Northark Drama and the
Ozark Arts Council Present:
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Fridays & Saturdays, May 3 & 4, 10 & 11, 7:00PM
Sundays, May 5 & 12, 2:00PM
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!
– Marcus Lycus
This May, come to the Lyric for something familiar…something peculiar…something for everyone…yes, it’s “a comedy tonight”! In fact it’s the comedy of comedies that transcends time and space, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum! Produced by NorthArk Drama and The Theatre Company of the Ozarks, in association with the Ozark Arts Council and under license from Music Theatre International, Forum brings a full 21 centuries of laughs from Rome to the Lyric stage on May 3, 4, 10, 11 at 7:00PM and May 5, 12 at 2:00PM. Tickets are available through TheLyric.org with Advance Tickets priced at $8 children, $10 seniors, $12 adults. Ticket prices at the door will be $11 children, $13 seniors, $15 adults.
Set in Rome during the first century A.D., when the Roman Empire was in its youth, the film opens with one of musical theatre’s most famous songs, “Comedy Tonight,” performed by Pseudolus (Preston Garrison). The action, Pseudolus tells the audience, takes place in Rome around three adjacent houses: the house of Erronius (Clark Middleton), an old man who has been searching for his children who were stolen by pirates while they were infants; the house of Marcus Lycus (Jamie Taylor), a buyer and seller of beautiful women, and the house of Senex (Jim Gresham), a Roman senator, his wife, Domina (Ann Lemley), their son, Hero (Laine Hilliard), and the family slaves, Pseudolus and Hysterium (Michael Amburn).
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.
The confusion, comedy, and chases that ensue when Captain Miles and his illustrious soldiers (Kinder Hinrichs, Laken Rudelis, Andrew Coble, Daniel Hart, Wynn Mahoney) come to claim her will have audiences
doubled over with laughter, attempting to keep up with what wackiness will occur next.
So join us again at the Lyric Theater for a fun evening, where “weighty affairs will just have to wait,” and where we promise to have “morals tomorrow, comedy tonight!”
It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it’s what you do with your dancin’ shoes.
naming him Wilbur (Preston Garrison), even though her mother, Martha (Kayla Smith), thinks she already spends too much time with the animals, and her brother, Avery (Wyatt Mahoney) is too busy with his frogs to take much notice. When he’s older, Wilbur is sold to Fern’s aunt and uncle, Edith and Homer Zuckeman (Abigail Kops, Landon Helsel), and cared for by their farmhand, Lurvy (Matthew Brown), in whose barnyard he is left yearning for companionship but is snubbed by the other animals (Emily Akins, Laine Hilliard, Shelby Stracner, Elizabeth Smith), until he is befriended by a spider named Charlotte (Callie Johnson), living on a web overlooking Wilbur’s enclosure. Upon Wilbur’s discovery that he is once again intended for slaughter, she promises to hatch a plan guaranteed to spare his life, with a little help from the local barn rat, Templeton (Daniel Seay). As fans already know, and as those new to this beloved tale shall soon find out: “No one had ever had such a friend. So affectionate, so loyal, and so skillful,” as Charlotte.
The show is a challenging one for sure! Asking actors to portray animals and humans all at the same time…well, that gets tricky; but we have an extraordinary cast who is both dedicated and fearless in this adventure and I couldn’t be prouder of them. I am thrilled we were able to get some area schools to attend and I look forward to future 
projects where we can also involve our local school children. That is what it is all about, right? We are bringing the Arts to our community and we are having so much fun doing it. As always, I am grateful for the opportunity to work with Michael Mahoney and North Arkansas College, as well as the Ozark Arts Council. Charlotte’s Web is fun entertainment for the whole family that also provides some amazing life lessons and heartfelt human emotions to which we can all relate. I hope to see everyone in our community come out and support the children and adults who have worked so hard to bring this show to life!
Area schools were invited to four special matinee performances and will be filling the theater with their laughter. We weren’t able to fit all of the students from all of the schools into the theater, though, (and those who get to see it with their classmates will want to come back and share it with Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, and their siblings!), so make sure not to miss your chance to once again delight in this story of friendship: 
two years from 1953 to 1955. In mid-1955, Mr. Sharkey enlisted in the Army. He served at Sandia Base, New Mexico as a Special Services worker. He wrote, produced, and directed one show per month for the Enlisted Men’s Club. In 1958, Mr. Sharkey went to New York to begin a full-time freelance writing career. He wrote Science Fiction stories and novels, humor articles, and mystery novels. In 1961, he returned to Chicago where he worked as joke editor for Playboy Magazine and then was Editor of the Allstate Insurance Company Magazine for 11 years from 1964-75. Mr. Sharkey wrote his first stage comedy in 1965. At the end of 1975, he went exclusively into playwriting, which he continued until a few months before his death. He has 83 published plays written under his own name and four others – 
$3 Northark students. 
own. As 
universe gone wild, the tale of a famous historical figure is on display. Trotsky (Matthew Joyner) is busy, feverishly writing at his table when his wife, Mrs. Trotsky (Kaleigh Billings), tells of him a very unfortunate event: 
trained, originally from the delta of Jonesboro. She made her professional debut with Opera Experience Southeast as Nella and Lauretta cover in Gianni Schicchi. She is at home in both opera and musical theatre and has since performed with Springfield Regional Opera, Opera in the Ozarks, Opera in the Rock, Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra, The Messiah Project, Forum Sinfonia of Krakow, Poland, Ozark Family Opera Company, Conway Dinner Theatre, Springfield Little Theatre, and Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre.
Opera, Springfield Regional Opera, MSU Opera Workshop, Classic Arts Chamber Works, Branson Arts Council, as a University of Central Missouri guest artist, Jubilee Concerts in St. Louis, Kansas City Bach Festival, and many others in Missouri, Central OK Concert Series in Oklahoma City, as guest artist at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, and Trinity Concerts in Hutchinson, Kansas.
The Lyric Theater for an outstanding play OF the kids, BY the kids, and FOR the kids: Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach, Jr.! Based on one of Roald Dahl’s most poignantly quirky stories, 
ensemble of wild, wacky, wonderful characters, from 5 years old to 18 years old! From Willy Wonka and his Oompa-Loompas, to Bitsy Botana and her Ladies Garden Guild, there is sure to be a colorful character that you will love! The ensemble includes children from previous productions, and quite a few new ones too, all lending their time and talent to make this production abso-fruit-ly fantastic: 
Serena Bolonsky, Zoey Bolonsky, Callie Caraway, Jocelyn Green, Lorelai Green, Declan Jenkins, Kyran Jenkins, Candace Lambert, Zachary Linn, Cammie Linscott, Shyanne Lusk, Chloe Monk, Faith Nix, Emma Pruitt, Sadie Sharp, Elizabeth Smith, Kayla Smith, Lexi Sprenger.
