Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre and the Ozark Arts Council Present:
Romeo and Juliet!
Friday, November 1, 7:00PM
The Ozark Arts Council is thrilled to welcome Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre for a special November 1 7:00pm performance of their Family Theatre production of Romeo and Juliet #LiveAtTheLyric! Tickets are only $10 and are available through TheLyric.org .
Tickets at the door—in the unlikely event that any are available—will be $15.
Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre is Arkansas’s Only professional Shakespeare Company. Each year it produces a selection of the Bard’s plays (along with other productions) in its summer festival in Conway.
Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, which has been featured in The New York Times, is also a major educational force in Arkansas. This professional company brings respected and experienced Shakespearean actors to Arkansas for each season, producing vibrant, engaging, lively and provocative performances for all Arkansans.
With a mission to entertain, engage, and enrich the community by creating professional and accessible productions of Shakespeare and other works that promote educational opportunities, community
involvement, and the highest artistic standards, Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre works with the Arkansas Arts Council as a part of its “Artists on Tour” program to help small venues keep these performances affordable.
In Romeo and Juliet, the fighting families of Montague and Capulet put their feud before their children’s happiness in Shakespeare’s classic tale of “star-crossed” young love, reimagined for audiences of all ages in this one-hour adaptation.
Note from AST: This adaptation is intended for audiences of all ages, and has been shortened to approximately one hour. There are songs and comedy, but also intense emotional situations and some violence. The original story is intact, including Romeo and Juliet’s tragic ending.
“Our play begins in Italy in the city of fair Verona with a vendetta as old as time. The Capulets and the Montagues have been enemies for as long as either side can remember. Romeo Montague and his friends crash an ancient ball held by Lord and Lady Capulet, risking their lives and the continuation of the feud. Romeo first sees the enchanting Juliet here and immediately falls in love with her. At the end of the ball, Romeo meets Juliet at her balcony, where they express their undying love for each other. The two, with the help of Friar Lawrence and Juliet’s Nurse, marry secretly, despite their feuding families. Blissfully newlywed for just a short while, Juliet is soon shocked to discover that her father plans to force her to marry Count Paris only three days later.
“Romeo walks the streets of fair Verona and stumbles upon his friends Mercutio and Benvolio fighting Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, who he learns has challenged him to a fight. In Romeo’s attempt to halt that fight, Tybalt meets his end at the hand of Romeo, resulting in Romeo’s banishment from Verona. When Juliet learns of this, her desperation to remain with Romeo leads her to Friar Lawrence and he arranges a plot for Juliet to fake her own death. However, the message carrying the information of the plot never reaches Romeo in Mantua and he truly believes that his beloved has died. Because of this, Romeo arranges his own plan to end his life and travels back to Verona to be with Juliet. Upon his return, Romeo enters the Capulet tomb, and sees his Juliet who appears to be dead.”
The above is taken from AST’s excellent and accessible (barely 20 pages) introduction to the play, to Shakespeare, and to live theatre in general, which you may read online (or download and print, by right-clicking/Command-clicking on this link and saving).
This is the first time we have had the honor of hosting AST at the Lyric, and we hope it is just the beginning of a long relationship with them for the enrichment of our community—and the first of many partnerships with those from our larger region to bring us the richness of professional theatre and theatre education, such as we have been so pleased to have from our member organization, Northark Drama.
Tickets to AST Family Theatre’s November 1 production of Romeo and Juliet are available now here at TheLyric.org by clicking any “Get Tickets” link, by stopping by the OAC office at 115 W. Rush Ave. between 9 & 1 Tuesday through Friday, or by calling (870) 391-3504 (please leave a detailed message if you get our voicemail).
international solo artist” above Devon Allman and Elvin Bishop…before he had reached his 30th birthday: 
AllMusic noted that Eli Cook “has what it takes to be the best blues singer of his generation.” Blues Matters! stated that Cook is “among the top 3 solo blues artists world-wide.” Arnie Goodman’s words in Elmore Magazine immediately make sense when you consider Eli’s main influences—John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Soundgarden, and Rage Against the Machine—
In Truvy’s (Trish Lockridge), beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are anybody come to have their hair done, the shop is abuzz with gossip and coffee and hairspray. Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle (Katie Blessing), who may or may not be married, the wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoo and free advice to the town’s rich curmudgeon, Ouiser (Mary Bishop), whose 40-year-old bad mood has only sharpened her wit; an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee (Gwen Gresham), who has a sweet tooth for football teams; and the local social leader, M’Lynn (Lisa Johnson) and her vivacious daughter, Shelby (Callie Johnson), who is about to marry a “good ol’ boy.” Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions between the five ladies, the play moves toward tragedy when the spunky Shelby (who has 
Steel Magnolias will be performed #LiveAtTheLyric August 16 and 17 at 7:00pm, and August 18 at 2:00pm. Proceeds from the August 16 show will go to the 
focused on vocals, acting, and choreography, as well as the proper etiquette for being in a play and attending a play, all of which culminated in a short performance for the family and friends of the children—many of whom are gracing the Lyric stage for the first time ever. Only then was attention turned fully to this play, where those new or refined acting, singing, and dancing skills could be put into practice for the sellout performances this July will bring.
We hope you will join us both for the entertainment and lesson imparted by this classic story and for the building of our community that attendance at Arts events—especially at young people’s theatre—always brings. The OAC and its Member Organizations are committed to having children of all ages learn about the Arts and develop a love for them that reaches beyond their early years, so that they grow up to be well-rounded, empathetic adults. These “Jr.” plays, and the directors who bless us by giving up a portion of their summers, are a huge first step in that direction.
Sam amazed a lot of people with his first trip to Harrison
If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times: do not fan the girls when they’re wet! But you’ll never learn; you’ll be a eunuch all your life!
When Senex and Domina leave for the day, Hero declares his love for one of the ladies who live at his next door neighbor’s house, Philia (Katie Blessing), and that’s when Pseudolus begins to hatch a scheme to buy his own freedom.
When the two visit Lycus’s house, once they get past the eunuchs (Donovan Walters and Nicholas Prpich) they meet Tintinabula (Cady Wheeler), a bell-wearing beauty; Vibrata (Kennedy Bottoms), an energetic, lively lovely with a leopard skin bikini; the Geminae (Faith Nix and Dante Lowe), a “matched pair”; Panacea (Nikki Forehand), a seductive dancer; and Gymnasia (Spree Hilliard), with a body upon which “a thousand dramas can be played.” They and the other lovely courtesans (Lena Rocole, Jenna Wilson, Rilee Young, Kaley Jones) are tempting, but Hero and Pseudolus are alarmed to find out that Philia has been sold to the great Captain Miles Gloriosus (Caleb Lord), and will be claimed that very day.
doubled over with laughter, attempting to keep up with what wackiness will occur next.
Written by one of the toughest heavies ever to appear on the big screen (known especially for