another play that has dealt with the realities of life with such compassion. Truly remarkable and exceptionally moving. Few writers of Karam's generation have achieved anything quite like The Humans." - Chicago Tribune

The Humans will be directed by T2 veteran Shana Gold, who returns following last season's Intimate Apparel. Her previous T2 credits include Rapture Blister Burn, Reasons to be Pretty, 4000 Miles, Proof and Underneath The Lintel, as well as Uncle and Transatlantic for the Arkansas New Play Festival. Her Off-Broadway and world premiere credits include Food and Fadwa (New York Theatre Workshop/Noor Theatre); Goldor & Mythyka: A Hero is Born (New Georges); and In the Crossing (The Culture Project). Her regional credits include Hkeelee, Talk To Me (Arena Stage/Mosaic Theatre); The Storyteller, (Kennedy Center); Detroit (TheatreWorks); Circumference of a Squirrel by John Walch (Zach Scott Theatre Center) and Foot (NYU-Abu Dhabi's Voices Festival). Her work in new play development has been seen at Manhattan Theatre Club's Sloane Series, Lincoln Center Director's Lab, Soho Rep's Writer/Director Lab, and The Public Theatre's New Work Now, among others.

The cast of The Humans includes returning actors Katherine Forbes (Transatlantic), Rick Holden (Tigers Be Still), and Halley Mayo (Fun Home, Sundown Town), as well as Deven Kolluri, Laurie Larson, and Molly McAdoo.

The creative team for The Humans includes scenic designer Kim Powers, lighting designer Shawn Irish, costume designer Ruby Kemph, sound designer Nok Kanchanabanca, properties master Brodie Jasch, and production stage manager Shannon Jones.

TheatreSquared's production is made possible in part with support from show sponsors Fred and Barbara Frye, Bob and Diane Shaw, and Tod Yeslow and Jackie Telfair.

Performance Schedule

Performances are scheduled January 24 to February 18, Wednesdays through Sundays, at Walton Arts Center's Nadine Baum Studios.

Wednesday-Friday: 7:30 p.m.

Saturday: 2:00 p.m.; 7:30 p.m.

Sunday: 2:00 p.m.

Ticket & Subscription Info

Tickets range from $17-$48 and are available at (479) 443-5600 or online at theatre2.org.

Through T2's Lights Up! For Access program, supported by the Walmart Foundation, SNAP benefit recipients can purchase $5 tickets and patrons under the age of 30 can purchase $10 tickets. For more, visit theatre2.org/lights-up.

Opportunities to Engage

Tony Award-winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Stephen Karam will visit Northwest Arkansas through a special partnership with the Fayetteville Public Library and the Arkansas Arts Council. Karam will participate in several free public events on February 14th, including a limited-seating scene study workshop at 3 p.m. and a special T2 Artists' Forum at 6 p.m., hosted by Ozarks at Large producer Kyle Kellams. For more information and to sign up for the workshop, visit www.faylib.org.

About T2

TheatreSquared is Northwest Arkansas' professional regional theatre, offering an intimate live theatre experience for more than 40,000 patrons each year in its 175-seat space and in schools throughout the state. TheatreSquared was recognized by the American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards, as one of the nation's ten most promising emerging theatres. TheatreSquared has experienced remarkable growth in recent seasons, expanding its audience tenfold in the past five years. The theatre recently broke ground on a new 50,000-square-foot facility to be completed in mid-2019, and launched the $34 million Our Next Stage Campaign to support construction and a sustainable transition. Designs and campaign information are online at ournextstage.org.

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