THE IDLE CLASS - PERFORMING ARTS 2016

THE IDLE CLASS THE PERFORMING ARTS ISSUE

CELEBRATING THE ARTS IN ARKANSAS / Fall 2016

FALL 2016 idleclassmag.com

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THE PERFORMING ARTS ISSUE FALL 2016

HOLIDAY ART SALES PAGES 8 - 9

The holidays are coming so give the gift of art.

MISS AMERICANA PAGES 16 - 17

Singer/songwriter Elise Davis is making waves in Nashville.

THE STORYTELLER PAGES 18 - 20

Drew Gentle draws from years of animation experience for his unique paintings.

TAKE ME TO CHURCH PAGES 18 - 20

Meikel Church is making a name for himself nationally with his minimalist works.

ALL THE RIGHT MOVES PAGES 34 - 35

Olympia Atkinson connects with Helena area youth through dance.

ROMEO & JULIET RELOADED

PAGES 36 - 37

Thanks to a generous grant, Kholoud Sawaf is adapting Shakespeare’s classic for TheatreSquared.

“Defiant” by Meikel Church

Enroll today in certificate-granting seminars in Graphic Design.

Spring term begins January 9, 2017. newdesignschool.org

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SAVE THE DATE IN 2017

An Evening with Ann Patchett Award-winning author of Bel Canto and Commonwealth Friday, March 31, 7 p.m.

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EDITOR’S

NOTE

PUBLISHER Cannon McNair EDITOR Kody Ford Photograph by Sophie Bauer

H

ere we are again. One last issue for 2016. This time we shifted our gaze to something we have touched on throughout our existence but have never fully shined our light upon - performing arts. Sure, it’s a broad net to cast and certainly this isn’t a comprehensive look at it. But we did cover theatre, classical music & dance. So it’s a start.

With so many great individuals, organizations and venues in our state, you can pretty much always find something happening in the performing arts.

We are very excited about our art section this month with so many talented artists - Kyle Boswell, Drew Gentle, V.L. Cox & Meikel Church. They all work in different mediums and do an amazing job. We are happy to pack so much talent into our pages.

As always, thank you to our editors, contributors and advertisers. When the holidays roll around, please support the businesses that support us. We couldn’t do it without them. May the fall treat you well. See you in 2017.

Kody Ford

Editor-in-chief editorial@idleclassmag.com

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EDITORS-AT-LARGE Jeremy Glover Jenny Vos DESIGNER Amy Ha CONTRIBUTORS Sophia Bauer Amy Kelley Bell Stacey Bowers Heather Canterbury Lindee Cozort Nima Eshragh Kelsey Ferguson Trystan Haney Katy Henriksen Phillip Huddleston Leigh Jacobs John David Pittman Ashleigh Price Doug Shields Samantha Sigmon Donna Smith Sandra Spotts Melissa Tucker Jacob West COVER “Horizon” by Meikel Church

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FALL 2016 idleclassmag.com

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Check out what’s happening in your neck of the woods.

HOLIDAY ART SHOWS

WORDS / KODY FORD PHOTOGRAPHY / AMY KELLEY BELL

With the holidays around the corner, you have many options for shopping from your local boutiques to malls to Amazon.com. But why not put a little more thought into it and find unique items by Arkansas artists and artisans. Luckily, there is no shortage of such events around the state. Here is a list of some of the upcoming events. It’s far from comprehensive so keep your eyes open for others that pop up.

HOLIDAY GIFT MARKET Walton Arts Center November 25 - December 23 Waltonartscenter.org

The Gift Market features handcrafted holiday and gift items created by local artists, and will take place in McBride Studio, located near the box office inside the newly renovated Walton Arts Center. All submissions are juried so you know you will see quality work.

FAYETTEVILLE UNDERGROUND HOLIDAY ART SALE Fayetteville Underground December 1-31 during regular business hours A variety of art and contemporary crafts by local and regional artists available for sale December 1 – 31st. Board president and artist Sharon Killian said, “we value your support—buy local for the holidays at Fayetteville Underground!”

WAMPUS WONDERLAND HOLIDAY ART SHOW Washington County Fairgrounds December 10 from 10 am to 6 pm Fayetteville’s CattyWampus Co-Op is hosting their inaugural Wampus Wonderland indoor holiday show. You’ll find your favorite indie crafters, outsider artists, food trucks, Krampus impersonators, Sasquatch-sized men, and more! The event is FREE and open to the public!

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SECOND ANNUAL THANKSGIVING AFTER PARTY & POTTERY SALE

Dizzy’s Gypsy Bistro November 25 from 12-5 pm Come down to the River Market on Black Friday to relax

and unwind from your Thanksgiving festivities. Dizzy’s will have soup specials, and ceramics artist Ben Edwards will have tons of bowls! Buy pottery, eat, drink, watch football and kick it. This event is also a fundraiser for The Van, a non-profit community dedicated to locating and loving the homeless. They bring basic needs to those without in the community. The Van will receive 20 percent of all proceeds.

Edwards said, “Winter is their most demanding season, and Dizzy’s, me, and many of my patrons support their efforts.

Hopefully, on a day when many spend to buy gifts, this event will also provide some gifts for those in need.”

ART OF THE BAR South on Main (Little Rock) December 4, from 6 - 8 pm

Oven & Tap (Bentonville) December 18, from 6-8 pm

Art of the Bar returns to South on Main restaurant in Little Rock Sunday, December 4, 2016, for its 4th annual handmade market, a curated collection of local artists and artisans vending unique gifts just in time for the holidays.

This year Art of the Bar is bringing the holiday cheer to Northwest Arkansas, debuting Art of the Bar Northwest Arkansas Sunday, December 18, at Oven and Tap in Benton-

ville. The two markets will showcase local and regional art, jewelry, apparel and other handmade gifts while offering shoppers a lively atmosphere with music, food, creative cocktails, raffle prizes, photo booths and an exclusive preview party where shoppers can get a jump on their

Christmas lists ahead of the crowd with the added treat of cocktails and exclusive swag.

Each event will feature with the preview party from 5 to 6 p.m. Preview party attendees are invited to shop ahead of the rush and will receive a welcome cocktail, an exclusive tote bag and a chance at raffle prizes. Tickets to each preview party may be purchased in advance for $25. Check facebook.com/SouthonMainLR for more information.

UALR HOLIDAY ART SALE University of Arkansas at Little Rock December 2, from 10 am to 8 pm The UALR Department of Art and Design is holding its second annual Holiday Art Sale on Friday December 2nd from 10 am to 8 pm. The sale will feature student, alumni and faculty art work from all disciplines. At this sale, which is being held in the UALR Applied Design studio in the University Plaza complex, you will find paintings, photographs, drawings, prints, functional and sculptural objects in ceramics, wood, metal and fiber. This is an excellent chance to shop for some of the most unique one-of-a-kind gifts Little Rock has to offer.

To kick off the Holiday Art Sale, the UALR Friends of the Arts will host their sixth annual “6x6” fundraising event on Thursday, December 1st, 6-8pm. This festive event will feature a silent auction of small artworks (6x6 inches) by students, alumni and faculty, live music, hors d’oeuvres, wine and beer, and an opportunity to be the first to shop the Holiday Art Sale. Tickets are $45 and proceeds benefit the UALR Art programs/

DOWNTOWN ART WALK & HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE

December 2, from 6 to 9 pm Downtown Russellville The Downtown Art Walk in Russellville will host its Christmas themed walk on December 2. This free quarterly event takes place at participating businesses with locations hosting artists and even music along with refreshments. The Art Walks are a partnership between Main Street Russellville and the River Valley Arts Center. The painters of Lori’s Loft at Gallery 307 have even teamed up with Traveling Arts Fiesta, Inc. to offer original artwork to seven lucky winners during the event. The raffle tickets are available at two locations: Gallery 307 (307 W. C St.) and A Conversation Piece (3112 W. 2nd St.), and the prizes are available at both locations. The winners will be drawn at 8:30 p.m.

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The Unexpected returns for its second year and does not disappoint.

A FEW SURPRISES UP ITS SLEEVE

Guido Van Helten - OK Feed Lot in Fort Smith

WORDS / KODY FORD PHOTOGRAPHY / RAYMESH CINTRON

A

project called The Unexpected had a lot to live up to in its second year. More murals by some of the world’s top artists? Yeah, that’s cool, but Fort Smith has seen that. You gotta raise the stakes for the sequel. Throw in some surprises. Give them something…they didn’t see coming.

And that’s exactly what happened.

“This year we looked for way to introduce new artists and audiences to each other, as well as new kinds of art within the genre such as installations, collaborative murals and photo-realism portraits on Fort Smith’s iconic OK Foods grain elevators,” said Claire Kolberg, Event Organizer for The Unexpected.

Organized by 64.6 Downtown, a Fort Smith non-profit committed to creating vibrant spaces in Arkansas, and curated by JUSTKIDS, the second annual Unexpected took place in downtown Fort Smith on September 2-11. The artist line-up, included Alexis Diaz, Okuda San Miguel, Guido Van Helten, Jaz, Pastel, Faith 47, Bordalo II, Cyrcle and returning artists D*Face and Maser.

This year Maser created an interactive installation at the Windgate Art & Design Building at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith. Other highlights included a video installation by Cyrcle and two sculptures made out of found objects and salvaged materials by Bordalo II. And of course, the murals did not

Alexis Diaz - College Ave. & Center St. in Fayetteville

EVENTS disappoint, especially Van Helten’s towering triptych mural on the OK Foods grain elevators, which even features one of the company’s long-time employees.

One of the biggest surprises was a mural of an owl by Alexis Diaz on the wall of the old Mountain Inn at the corner of Center Street and College Avenue in Fayetteville.

“The Old Mountain Inn is a fantastic and high profile location in Fayetteville, and we appreciate the building owner allowing us the space to expand into Fayetteville,” said Kolberg. “It’s a great way to connect the communities, and to continue to establish Fort Smith as the thought leader in the urban contemporary art genre.“ Social media and foot traffic increased this year with Kolberg estimating a global reach of around 10 million. The city is reaping the benefits of the festival. Claude Legris, Executive Director of the Fort Smith A&P Commission, said, “The Unexpected has created a completely new brand and look for Fort Smith. Downtown is a much busier place than two years ago and I believe that’s why. It’s great to see people excited about public art. The Unexpected is one of the most exciting weeks in Fort Smith.”

While the festival will not occur again until next year, The Unexpected hasn’t gone away. D*Face recently completed a mural by the river at The Park at West End and created a site specific installation at 10th and B Streets of arrows shot into the ground, bringing a much needed lift at one of downtown Fort Smith’s major entries. Also, they will have an artist-in-residency program with one of their artists in the spring. All of their efforts are certainly paying off.

“Arkansas is a destination for art – our intention with The Unexpected is to capture some of the art space without duplicating what other cities and arts organizations were already doing,” Kolberg said. “Fort Smith will continue to establish itself as the leader in the urban art genre.”

VISIT: UNEXPECTEDFS.COM INSTAGRAM: @UNEXPECTEDFS

• Faith 47 at 9th & B Streets • C yrcle video installation at 1100 Garrison Ave. on the ground floor of Propak • Bordallo II at 708 Garrison 12 idleclassmag.com FALL 2016

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FALL 2016 idleclassmag.com

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MUSIC

DEALING WITH IT Amyjo Savannah draws inspiration from tragedy for her latest release.

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WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY / BRANDON MARKIN

myjo Savannah feels her latest release, “Live on Shoog Radio”, is the best she’s ever written. They are the culmination of a period of her life that has been filled with trials and tragedies. Over the last few years, she has experienced the loss of various family members and friends, and recently had to come to terms with a diagnosis of epilepsy.

So has it affected her writing? “Most definitely,” she says, “It has made me come to grips with my mortality.” It is no surprise when Amyjo says she finds comfort in her music, or as she put it, “It’s how I deal with my shit.”

A poet and songwriter from the age of 13, her life and her craft seem impossible to distinguish from one another.

Amyjo has spent time playing for crowds from one coast to the other, and all points in between; admitting that she often makes reckless choices, knowing that it will make for good raw material. Her voice is timeless, bold and soulful; a slow burn, masterfully controlled. As we sat in the sweltering patio of the Arlington Hotel in her hometown of Hot Springs, she pulled out her Martin and began to strum a tune titled, “Honey Bee”. The song, which begins as if it were words whispered in the ears of a lover, rises to the full throated chorus of a church choir, carried

away in spiritual ecstasy. It is the work of a fully formed artist, comfortable with her gifts, and confident in their delivery.

KABF DJ and Shoog Radio co-host Kara Bibb, who was in the studio when the record was recorded, says, “Amyjo has the perfect voice for radio...It’s more than a sultry whiskey voice. It’s cracked ice and rye.”

It is hard to deny that Savannah’s delivery and the lyrics to her songs would call to mind late nights love affairs under neon lights, and hangovers of regret. There is as much pain as there is ecstasy in her music, and often it is hard to distinguish which is which.

“Live on Shoog Radio” was released on September 24th in front of the local crowd at Maxine’s before she left on a tour of Italy.

As the afternoon sun began to wane, we stopped in for a drink at the legendary Hot Springs dive. Under the house lights, she looked radiant, a soul that has been tested and come through the other side, ready for whatever the world has in store for her. Something tells me that no matter what that is, Amyjo Savannah will get some good songs out of it.

VISIT: FACEBOOK.COM/AMYJOSAVANNAHMUSIC FALL 2016 idleclassmag.com

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MISS AMERICANA Arkansas native Elise Davis releases “The Token” staking her claim as a singer/songwriter to be heard.

WORDS / SHAYNE GRAY PHOTOGRAPHY / BRANDON MARKIN

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lise Davis has a calming, sultry voice of honeysuckle.

She is often described as ‘Americana.’ I do hear those elements on this 15 song album, but I think it goes deeper than any one category. Davis sings like she’s singing directly to you. It comes across as a confessional, coming to terms with both the good and the bad. The honesty is so charming it will draw you in and give you a drunken hug.

There are hints of influences as varied as Wilco, Jenny Lewis, and Sam Phillips.

Born in Little Rock and now residing in Nashville, Tennessee, Davis’ new album “The Token” was released September 26, 2016. She was recently selected for Apple Music’s “Breaking Singer/Songwriter” playlists for her song “Finally” and was just named TIDAL’s Top 5 Artists To Watch.

Davis developed a pre-teen obsession with music. She has listed some of her influences as Liz Phair, At The Drive-In, Lucinda Williams, and Aimee Mann. “The Token” is an album of a woman’s strength with glances of vulnerability, honesty, vices, love, and reflection. This album has it all: professional musicians, great production, and a lyrical delivery straight from the heart. The title track lyrics sum it up with: “Maybe we were made to be broken. That’s the Token.”

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I understand you moved to Nashville from Little Rock around 2012. How did that change/affect you as a musician?

When I moved to Nashville I quickly saw how much I was a small fish in a big pond. However, it was beyond exciting to me. I was discovering a huge music community and meeting musicians from all over the place that had moved here. I think it has been one of the best decisions of my life to help me grow as a musician.

Tell me more about the Arkansas fellows you played music with before moving to Nashville.

There have been so many it’s hard to fit it all in here!

I used to record at Blue Chair Studios in Austin, Arkansas – right next to Cabot. When I started to play live the owner of the studio, Darian Stribling, and his studio assistant at the time Jordan Trotter, used to help back me up and gather other band members for shows.

This led me to meeting a lot of guys who played around town and who would also play with me from time to time – Chad Conder, Jonathan Dodson, Brandon Alanis. One day Trevor Ware (of Grand Serenade at the time, one of my favorite Arkansas bands), approached me about forming a set band.

Jordan Trotter, Trevor Ware, and Justin Seymore of Grand Serenade became my bandmates for about two years before I made the decision to move to Nashville. I played with many other guys in Arkansas before moving to Nashville but the ones listed were the ones I played with most consistently.

What’s your take on the major differences between the two scenes?

The major difference about the music scene in Nashville than what I experienced in Arkansas is that there is a lot of industry in this town. There are labels, publishing companies, management companies, booking agencies, etc, all over this town. This is part of what makes it a great place to be as a musician because you have more opportunities to play in front of folks who could potentially help spread your music.

Who are your current touring band members and are they the same that recorded “The Token” with you?

My producer, Sam Kassirer, is based in Boston and he picked the studio band he thought was right for the record. Bradley Cook (Hiss Golden Messenger, Sharon Van Etten, Indigo Girls), Matt McCaughan (Bon Iver, Hiss Golden Messenger), Josh Kaufman (Bob Weir, The National, Josh Ritter), and Sam my producer played all the keys and he also plays keys in Josh Ritter’s band. All of those guys are amazing and I was so excited to have them on ‘The Token’ but none of them live in Nashville.

I tour with guys out of Nashville and don’t necessarily have a set band but the guys I usually play with (who are awesome and my good buds!) are Clint Maine, Doy Gardner, Clint Wells, Jacob Thomas Jr..

Tell me about working with producer Sam Kassirer in Parsonfield, Maine at his recording studio “The Great North Sound Society.”

This was the first time I had ever worked with a producer and it was incredible. My manager and I had been looking around at different possible producers to work with and then one night he showed me some of Sam’s work and said he thought we would be a great match. We sent Sam a bunch of my rough demos and iPhone recordings of the tunes I wanted on the record. Sam called me a couple weeks later and truly seemed passionate about the songs and had a vision about the way he thought they should be recorded. I really dug everything he said and the direction he wanted to go with it, we instantly jived with one another. So we decided it was a good fit and started to make plans! He picked the band very specifically for the style of playing he thought was best for the songs and he couldn’t have

been more spot on. It was truly one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

What message(s) are you hoping to convey on this album?

My songs are always like little diary entries for me. Songwriting has always been the most natural way for me to express something I am going through. I am now in my later twenties and nowhere near getting married or having kids, and unsure if I ever even want to do those things. Growing up I always thought my life would look very different. Especially being from the south, having a mother who was married at 22, and with 4 children by the time she was 29. I grew up thinking that’s what my life was supposed to look like as well.

The title track is supposed to be sending a message that no matter what path you choose in life, there will be both good and bad. And that’s okay. It’s the mission statement song for the record. The tracks to follow are the little stories of things I have gone through and felt as I have grown, and further broken away from a more traditional path.

What’s different on this album compared to your first two full length albums?

Really just time, growing up, and experience. I think every time I go into the studio I become more knowledgeable about what I want and how to make it sound that way. So, really all the songs I have ever written/recorded have come from this very raw, honest, autobiographical place- but the older I get I feel like I better learn how to articulate myself, sing with more control, and express how I want the band to sound. I hope to always continue growing and make better records every time.

You’re often described as being “country-based Americana.”

Do you like that or would you prefer to be placed in another genre?

I have always had a bit of a hard time expressing what genre I think my music falls under. I have used the term Americana mainly over the past few years but all in all Americana is a pretty vague and wide term. I use that one because to me, Americana is Southern sounding singer-songwriter music that can have elements of rock, but that is not straight up country. Honestly if someone digs the music, I am cool with whatever genre feels best to them to describe it.

Tell me more about your book “It’s OK To Be Broken.”

I have always really loved to paint and draw. I also have always loved to write poems and short stories. It’s very relaxing to me and just another outlet to express emotion. I sort of combined those things and illustrated a few poems of mine to create a little book, It’s OK To Be Broken. It’s a collection of the strange things that go on inside my brain.

I see you’re playing Austin City Limits on October 9. That sounds exciting! Have you played there before?

I am so excited! I love Austin and I have played SXSW a couple times but never been down there for Austin City Limits. I am gonna rock out and then eat tacos!

What are your touring plans in 2017?

Essentially, I plan to be on the road as much as possible over the next year. We are currently booking a bunch of dates and I will be spending most of 2017 in a van.

Anything else you want to add?

“The Token” is available everywhere now – Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon – all of that stuff! And I have a couple music videos coming out in the next month so be on the lookout for those. Also, new tour dates popping up all the time so be on the lookout for when I am coming near you!

VISIT: ELISEDAVIS.COM FALL 2016 idleclassmag.com

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THE PICTURE SHOW Artist Drew Gentle draws upon years of experience as an animator to create paintings that have a story all their own.

INTERVIEW / DONNA SMITH

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When you were a kid, what were your favorite animated shows or movies? If your list includes Batman, The Flintstones, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or, my personal favorite, The Land Before Time (who didn’t love Little Foot?), chances are, Drew Gentle was an artist tasked with creating the overall look of each. After his extensive career in animation, Gentle moved to Eureka Springs, where he is a working artist and maintains the Drew Gentle Studio & Gallery. Gentle basically illustrated my morning every Saturday as a child, so I was a little intimidated to contact him for our interview. However, what emerged was an engaging conversation with an artist about the inevitable overlap between his current work and his long career in animation, spanning just over fifty years.

ART

Opposite Page, Left to Right: Del Kane, Long Distance Trucker; Left to Right: Ted, Old Money; Little Red Riding Hood as an Old Lady; Memory.

When did you first become interested in art and animation?

I do art purely and simply because I am compelled to do it.

It is a calling I felt from a very young age. My mother had three sons, you see, and she was certain at least one of us would inherit my father’s art talent. When she realized it was me, she loaded me with art supplies from my father’s studio, my father sawed the legs off a dining room table and that became my drawing desk. I was perfectly happy as a seven-year-old, sitting in front of a picture window, watching and drawing everything I saw. My brothers couldn’t understand any of it. Not why I was doing it, and enjoying it, nor why I was getting special attention.

I guess drawing was a chore to them. To me, it was an act of pure joy. My serious commitment to being an artist began when I was seven. Most people don’t know what they want to do when they grow up. I did. It was and is a calling. It is the act of pouring one’s soul out in paint and expressing what is in you to do. We all have a window of raw talent. For some it is writing, for others it is graphic design, photography, dancing, music or painting.

But you have to keep your window clean. I am a window cleaner.

One’s window is one’s opening into the infinite. It is our job to keep that access to the infinite and use it to communicate something which will outlive us, that will make a contribution to the benefit of those who come after us.

Originally from Los Angeles, how did you decide to open up your studio in Eureka Springs? Has your work been influenced by the area and how so after almost ten years?

I decided to move to Eureka Springs due to my memory of visiting Arkansas in my twenties. A friend of mine had invited me to spend the summer at a hippie commune there in the sixties. I remembered the natural beauty of the state. When it came time for me to semi-retire from animation, I researched art colonies around the States. There were three runners up: Stroudsburg,

PA., Santa Fe, NM, and Eureka Springs.

You talk about connecting with human emotions in and through your work. Do you find that working in animation has helped bring out that desire in other mediums? It seems like that would be a great transition from the storytelling and illustration of animation. Was it a challenge to go from creating work through animation to separate singular works?

My style of creating images has definitely been influenced by my career in animation. In animation, you draw multiple images of the same character as he moves from one frame to the next.

The sequential nature of these sketches are designed to show movement, speech, facial expression, and so forth. But each time I paint my series of faces, I try to show multiple angles and imply motion. Fran, for example, has one eye that shows acceptance and another that shows disillusionment. When you look at my pictures you are seeing a visual interpretation of the inner psyche, not the actual physical appearance.

In many of your paintings, the figure portrayed is named within the title such as James, the Man with the Stainglass Soul and Sally as a Senior. Do you create these works from actual people, or are they parts of a wider exploration of a character you’re constructed? Or maybe a mixture of both?

My drawings and paintings are not meant to represent real people. They are fictional characters that come out of who knows where: imagination, channeling, or my own subconscious.

I have no real idea. But they all start out as sketches. Loose lines on a page which I then coalesce into a figure or face. At some point the drawing starts telling me what it wants to be. Not in a literal sense at all. But intuitively. I coax a character out of a few FALL 2016 idleclassmag.com

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original lines and then it begins to take on a certain persona.

You worked in the animation industry for many years. At what point did you know it was time for a change?

When I did animation, I designed the look of new shows. I liked the variety of shows I did because it kept me from getting stuck into any one style. I always wanted to do my own fine art. And I did, on my own, and in the ‘80s. But mostly I did the animation career as a way to provide stability for my family. I am grateful to those studios for my pension benefits. But I feel all my best art work is ahead of me. I have some 47 paintings so far, some as large as eight feet across and I have many more than that inside me waiting to be put on canvas. My sketches, which I use for my paintings, all started out as thousands of loose drawings I did over my 50-year career in animation. The wrist must be very tight and controlled to keep the right look for drawing each show. So each afternoon I’d take a break for a few minutes to loosen up my wrist. To loosen up my wrist I did spontaneous sketches and I promised myself I’d turn the best ones into paintings one day. I threw out many of the sketches and kept the best 300. These have been the basis for my paintings thus far, but I create new drawings all the time. And they get bumped to the top if the list if they’re good enough.

With the popularity of graphic novels, more artists are interested in illustration and animation as mediums for their works. What advice would you give to artists interested in working in the animation field?

I don’t like the nihilistic trend in art I see where nobody wants to believe in anything anymore. This new century needs hope. I am trying to show the humanity in all of us with my figures. I see the human condition with a great deal of compassion. We are made fresh and therefore vulnerable. I am so on our side in this struggle. The struggle we all have with the disconnect between our aspirations and ideals and the many compromises we feel

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compelled to make in order to get along in this world. My art is not about my ego. It is simply about having a contribution to make. By “keeping one’s window clean” I mean that some have a large window of talent and some have a small one. The size doesn’t matter. What matters is not letting your view into infinity get clouded. Keeping in touch with your intuition and subconscious are absolutely essential if you are an artist and if you want to make any real contribution that is of value to the coming generations. We need hope. Cynicism gets us nowhere as a species. Finding things about our humanity that will redeem us is our hope for the future, in my belief.

What drives you to keep creating work?

I paint because I feel like a complete fraud if I don’t create.

It is a part of my identity. I’ve had people tell me if I want to sell pictures I should paint puppies. My purpose in this life is not to make cute pictures for the sake of making money. It is to make a difference. With talent comes responsibility. At least in my book.

The responsibility to stay connected to your subconscious and paint that line and brush stroke in a way that tells a story.

You also run the Drew Gentle Studio & Gallery. Can you tell me a bit more about the space and why you decided to open your studio to the public?

We all have a great deal to learn and I never want to stop learning. My intention is that it become a place where artists come and collaborate, teach lessons, do workshops, and learn from one another. Ceramics, encaustics, sculpture, and printmaking will eventually be done there as well as acrylic and oil painting. I have a great desire to learn. And I do realize there is a lot I don’t know. My skill in encaustics, sculpture and printmaking should benefit by having other artists share and create in this space.

VISIT: DREWGENTLE.COM

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ROOTS

RUN

DEEP Digging into the Activist Art of V.L. Cox WORDS / SAMANTHA SIGMON PORTRAIT / JAKE WEST

F

or several years now, Little Rockbased artist V.L. Cox has pursued her expansive End Hate Series, a powerful body of work that takes many forms--principally incorporating three-dimensional pieces such as sculpture and found objects. These works address our historical relationship to anti-discrimination, Human Rights and equality as aspects of our society that remain very relevant today. This narrative series shows us where we’ve been before and why we should not go there again.

From left to right: “Jim,” “Pillar,” “Whitewash” & “The Mark”.

Below: “Stained”.

The End Hate project consists of an expansive and amorphous series of artworks, taking on different shapes and titles as it develops in separate locations and spaces. One of its most prominent reiterations was the installation shown at the Arkansas State Capitol in Little Rock and at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. in 2015. Different colored doors stood erect in a row, each with a painted sign that limited that door to only one group, such as “immigrants only” or “homeless only.” This series also includes imagery that deals directly with racism and hate crimes, civil rights, patriotism, religion, the criminal justice system, and gun control, collectively forming a body of work that is unflinching, defiant, and at times shocking.

This work came out of a need to use art to comment on and affect change. “I noticed that the one thing a good visual does is explain things in a simple way that everyone can understand. Simple communication is a very powerful tool,” Cox said. “ I felt so strongly about fighting against blatant discrimination, that I wanted the message to be seen in the most public area available and one that belongs to ALL of us. That was when I decided on the Arkansas State Capitol and then the Lincoln Memorial where Dr. Martin Luther King made his “I have a dream” speech . . . I knew it was now my turn to step out of my comfort zone, no matter how difficult, and stand up for what was right.”

T

he Idle Class had the opportunity to speak with the artist about the drive to create and display this hard-hitting, impactful series that is rooted in history, politics, and the artist’s personal background in the natural state.

Cox’s long Arkansas lineage supports both her call to address political issues and drive to create artwork. “My earliest memories of creating art was when I was very young,” Cox said. “I have photos of my father teaching me to draw when I was only two or three years old.” Her father was an illustrator, and her great grandmother was a painter from Old

Washington, Arkansas who graduated in 1909 with a degree in fine art from Lindenwood College for Women in St. Charles, Mo. The Historic Arkansas Museum carries work by Cox’s great grandmother and the artist herself.

Her family also has deep political roots in Arkansas. Cox’s great grandfather was a state representative from the Hope/Old Washington area in the early 1900’s, and her great-uncle ran for Lt. Governor and was appointed one of the first judges of the Arkansas Court of Appeals in 1979.

Her heritage in art and politics combine

colors her multimedia work today was her occupation as a set designer in Dallas under George San Pedro, a retired Broadway designer. She learned how to paint standing up with a paint brush attached to the end of long, thin, bamboo poles--the only way to see the large image being worked on. “I found working on projects of that scale bold and empowering,” Cox said. “I like the structural challenge of working large and the sense of freedom I feel when I remove all parameters in my design and construction.”

with her passionate call for justice and kindness in current affairs to create her new work.

Cox believes that all artists are influenced by their locations, and she embraces her family’s Southern roots in her narrative artwork. She draws upon the rich culture and history of storytelling as a traditional form of documentation and communication. Her work is made from objects of the past, each with their own story, refashioned to communicate not only her intent as an artist, but our perceptions as viewers. “I was brought up listening to my grandparents and their stories of people and the past. I proudly continue that narrative tradition with my work not only as the visual aspect of stories, but a history lesson as well,” the artist said.

Another aspect of Cox’s past that

hile Cox draws upon interests, ability, and background as an artist from the South, the End Hate series was specifically driven by the artist’s outrage at what she perceives as people not learning from the mistakes of our past. Cox says she has always been an advocate for Civil and Human Rights, but had not until recently used her art to convey this. When Arkansas’s law HB1228, known as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, made it out of committee in early 2015, Cox was stunned. Opponents to the law, like Cox, believe that it allows for lawful discrimination against LGBTQ individuals. Cox said she then realized how quickly people willingly or unwillingly forget their history, and knew she had to take a stand.

Through display of these overtly political artworks, the artist says that she has seen the best of people, and the worst, and although she has struggled with disappointment and a feeling of dismay at the behavior of others, she feels a little better about our world.

“Change never comes easy and is always wrought with turmoil. But it’s with these difficult battles and journeys where freedom and equality are born and appreciated,” Cox said. “We tend to get complacent when things are going well in our society, but that’s when we need to be the most vigilant. I have faith in the American people that in the end, they realize we are all in this together and without each other, true freedom won’t survive.”

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A Quiet

ROAR

Collage artist Meikel Church gains international recognition for work that is refined yet lionhearted WORDS / STACEY BOWERS PHOTOGRAPHY / HEATHER CANTERBURY

“C

ollage is such an introverted art form,” says Meikell Church, a quiet, shy artist whose work speaks volumes.

Church articulates carefully and softly, and I can’t help but see that as a reflection of the thoughtful process he undertakes to produce the subtle, intelligent, finely assembled pieces that have earned him international recognition.

Church’s work has been included in juried exhibitions in New York and Greece, and he has been picked for national and international collage publications, including the Obscure Magazine, A Minor, and Kolaj, in which he has been featured multiple times.

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Clockwise: Original Light, Don’t Look, Suture, Ambiguity

For having so many accolades, Church is relatively new to creating art. After burning out on college he entered a fiveyear career in the military, which took him to Europe, where he says spending time in Parisian and German museums and art houses may have sparked his interest in art. When he returned to Arkansas, he held careers in retail management and book fair management. He didn’t start experimenting with assemblage until 2013, when he was inspired by other collage artists, including his partner (now fiancé) Vincent Griffin, to whom he attributes much of his success. “Vince plays such an important role in this for me. I’m not someone who wants to be out in front of everyone,” Church says. Griffin encouraged Church to share his work on social media, where it was well-received. This gave him motivation to keep going.

In spring of 2013, Satellite, an online publication focused on fashion, design and culture, asked to print his work. “I think at

that point a lightbulb went off in my head,” Church says. Before that, he hadn’t really considered collectors outside of his friends and family being interested in him. The following year, he was contacted by a fellow artist, V.L. Cox, who wished to purchase a piece from him.

“Before we had even met, I noticed his work,” Cox says. “It was bold, sincere, and had a powerful message.” Church says he had no idea who Cox, a renowned North Little Rock-based artist whose multimedia works addressing social injustice have gained national attention, was when she contacted him, but the two formed a fast friendship and began working together artistically.

When Cox began working on her installation End Hate, a series of painted doors labeled with phrases meant to draw attention to discrimination, she says she knew she wanted Church to be her right hand-man. He helped her set up the doors of the steps at the Arkansas State Capitol and later at the FALL 2016 idleclassmag.com

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Left to right, top to bottom: - Sea Level, Times Up, Virile, Dust to Dust - Escape, GMO, High Point, Incarnation - Juice, Mimicking, Questions, Built to Last

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Left to right: The Gravity of Grief, Weathered

Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. When asked if he ever felt afraid while assisting with End Hate, which was introduced while tensions over the commonly labeled “anti-gay bill” SB 202 and the legalization of gay marriage were high in the red state of Arkansas, Church says he couldn’t recall ever being really afraid. He does remember a moment when the “LGBT” door fell. “It was so loud. We thought it was gunshots, and V.L. hit the ground,” he says, snickering, and suggests that he was perhaps too oblivious to get down.

Church and Cox went on to host A Murder of Crows, a joint exhibition which showcased more of Cox’s End Hate series alongside 15 of Church’s collages. It was intended to last for one week but high interest caused it to continue for a full month. When asked about the socially conscious themes in

his work, Church says he didn’t always think of himself as an activist but recognizes the trend of his work to approach topics of injustice. He says he sometimes worries about offending viewers, but is less worried about it than he used to be, recalling something Cox said to him about the matter: “If you make those pieces to elicit a certain response, you’ve succeeded.”

Church is humble when speaking about himself and his successes, but Cox is decided in her praises. “He’s a rare human being, an incredible artist, a fierce advocate for justice, and has a gentle soul that roars.”

VISIT: MEIKELCHURCHCOLLAGE.COM

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Artist We

KYLE BOSWELL WORDS / SANDRA SPOTTS

It was perhaps inevitable that Kyle Boswell’s upbringing in Central Arkansas would give rise to a lifetime filled with rich experiences. Extensive travel and a love of multicultural studies lead Boswell to build careers in both international relations and art. He grew up surrounded by art and public service with parents who created a culture which fully supported his interests in both international relations and art. He credits his success in part to a family who encouraged openness, exploration, and creativity.

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Do you recall your first experience with art?

It was at the Arkansas Arts Center and I was in an art program when I was four years old. We started with paper collage and pottery. The Arts center had a major impact on my childhood.

We were given a project to hand build a box and all others were either square or round but mine was a pyramid with horns and teeth. I was always the youngest in my art classes and Rosemary Fisher gave me encouragement. She taught me the basics. At 12-years old, I had a teapot exhibited in the gallery alongside work from adults.

Where did you go from there?

After high school, I went to South America. My parents supported having a broad liberal arts experience in life. I traveled, visited museums, and built a foundation in art and went to Cairo alone when I was 19. I graduated from UALR where I studied painting, design and sculpture. I also attended Lambuth College in Tennessee. After UALR, I went to Spain for political and international studies, and later worked in the offices of state auditor, Julia Hughes Jones, and Governor Bill Clinton.

I moved to D.C., went to American University and worked for Congressman Ray Thornton. During this time I had no art in my life, something I had done from age 4 to 19. Later, my family founded a real estate development company in Arkansas and during this time I served as president, focusing my energy on the business. I eventually, after a long break, returned to art.

How did you make the transition from pottery to glass blowing and develop your style?

I went into rehab, came to an enlightened state and moved to Miami where Jon and I got together. I wanted to explore a new medium so I studied welding and glassblowing. The processes of pottery and glassblowing are very similar based on motion and a tactile quality. I became a resident artist at the University of Miami. The university brought in the best glassblowing artists in the world to do workshops - Dante Marioni, Steven Powell, William Morris.

As a resident, I had to produce a new body of work yearly.

Through my love of travel, museums, and art, I developed an

interest in antiquity. I became interested in functional forms and first blew pails and buckets after observing a plastic mop bucket in the studio. They were too true to form, so I let the glass become looser. In making the handles, I was influenced by different cultures and wanted organic handles, so I began using bamboo and textiles.

A bucket is a universal object in all cultures. We don’t think of a bucket as an art form, although in other cultures they can be very decorative. I became interested in amphorae and alabastrons. My former wife is Greek and being in that culture, I kept seeing how modern day and ancient Greeks are always dancing, so I developed welded steel forms to hold the vessels. This developed into another series, Lifting Air, five-foot tall figures based my rehab and the freedom that comes with no longer lifting this self-created burden.

You have a body of work which you have take in several directions. Are they simultaneous?

Yes, they are ongoing and open-ended. They include reclining nudes, alabastrons, which are an ode to Greek women, pails and buckets, Lifting Air, from which I developed another series of totems that are stylized, five-foot figures with quotes about peacemaking from Louise Diamond engraved on them.

All are connected and never end.

Kyle and his husband, Jon Mourot, own the Boswell Mourot Galleries in Little Rock and Miami.

VISIT: BOSWELLMOUROT.COM Photos courtesy of Kyle Boswell FALL 2016 idleclassmag.com

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WRITING

The Write Stuff T

The University of Arkansas Creative Writing MFA celebrates 50 years of helping writers hone their craft.

WORDS / JENNY VOS

he Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at the University of Arkansas is unparalleled for its dedication to providing supportive student environments and opportunities, and this year it celebrates a half-century since it founding. When it began in 1966 the MFA program was among the first formal degree programs in the craft of writing. Fifty years later the program remains unique among its peers for its academic rigor and the strength of its communities, both within the classrooms and without.

“One of the main reasons that anybody should seek out a creative writing program,” said Allison Hammond, Assistant Director of the program, “is for community; to meet those individuals who are going to continue to respond to your work, who are going to continue to support you as a writer.”

The connections that are built between students, faculty, and alumni in this program are long-lasting and impactful, strengthening both the students and the program. Whether that be through organizations such as the Founders Fund, established by the surviving families of the program’s founders, alumni promoting promising young writers for admission, or indeed, returning to further the work of the program.

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Current MFA student Michelle Meyers stated, “more than in any other way in the program I’ve benefited, both personally and as a writer, from my colleagues and especially from the group I came into the program with.”

This is no doubt in part because of program’s supportive workshop culture, unique in a field where professional resources and opportunities are too often scarce. “There is a definite interest in pulling everybody up,” said Hammond. “There aren’t a bunch of egos around the table trying to hammer each other down.”

The MFA program has long been remarkable for its active engagement with local communities. James Whitehead began

WRITING

Oppoiste Page: MFA candidates work with high school students in West Memphis Left to right: - Cover of The Arkansas International #!

- MFA founders James Whitehead, William Harrison & Miller Williams

the University’s first outreach program, Writers In The Schools (WITS), in 1973. This program sends teams of MFA graduate students to supplement the arts programs of underserved schools in Arkansas by offering two day workshops in creative writing.

“WITS was one of the main reasons I applied to this program,” said Myers. “I get to share something I love, and maybe convince some skeptical young people that writing can be fun. The kids are so creative when you give them the agency most writing classes can’t or won’t. I feel invigorated by their enthusiasm and willingness to go weird. I say, “write about what happens if you swallow a hurricane,” and they’re like “yeah!” I say “you’re allowed to tell lies,” and they go all in.”

Over the last ten years in particular the MFA program has also steadily increased its engagement with local community through programs such as the Distinguished Readers Series and the Walton Visiting Writers Program, both of which bring prominent writers and authors to Fayetteville for both public readings and close quarters instruction with MFA students. Past features of these series have included Joyce Carol Oates, Zadie Smith, Jericho Brown, and Chris Abani.

These readings often coincide with the MFA program’s partnership with the Fayetteville Public Library to host the True Lit Fest, which this year will host Louis Sachar, author of Holes and winner of the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, and Claudia Rankine, who recently won the PEN Center USA Poetry Award and National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry for her 2014 book Citizen.

“Dorianne Laux, Jericho Brown, Zadie Smith – their insight and passion have had lasting, deep impressions on my own

thoughts and practices as a write,” said Myers. “I introduced Chris Abani when he came here – I admire his work deeply, and I was so honored and moved by that experience.”

This year also sees the advent The Arkansas International, a literary magazine collated by MFA students and staff to showcase outstanding works of poetry, fiction, non fiction, and comics from the USA and beyond. Many of the works in the magazine appear in English translation. Editor-in-Chief, translation and poetry Professor Geoffrey Brock, stated the magazine’s purpose as: “putting american literature in conversation with literature from around the world.” The magazine released its inaugural issue in October, and featured works by Peter Orner, Clare Cavanagh, V.V. Ganeshanathan, Meena Alexander, Geri Doran, and Sean Hill.

The University of Arkansas’ Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program was among the first of its kind, established by Bill Harrison and James Whitehead in 1966 and expanded with the addition of Miller Williams and the study of translation in the mid seventies. The program has matriculated the likes of Miroslav Penkov, winner of the BBC International Short Story Award, Pushcart Prize winner Nancy McCabe, National Endowment for the Arts fellow Sy Hoahwah, and Guggenheim fellow John Dufresne.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE ARKANSAS INTERNATIONAL, VISIT: ARKINT.ORG Images courtesy of the University of Arkansas Creative Writing & Translation Program.

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WORDS / DOUG SHIELDS ILLUSTRATION / LEIGH JACOBS

SOBER CANDY FLIP >> SOBER <<

>> FLIP <<

My name is Sober. In our everyday lives, Candy, Flip and I play with sandboxes and call it research. We want to know what sort of liquid could have carved out the dry gullies and river beds on Mars. We recreate, as best we can, the air pressure and temperature of Mars, and test whether slushy water (with various minerals mixed in) can flow in the liquid state.

A pink elf just walked by, gritting his teeth at me. I have no idea what’s going on. The music has now passed through me like a wall. I stepped through it, and a ripple went outward. Everybody looks like a salty puppet.

Tonight there are no sandboxes. No vacuum chambers. No freezers.

Instead, there is a music festival, hidden away in a valley and filled with sound goddesses and gods, fire dancers, and costumes. Flip is tripping acid, so he’s even loopier than usual. Candy is rolling molly, so he’s even more flaming than usual. Looks like I’ll be babysitting again.

>> CANDY << I feel privileged for being able to share this experience with Sober and Flip. They are beautiful. They had crushes on each other for a year before either had the nerve to make a move. Our research group had a betting pool on how long it would take for them to hook up. Then, one Monday, they were making out in my office.

It’s time to leave camp. Music is calling, and everyone in the world is my lover. I’ve gotten more flirts in the last ten minutes than in the previous year. Men and women both. If only I could be this open all the time!

Why Sober walking so fast? There are thousands of people to connect with. Look! That boy is practically naked. His skin is painted fuchsia. His speedo and hair are glowing the color of a blue M&M. He is a sexy elf.

And he just smiled at me.

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Why is Sober walking so fast?

>> SOBER << I want a collar that fits around the torso rather than the neck, the kind people use for dogs and small children. Except I want the collar to be grownup sized, so I can keep track of my boyfriend when he’s tripping.

He needs an acid leash.

We’re almost at the dance yard, and people are looking at their phones.

Why would you look at your phone when there is such good music? I won’t be happy until I can finally dance, when my muscles loosen up and my body gets warm and my brain stops being its normal OCD self and just surrenders to the sound goddess.

Cold gust of wind. The clouds are powerful tonight. I hope they dump their water elsewhere.

>> CANDY << Hai, stranger. Love the hula hoop. You look like you were having fun tonight, but now you’re worried. Is everything ok? Sure, I’ll look at your phone. The radar map! Lots of pretty colors. That’s an intense storm. Is that why people are leaving?

FICTION I love storms. Especially that first cold gust of wind, when the downdraft pulls air from the top of the sky down to the ground. Cleanest air you’ll ever breathe. You’re going back to your car? Will you kiss me first?

Thank you. Enjoy the storm.

>> FLIP << The sound goddess conjured up the wind, and now it’s taking over. Grits of dirt are blowing in my face, like the sandstorms that sweep across the entire surface of Mars. There’s no difference between weather on Earth and weather on Mars. Except, of course: temperature, pressure, and atmospheric composition. Minor distinctions, compared to the physical laws that govern them both.

Something has changed. The wind came to the party, and now the music stopped.

>> SOBER << We just made it to the dance yard, and they stopped the music. Are you fucking kidding me? The sound goddess is telling us to return to our vehicles. “Seek shelter immediately. Do not trust your tents. Get inside your vehicles. Go now. The music will resume when the storm has passed.”

I suddenly feel a connection with her. All she wanted to do was share her music, and she was thwarted, not by the competent warfare of an intelligent enemy, but by a random thunderstorm. She lost to a fluke.

>> CANDY << I am deeply concerned about every single person here. They are all in danger. Most of them understand the danger, but a few can’t. How can I be useful right now? By spreading the word. Return to your vehicle. Big storm coming. I love you. Return to your vehicle.

Speaking of people who might not understand the situation, where the hell is Flip?

>> FLIP << Did you see that lightning? It was a spider web that spanned the sky.

Now, count the seconds to thunder … one … two seconds! That lightning is 2/5 of a mile above us.

The geometry of lightning is the same as a tree. And also a river. And a Martian gully. Fractals look the same at every scale. How did those gullies form? From what liquid? It would have to be stable enough to dig out the channels, but evaporate quickly enough to be gone by the time humans arrived to observe it. The storm badly wants to tell me. It is shaking me to get my attention.

Sober is also shaking me. Speaking to me. Let me see if I can piece it together. She is saying something like: “You have. To pull. Yourself.

Together. Long enough. To. Walk to the car.” Ok. Which way is the car?

Should I flow with the current of salty puppets?

>> SOBER << We made it to the car. Some guy who is dressed like a Christmas tree is in the back set with Candy. The car is full of music.

The sky has opened up now, spilling water like a drive-thru car wash.

The rain is making an acute angle with the windshield. Given the amount of wind and water, this can only be a high-precipitation supercell, which means there is about one chance in four that a tornado is nearby. If a tornado moves through a campground with thousands of people protected only by their vehicles, the result will be unthinkable. One chance in four. Tragedy is not the most likely outcome, but it’s more likely than a fluke.

Flip is staring at the ceiling. Candy is making out with the Christmas tree in the back seat. The Christmas tree suddenly unmouths himself from Candy and asks everyone present, “Does anybody have any French fries? I could use some salt,” and we all laugh.

Three of our laughs fade after a few seconds. Flip’s laugh, however, does not. It continues, building in volume and intensity, even as Candy and the Christmas tree return their attention to one another’s lips. Flip’s cheeks are wet now, dripping with tears. He is crying like someone who has just touched God. “Like salt,” Flip finally says through his sobs. “That’s what the storm is trying to tell me. The cloud and the ground form an ionic bond, just for a moment, like salt.”

I ask him what he’s talking about.

“Salt! We make a brine with lots and lots of salts. It’ll seep out of the Martian ground, stay liquid long enough to carve out the sand, and then evaporate. Salt! The Martian streams were really, really salty. That’s how they stayed liquid long enough to dig out the Martian gullies. Salt!”

I recognize what’s happening to him. Flip is having a lightning bolt of inspiration. Most scientists have only a few such moments per lifetime, but those moments govern their discoveries and their careers. Much of our technology relies on science that is built from a few such moments in each of many scientists’ lives.

I myself had such a moment, once. It happened while I was lying on a hillside staring at clouds. There were no drugs involved, but the effect was the same. I was ecstatic for weeks. That moment inspired me to apply to grad school, and has guided my research ever since.

Now Flip is having such a moment, and he is sharing it with me. I thought I had been in love before, but I was wrong. With my right hand, I take hold of Flip’s left. We sit there, listening to rain play louder than the radio.

Over the next month, Flip’s experiments will tell us whether his hypothesis is consistent with nature. If so, the world’s body of knowledge will advance slightly thanks to painstaking research, a fraction of a drop of lysergic acid, and a music festival.

Assuming, of course, the festival doesn’t kill us.

Another lightning bolt, this time from cloud to ground, landing on the near side of the tree line. For a second I was staring at a pink sun, and my eyes haven’t recovered. I felt the current go through my muscles.

The cloud is a proton, positively charged. The ground is an electron, negatively charged. The lightning is their attempt to connect, to find one another, like — like what

>> CANDY << Return to your vehicle. Don’t trust your tent. I love you. Hello, stranger. I love your Christmas tree lights. You are a very sexy man. Please return to your vehicle.

Wait - your car is how far away? You might not make it. Our car is right here. You should hang out with us. Text your friends, and let them know.

We have beer in the trunk, and we can reach it from the back seat. Your Christmas tree lights speak to my depths. I feel like I’ve known you forever.

Doug Shields is the host and chief contributing poet of Poetize the News, Fridays at 10pm on KPSQ 97.3 Fayetteville Community Radio.

Doug is the winner of our inagural Gimme Fiction competition.

Other notable entries were: “That Makes Two of Us” by Olivia Taylor (2nd place), “Selling the Mare” by Nancy Hartney. (3rd place). It was judged by Dr. Stephanie Vanderslice, director of the Arkansas Creative Writing MFA at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

The 2016 Gimme Fiction contest was sponsored by The Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow, Nightbird Books & Moxy Modern Mercantile.

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Olympia Atkinson connects with the children of Helena through dance.

WORDS / MELISSA TUCKER PHOTOGRAPHY / JOHN DAVID PITTMAN

A

typical day for Olympia Atkinson – dancer, choreographer and instructor – starts with coffee. Sweet coffee. Once the caffeine hits, she’s ready to plan the next hip-hop dance lesson for the children of Arkansas. With her lessons, she inspires confidence, creativity and collaboration in the after-school care programs of Helena.

PERFORMING ARTS

W

hen Atkinson decided to teach dance, she opened a studio to reach children in Helena. Attendance was disappointing, however, so she decided to bring dance to the students, partially funded by an Artist in Education grant from the Arkansas Arts Council.

“I set a goal for 250 kids. There was a cost issue where some parents couldn’t afford to pay for dance, so I said, ‘Okay, this is even better, I can go into community and the schools can pay for it and the students get these dance services,’” she said.

“With that goal of 250, I went on social and I reached that goal and exceeded it. Right now I’m at 362.”

Even though dance and education have always been in her background, Atkinson was finally able to combine her two loves: music and dance.

“I’ve been dancing for 17 years,” she said. “I’m a trained dancer. I started in high school, and various performances throughout my life are what led me to the dance studio. I was a middle school teacher, and I saw the lack or deficit of community programs in Helena, and I thought, ‘What better idea than to bring an art-based program to Helena?’”

Atkinson believes dance helps children grow creatively and musically, which is why her classes combine music education, poetry, and graphic design.

“In the classes, I talk about the four elements of hip-hop culture: the DJ who plays the music, the emcee who raps, the graphic art form, and the b-boy or break dancer. And I have the kids come up and volunteer to either DJ or rap or dance, or they can create art using marker and poster board,” she said. “Just having that activity which is one of multiple activities we do, they are able to open up and be more confident among their peers and to really demonstrate their creativity.”

The program also serves as a music appreciation class, where she introduces them to classic and modern pop and rock music.

“The students listen to music from the past and present and over several genres, in fact, I’ve played Elvis Presley, so that the kids have that history. This new generation is somewhat disconnected from the originators, the pioneers of music, and how music and dance are connected.”

Another blast from the past is the Soul Train line, where the kids freestyle their way through a line of their peers.

“It’s fun watching them be creative in their dancing down the Soul Train line and clapping at the same time, and it’s the best energy.”

For her classes Atkinson uses the Arkansas Department of Education standards for dance, and she’s in the process of publishing her own dance curriculum. She says most of the children she meets have never been exposed to dance classes, and she frequently starts with the basics.

“It can be a challenge because we’re starting at the basic level – counting to eight, building that structure, and learning to memorize the routine and then building confidence in actually performing in front of an audience.”

At the end of each year, the students perform for their parents and teachers. Building on her success in Helena, today she’s hoping to expand to Little Rock and grow her dancing studio there.

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from

VERONA to

Middle Eastern adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet to show Damascus is still a place of love.

WORDS / JEREMY GLOVER ILLUSTRATION / PHILLIP HUDDLESTON

My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.

— William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

T

he warring houses of Verona were the undoing of the most famous love story ever told. A play that has been adapted to a variety of periods and settings, Romeo and Juliet reveals the most basic nature of our shared humanity.

With a $250,000 grant for an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, Arkansas is collaborating with director Kholoud Sawaf on the three-year project.

The setting for this adaptation is where Sawaf was born and raised – Damascus, Syria. A country currently in the midst of a brutal civil war, yet for Sawaf it is still a place of love – a place that needs to be heard.

The Building Bridges Program of the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Arts provided the grant as part of its efforts “to advance relationships, increase understanding and reduce bias between Muslim and non-Muslim communities.”

“This mission couldn’t be more needed right now. It couldn’t

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be more timely. It couldn’t be more urgent,” Sawaf said. “What a wonderful thing to feel like that the work we are doing is a need not a privilege.”

In speaking with Sawaf, her passion for the possibilities of theatre and commitment to exploring new potentials and realms of creativity is evident and immediately captivating. Just ten years ago Sawaf knew little English. But after attending American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates and falling in love with all aspects of theatre production, she was encouraged by her professor to apply for M.F.A. programs in the United States.

Since completing her M.F.A. in August of 2015 from the University of Arkansas, Sawaf has had opportunities to further hone her craft with award-winning theatre productions on both coasts. Sawaf was awarded an Artistic Assistantship in Directing at the Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival this

past summer, which led to a six-week fellowship with the Manhattan Theater Club in the fall. While both of the productions were Vietgone, a new play by Qui Nguyen, they were not related. It was director May Adrales in Oregon who asked her to work on the next production in New York.

“I’m blessed with so many great opportunities that I know are just lining up in a wonderful way to help me hopefully grow as an artist and a person and take me to the next step and offer me more experience – more growth artistically, “ Sawaf said.

While working with the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, New York, in the summer of 2015, Sawaf had an open ended offer to “play” - an invite to use actors and 20 hours of rehearsal time to create a performance or a closed production, with the one caveat that what she had to choose something that presented her with a challenge.

“I was wrestling with several ideas at that time and suddenly there was that moment – a flash – Romeo and Juliet and what if we set that in Damascus. What we were exploring a lot with that was a lot of fractioning,” Sawaf said.

At the time she was workshopping Romeo and Juliet with the Hangar Theater, Sawaf found out about the Building Bridges Program grant. She then approached TheatreSquared, where she has been involved on several productions, to see if they were interested in working with her on a grant for fully adapting Romeo and Juliet set in Damascus.

“When we received the news I was extremely surprised and happy and relieved,” she said. “It offers freedom to think and also play and go in very indirect ways that if we didn’t have this time and support we wouldn’t be able to do necessarily. We would want to do shortcuts that we know they are going to work immediately. So it’s the idea of having the time and resources to dream and think more creatively.”

Martin Miller, executive director of TheatreSquared, said the calendar for the project is fluid but he expects to be staging a full production in 2018 or early 2019.

“Frankly, everything about the development and production process over the next three years excites me, but in particular, we are glad to have an opportunity to engage with new cultural communities locally and nationally,” Miller said.

The first phase of the three-year project took place in early summer as part of the 2016 Arkansas New Play Festival, with a three-week workshop and two reading performances.

“One of the discoveries that we came to at the end of that process, and I that think was coming from my love to Damascus so much and connection to the city, not only the people of the city but to the city itself – the desire to share that in a way,” Sawaf said.

“Six years ago Damascus was a city of love and not a city of hate, and not that I am saying I would call it a city of hate at this second, because things are more complicated even though there is civil war.

“But one of the discoveries is the idea of hearing that love of the city and the belief in the city is part of the project. Also sharing the idea, and I kept mentioning to the cast during the process, that I have this image of 10,000 balconies having discussions in Damascus. That’s also part of that city murmuring and whispering. I hear it coming up and down as part of my daily life here. I keep hearing it and I’m still there in a way.”

bangupbettyjewelry @bangupbetty

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GOING STRONG FOR HALF A CENTURY Arts Center of the Ozarks celebrates its golden anniversary by developing new options to bring theatre and art to Northwest Arkansas WORDS / TRYSTAN HANEY

T

Directors plan to roll out a new vision that will reflect all that is he Arts Center of the Ozarks has been celebrating arts happening in Springdale. and creative education in Northwest Arkansas for 50 “Over the next year and into the future, we will continue to years. Through this organization, thousands of people offer programs that invite people to interact and celebrate the have had the opportunity to explore their artistic culturally rich community.” interests in the heart of Springdale.

Swain recognizes the importance of growth and wants to Located on Main Street, ACO is a nonprofit arts organization focus on that for the future of ACO. Directors of the art center that offers a variety of programming including art classes, live are creating more events performances, and a home for for people to interact with artists and art organizations “We envision our Center of the Ozarks the arts and work with other to showcase their work. ACO Just a few of provides an artistic outlet that of being a cultural hub. The idea is to be communities. the new partnerships include: encourages people of all ages and backgrounds to explore and a resource for the arts in this community NWA Audio Theater, New Latin Arts Organization, NWA Ballet enjoy. and to bring in a cultural view.

Theater, and Arts Live Theater.

Jenni Swain is currently an

“We envision our Center of arts consultant to ACO and will Springdale is a crossroads for culture; the Ozarks of being a cultural soon be working as the interim ACO is an ideal place to reflect it.” hub. The idea is to be a resource executive and artistic director for the arts in this community and to support the new strategic - Jenni Swain to bring in a cultural view,” Swain vision and goals that are being said. “Springdale is a crossroads established by the board of for culture; ACO is an ideal place to reflect it.” directors. After many years of thriving in the NWA community, In celebration of half a century, directors are working Swain hopes to pass on the years of history and success into the diligently to create new programs, partnerships and become next generation. active in the revitalization of downtown Springdale.

“I am thrilled and honored to be part of the next 50 years and invite all to re-discover, or discover for the first time, this VISIT: ACOZARKS.ORG inspiring arts and cultural organization,” Swain said.

Photo courtesy of Arts Center of the Ozarks.

Springdale is known to be one of the most diverse communities in the area and ACO celebrates its variety.

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PERFORMING CENTERS

GETTING BETTER EVERY YEAR TheatreSquared Reveals Big Plans for 2016 Season WORDS / KELSEY FERGUSON PHOTO / WESLEY HITT

T

heatreSquared may be Northwest Arkansas’s only yearround professional theatre, but that doesn’t mean that NWA residents need to search elsewhere for exciting, consistent theatre experiences. TheatreSquared’s intimate, 175-seat theatre inside the Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios offers an up-close and personal look into the black box for first-timers and theatre veterans alike.

The company kicked off the killer lineup of their 11th season in August with All the Way by Robert Schenkkan, a play about President Lyndon B. Johnson’s efforts to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In addition to the production of four critically-acclaimed new plays, a world premiere stage adaptation, a sparkling new take on a Feydeau farce and the second annual Arkansas New Play Festival, the company unveiled the final designs for its upcoming expansion on November 3rd - a new, 50,000 squarefoot facility sure to bring high-caliber production to The Natural State.

London-based theatre planners Charcoalblue joined the presentation along with New York-based Marvel Architects to presented the vision for the 50,000 square-foot theatre building, set to be located at the corner of West & Spring Streets in Fayetteville, during the theatre company’s annual gala on November 3 as Executive Director Martin Miller described a significant expansion of the company’s artistic and public capacities to the rapt crowd.

“TheatreSquared’s new home will unite two state-of-the-art theatres, the company’s first dedicated rehearsal space right on the corner, staff offices, education and community space off the

lobby, on-site design workshops, eight dedicated guest artist apartments in a separate building, outdoor public spaces at three levels, and an always-open café/bar at the active corner of West & Spring,” he said.

TheatreSquared also launched their newest program to make free and low-cost tickets available for every performance.Thanks to a generous grant from the Walmart Foundation, LIGHTS UP! For Access will extend free and low-cost tickets for 220 performances to over 7,500 Northwest Arkansas community members who may otherwise face an insurmountable cost barrier. LIGHTS UP! isn’t restricted to certain plays, dates or seating sections either. LIGHTS UP! tickets offer seating in any section, at any performance, all season. Their website offers more details on how to qualify.

While its impact on Northwest Arkansas has surged in recent years, TheatreSquared has always believed theatre can transform lives and communities. “TheatreSquared’s mission is to produce challenging, professional and intimately staged works,” Miller reiterated. “[The company] strives to help reverse the tide of diminishing arts access in Arkansas schools and to serve as a voice for playwrights through new work development.”

In its 11th season, TheatreSquared is already far exceeding those goals adding to the vibrant Northwest Arkansas theatre community.

VISIT: THEATRE2.ORG

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The

MAESTRO A

John Jeter marks 20 years with the Fort Smith Symphony.

WORDS / KATY HENRICKSEN

t first glance there’s little in common between a conductor of a symphony orchestra and a fighter pilot. Consider the clichés. Our image of a maestro includes a stiffly pressed tuxedo, hobnobbing with high society types, and furiously waving a baton in a stuffy concert hall to bring to life the music of long dead white European men. Whereas the fighter pilot wears a beat up bomber jacket, loves the adrenaline rush of flying low and fast to avoid enemy fire, and prefers the bird’s eye view up in the solitary sky to a room full of people whose eyes center on the towering figure in the middle of the stage.

Yet, John Jeter, who marks his 20th season as music director of the Fort Smith Symphony, admits his dream job would have been a World War II fighter pilot.

“I love it,” Jeter says about conducting.

“I joke about doing something more gutsy, like I would have loved to be Chuck Yeager, or you know, some really ballsy test pilot.”

So exactly how does a Southern California boy who learned to fly a plane in the busy San Diego airways as a teen find himself leading the oldest symphony orchestra in the state of Arkansas, transforming a community endeavor into a robust professional symphony that records on classical label stalwart Naxos?

“I was interested in how music was put together,” Jeter explains of his time studying piano and cello privately.

“Teachers told me that I thought like a conductor or composer because of the

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questions I asked. There were questions about music that I could not be easily answered by looking them up in a book.”

While Jeter loved listening to opera and orchestra and excelled in playing his instruments, he ultimately had no interest in making it as a performer and decided a music theory degree made the most sense considering his constant questioning of chord structures and an obsession with musical forms.

“When you first do it, it’s very disconcerting because you never get to practice,” Jeter says of conducting. “It’s a lot of information and you have to get used to processing a lot of information. A lot of people talk about a feeling of power. I feel like you’re there for the ensemble. You’re a facilitator really, trying to make everything go well. The feeling I get happens afterward because you’re too busy. There’s just so much going on. It’s very much a multitasking job. Turns out it’s a lot like flying a plane.

“When you’re flying you’re always checking knobs and dials,” he says.

“But in a plane, especially a small plane, things don’t happen fast the way they do in orchestras. There’s stuff happening all the time. It’s like a videogame, but a much better video game with much better music.”

VISIT: FORTSMITHSYMPHONY.ORG Photo courtesy of the Fort Smith Symphony

PERFORMING CENTERS

CHANGING WITH THE TIMES

B

efore the Walton Arts Center came to town, Dickson Street wasn’t exactly a place you’d bring the whole family. However, with its opening in 1992, a recognizable shift was catalyzed.

As the years have moved onward, both Fayetteville and it’s downtown have grown much larger than any could have predicted and the Walton Arts Center still sits front and center.

In 2012, in response to the increased tourism and local interest in the entertainment arts, the conversation around a necessary renovation of the WAC began.

The entire renovation planned to add an additional 30,000 square feet and would unfold in several parts, keeping the WAC open to the public as often as possible. Changes began with roof reconstruction, plus the addition of a new parking garage and administration building.

In the summer of 2015 the WAC was closed to patrons as the internal changes and expansions were set into full motion. This included a very necessary backstage expansion.

“We truly needed backstage space,” said Erin Rogers, the WAC’s Public Relations Director. “When we had a large show that came prior to backstage renovation, performers would have to move into Starr Theatre as a storage area. So Starr Theatre would all of the sudden shut down for 100+ days.”

The backstage expansion, which features a crew lounge, extra

Walton Arts Center expansion to revitalize Dickson Street once again WORDS / ASHLEIGH PRICE

storage, larger wardrobes, and a new hair/makeup room will put performers at ease and allow patrons a year round utilization of Starr Theatre. Starr Theatre, more intimate than the WAC’s main stage, plans to provide regular programming for schools by day and a more “club-like” atmosphere by night. This space will host new programming like the WAC’s 10x10 Series and the West Street Live Series.

The summer of 2015 also marked the revamp of the WAC’s front lobby-- glass encased, it highlights a geometric chandelier and offers a monumental view of Old Main. Completed renovations will also include a new piano room, outdoor lounge space, and an improved Garden Room.

“I think what everyone is most excited about is getting into this building and being able to utilize the new spaces,” says Rogers. “We’re on the cutting edge of artists that come to NWA. Our programmers are always looking for things to stretch the community’s minds.”

Now, as the WAC moves into its 25th season, its location on Dickson Street continues to mark the center of Fayetteville’s entertainment district. With renovations nearly complete, they hope to once again inspire waves of change and artistic spark within the downtown community of Fayetteville.

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ENTERTAINERS & Innovators Across Arkansas, groups are springing up that push the boundaries of their form and keep audiences coming back for more.

All images courtesy of the organizations.

ARKANSAS STAGED Theatre Company

I

n Northwest Arkansas, theatre is a thriving sector of the larger arts network. Small, experimental groups transform everyday spaces into vibrant, dynamic stages. Producti on companies bring nationally recognized scripts to life. Large-scale presenting companies give local residents a chance to catch some of the most popular shows from our nation’s largest cities and scenes.

Then, there’s ArkansasStaged.

At a time when major cities are producing theatre’s most provocative, eccentric and progressive scripts in history, audiences in smaller communities are often left out. Other than being absolutely entertaining, these contemporary scripts play a crucial role in the development of an arts-minded, experiment-driven audience base. That’s why ArkansasStaged isn’t just supporting theatre culture in Northwest Arkansas – it’s driving it. This tenacious and playful company has tested the limits of subject matter, setting and performance style to inspire a more inclusive and experimental contemporary culture since its creation just three years ago.

In 2013 artists Kris Stoker, Sabrina Veroczi and Jason Suel founded ArkansasStaged with one goal: to make funny and absurd work with local artists they admired and respected.

Subsequently, the group evolved into a small collective of professional theatre artists dedicated to bringing staged readings, experimental and experiential theatre to life within the unique spaces of Northwest Arkansas. Artists leave the black box behind, opting to infuse readings into broader venues. Past

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works and locations have varied greatly, including Picasso At The Lapine Agile, Merci, Maurer, and Gertrude Stein Plays Paris (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art), Art by Yasmina Reza, Venus In Fur by David Ives and Craving Gravy, Or: Love in the Time of Cannibalism (21C Museum Hotel), Veils by Tom Coash (St. Paul’s Episcopal Church) and Love Song by John Kolvenbach (Fayetteville Underground).

With the addition of Laura Shatkus as artistic director in 2015, ArkansasStaged will continue to break the barriers of contemporary theatre culture in Northwest Arkansas. Shatkus is charming, bold and determined – and her recent long-term partnership with 21C is sure to breed must-see experimental productions.

“I’m working to build a little company that I can pass on some day, just as the company was passed on to me,” Shatkus says. “It’s a slow climb, but I’m working to create a little nook for artists to feel safe, appreciated and compensated while simultaneously bringing something original to the communities of Northwest Arkansas.” Presently, ArkansasStaged is certainly successful at that - but we can look forward to much, much more. “I am particularly tickled by the absurd,” Shatkus hints.

“I also have a strong mission to tell stories that give artistic opportunities to women and people of color. So, I’ll keep slowly working towards that and just keep swimming.”

As 2016 begins to draw to a close, ArkansasStaged continues to push the boundaries of Northwest Arkansas contemporary theatre. We can’t wait for 2017. - Kelsey Ferguson

ROUGHHOUSE COMEDY COLLECTIVE Improvised theatre, organzied chaos

R

oughhouse, the monthly Fayetteville variety show and host of the annual Huge Lightning Comedy Festival, has expanded to become the Roughhouse Comedy Collective, which in addition to its own show,

now called Mess Hall, will include other local improv ensembles Rodeo Book Club and Jeffrey Tree.

Jordan Haynes, founder of Roughhouse, says their joining was quite natural, as many members already participate in the different teams, and already “know each other from being performer/comedians/artsyfartsy-people in the same small city.” Haynes hopes for the RCC to be a “home base” for the comedic performers and talented individuals in Fayetteville.

“All these teams and performers do really great work around town, and Roughhouse wants to showcase them as much as possible in their programming.”

Thomas Hunter, director of the Rodeo Book Club, which has worked with Roughhouse members before, says: “[it’s] going to be a great thing for Fayetteville and people that like laughing.”

While it is all fun and games, Roughhouse will provide more than laughter. Unlike a typical variety show, the individuals involved will not only independently showcase their talents, but actively coordinate to inspire and inform each other’s performances. As Haynes goes on to explain, “the different sections [of each show] are set up in a way to purposefully inspire and build off of each other.” Their show Mess Hall, for instance, involves a lineup of musicians, writers, improvisers, and artists each of whose performances inspires and informs the next.

Roughhouse performs the last Thursday of every month at Backspace. Their first performance as Roughhouse Comedy Collective will be September 29th with Mess Hall at 8pm followed by Rodeo Book Club at 10pm. - Nima Eshragh

THE CRUDE MECHANICALS Theatre Company

W

ith a goal to enrich Northwest Arkansas with Shakespeare, The Crude Mechanicals’ production and performing arts group began in the summer of 2013. They aspired to become what they are now by following simple advice given to them in school: “Make your own work.”

After watching a rendition of Romeo and Juliet, The Crude Mechanicals’ founding members were inspired. Starting out, their first performance was of the same play in Gulley Park in Fayetteville, put on by a mere five people. By the end of the summer of the following year, the troupe had grown to 12 actors. By the summer of 2016, the group performed A Midsummer’s Night Dream to an audience of 600 people over the course of five shows.

A close-knit, dedicated company, a community that welcomes them with open arms, and the love of what they do is what keeps The Crude Mechanicals thriving. “

Having our community urge us to go on and keep producing works that knock the dust off some of these classical works and re-energize and excite audiences towards them,” said Zachary Stolz, current University of Alabama graduate student and a co-founding member.

The company ranges from undergraduate students to people who have graduated and are still dedicated to the community and theatre atmosphere. Some of The Crude Mechanicals’ founding members are at places as far as Pace University in New York City and University of Alabama.

Their latest performance is King Lear, which will be held this coming winter and is already in pre-production. Auditions for their next season will begin in the summer of 2017. They will also be looking to “bring in new blood to design, stage manage, and direct.” - Lindee Cozort

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TRILLIUM SALON SERIES Classical Music

C

lassical music is a vast genre, but one that tends to elicit images of grand halls and an orchestra filling the room with a inspiring range of sounds, falling and rising in movements, each instrument playing its role in the grand scheme of the musical composition. It’s not usually something you would see in a small room with 20 people, but Trillium Salon Series is doing just that.

Trillium began when Glenn France, an avid classical music lover, approached Katy Henriksen, host of KUAF 91.3’s “Of Note with Katy Henriksen.” France wanted to start a chapter of Groupmuse, a national organization that hosts classical shows in smaller venues. The pair joined forces with Ron Chioldi and, deciding that the restraints of a large organization were too much, launched their own version named Trillium after a flower native to Arkansas. They have begun hosting shows throughout northwest Arkansas at venues ranging from people’s homes to the KUAF studio.

“Trillium Salon Series is a collaboration on a grand scale

that brings together amazing classical music [and] masterfully created local food and drink for a celebration of humanity in a distinct, intimate setting,” says Henriksen. “We break down the boundary between performer on stage and audience member enjoying the show to create a distinct experience of connection that exists for everyone to enjoy.”

Trillium has featured string players of the Artosphere Festival Orchestra, KUAF Fulbright Summer Chamber players, percussionist Aaron Ragsdale, violinists Er-Gene Kahng and Ryan Cockerham, and pianist/Trillium co-host Chioldi. Henriksen has recorded the shows, which will soon be showcased on a Tumblr blog, and asks the audience to share on social media as a way to bridge the gap between audiences and a musical genre often viewed as being out of reach.

“It’s really a cross-pollination that happens between celebrating our distinct, local talent and mixing it up with visiting musicians who happen to stop through and we’re doing this all with a completely DIY mentality,” she says. “There’s no reason a classical community can’t thrive here.” - Kody Ford

THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID Storytellers

A

hush swept over the packed back dining room at Bordino’s in Fayetteville. Harrison Butler took the stage to serve as emcee.

Surrounded by the modern furnishings with the comfort of air conditioning, you might never know that the sell out crowd was here for one of mankind’s oldest traditions – storytelling. That’s What She Said (TWSS) is a group of primarily storytellers that gather every few months to share their funniest, most embarrassing, and sometimes touching stories. The principals members of the group are Leigh Wood, Sunshine Broder, Amber Forbus, Rebecca Center, Leah Tomlinson, Ben Mannatt, and Harrison Butler. They have invited a few guest storytellers on occasion.

The group began in the fall of 2015 when Forbus returned to Fayetteville after living in North Carolina for years. She contacted Wood, who was an old friend, because of their shared love of humor and writing.

Forbus also felt Wood could bring an eye for the details she didn’t posses. Their first show was at Broder’s business, Shine Salon. Since then, they have taken the show to different venues and performed before sellout crowds.

“We feel we are unique to the area because we really focus on being funny,” said Wood. “The group has discussed extensively the importance of really drawing in an audience with humor. There are storytelling groups in the area – the South is, of course, rife with them as it’s a part of our oral tradition – but what sets us apart is these are ‘adult’ stories that are meant to really make the audience laugh. We try to be very clear that these are real life stories that include details involving sex, drug use, cussing – anything that helps communicate the reality of the story and what makes it truly funny. Everyone in the group has the same sense of humor and we’ve found so far, that if it cracks us up, it’ll most likely translate really well to our audience.”

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TWSS has big plans in the coming months including one-off shows in Eureka Springs, Little Rock, and Benton County although they are not scheduled yet.

“We also hope to maintain the momentum of the first season throughout this next one,” Forbus said. “We have some great themes lined up – with Spooky Tales and Nightmare Fodder in October, Holiday Hell in December, Stranger in a Strange Land (tales of being out of place) in January, Love Bites returns for Valentine’s Day, The Body: Gross Out Stories in March and April and Siblings: Rivalries and Almost Murders for May. For the first time we offered season tickets to the entire run of shows and have seen a great response to those. So we just hope to have a successful season of carefully curated stories that the audience will love to hear and to reach as many people as we can.” - Kody Ford

RED OCTOPUS THEATER Theatre Company

T

he Red Octopus Theater, winner of the The Idle Class’s 2016 Black Apple Award for Best Comedy Group, is a troupe that has been performing live sketch comedy in Little Rock for the past 15 years.

With a fluctuating and rotating cast, they write and perform 90 to 120 minutes of original sketch comedy for each of their shows. The shows are for adults only, featuring, as Jason Willey, Executive Director of Red Octopus, says, “adult language, adult jokes, cursing, fart jokes, and other things you will not see on network television at 7 pm” Willey describes the diverse cast as “criminals, bandits, miscontents, ADHD-ers, smart asses, ne’er-do-worsers, orphaned actors, stand-ups, class clowns, real clowns, old cronies, theatre refugees, and comedic sympathizers.”

He says their reasons for joining Red Octopus are many, but without friendship the Red Octopus would disintegrate. “If we didn’t genuinely like each other, these shows wouldn’t happen and this would have folded years ago.”

It is this warmth and fun that Willey hopes the audience will take away from the show. They currently perform at The Public Theatre at 616 Center Street, in downtown Little Rock, doing four to five shows a year, with at least one per season. They also coproduce a comedy short film night every July called “Funny Suckers” in tandem with the Film Society of Little Rock.

They welcome new additions to the troupe, whatever their talents, and are always open to spreading the fun at other venues. To all those who have yet to see them, prepare for ridiculousness. - Nima Eshragh

ARTIST’S LABORATORY THEATRE Immersive site specific theatre company

T

he driving forces in the founding of Fayetteville-based Artist’s Laboratory Theatre were dissatisfaction with the way traditional theatre functions and a desire to embrace our changing brains. ALT describes itself as “[a] community-centric, site specific theatre dedicated to expanding the audience’s role.”

Weird, playful, surprising, thought-provoking, and exciting are adjectives that Founder and Artistic Director Erika Wilhite rattles off while describing what drives her passion for immersive theatre. She delights in hybridity, deconstruction and borrowing from other forms such as cinematography in live theatre experiences.

ALT aims to blur the lines and reinvent the theatre experience for the 21st century, whether through projects such as the three-part series The New Now, where in one installment office culture is juxtaposed within the setting of an urban farm, or through the Secret Life series, an interactive audio tour taken with the assistance of your phone. In each, the divide between performer and audience member disintegrates and transformative storytelling is born.

“Getting someone to attend [theatre] is a pain in the ass, especially when we can get so much pleasure and inspiration from our couches or even our phones,” Wilhite explains regarding her frustrations with the traditional theatre model in which the roles of performer and audience are clear cut and static. “I believe that our brains are changing. That’s why I do it that way. I know my brain is changing. And I think instead of being mad or crotchety we should embrace it.”

ATL continues to grow with their first-ever hiring of a managing director and a brand new office space in what was formerly a little white church across from the senior center on South College in Fayetteville.

Look out for the launch of an exciting new project this winter modeled after the Neo-Futurists’ Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, which presents 30 plays in 60 minutes and can boast as the longest running show in Chicago. It’s sure to be electric. - Katy Henriksen FALL 2016 idleclassmag.com

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Of Note with Katy Henriksen bringing insight into the world of classical music

Sunday through Thursday evenings from 8 to 10 p.m. on KUAF PUBLIC RADIO A LOCAL PRODUCTION

OF KUAF 91.3 PUBLIC RADIO UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

Amy Ha Creative graphic design + illustration For project inquiries: amylha@gmail.com www.be.net/amylha

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2 0 1 6 MUSIC

COMEDY THEATRE

ART

DECEMBER 31 • 2016

100s OF LOCAL ARTISTS | 8 INDOOR STAGES ON THE FAYETTEVILLE SQUARE

FEATURING THE HOMECOMING OF DON’T STOP PLEASE

THE SILVERSHAKERS ARKANSAUCE FRACTAL SKY AERIALISTS WILLI CARLISLE TRUMAN RAIL BOYS THE SQUARSHERS ADAM COX COMEDIANS NWA ROUGHHOUSE THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID PHUNBAGS COMEDY IMPROV NEW PLAY FEST WORD WARS TERRANOVA TRIBAL BELLYDANCERS DIAMOND DIVAS DRAG TRUE GRIT & GRIND BURLESQUE THE HUDSON OUTFIT WITCHSISTER PAGIINS SACRED SOMATICS KID’S STAGE WITH ART FEEDS SHAKY BUGS FPL STORYTELLERS AND MUCH MORE! HOG DROP COUNTDOWN TO MIDNIGHT & FIREWORKS FINALE T I C K E T S & I N F O : L A S T N I G H T F AY E T T E V I L L E . C O M