Comedy/Drama: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten! #LiveAtTheLyric March 1-2, 2024 at 7:00pm and March 3, 2024 at 2:00pm

The Ozark Arts Council Presents:
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Friday–Saturday, March 1–2, 7:00PM
Sunday, March 3, 2:00PM

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten will be performed Live at the Lyric March 1–2, 2024 at 7:00PM, and Sunday March 3 at 2:00PM. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors (55 and up) and students, and $8 for children (under 12), when purchased in advance; prices are $3 higher if purchased at the door.

PLEASE NOTE: Adult themes and language.

Based on Robert Fulghum’s best-selling books, Kindergarten takes a funny, insightful, heartwarming look at what is profound in everyday life. It’s an evening of theatrical storytelling in revue format, with monologues, dialogues, and multiple-voice narration, enhanced through the use of live piano underscoring, which provides fluidity and charm to the experience. While not a musical per se, the play also includes some well-placed songs to enhance the emotional texture of the storytelling.

Heartwarming, charming, funny and touching. The stories are about all of us.

– National Public Radio

The delightful stories feature colorful characters such as: a shy little boy who insists on playing the “pig” in his class production of Cinderella and steals the show; a man whose dream of flying carries him high over Los Angeles…in a lawn chair buoyed by surplus weather balloons; a “mother of the bride” who’s staged a perfect wedding—until the bowling ball of fate rolls down the aisle; and a modern-day Greek philosopher who finds the meaning of life in a piece of broken mirror from World War II.

These stories celebrate our very existence, from the whimsy of childhood to the wisdom of old age, giving performances of Kindergarten the sort of lasting relevance that is fitting for those who know Fulguhm’s book.

A refreshingly intimate combination of theatre and storytelling. Gentle…funny…joyous. Sparks of recognition ignited the audience.

– The Chicago Sun-Times

Our cast includes a wide range of ages and experience levels all brought together by new-to-us-but-highly-experienced director Leslie Austin (who taught Theatre and worked with several troupes in the DFW area for several decades). Actors include Lisa Johnson, Shelly Watson, Beth Lambeth, Rachel Hayes, Kelly Copeland, Susan Spradlin, Andrew Coble, Fred Lutz, Amy Sorenson, Alexis Poor, Ann Lemley, and Daniel Seay.

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten will be performed Live at the Lyric March 1–2, 2024 at 7:00PM, and Sunday March 3 at 2:00PM. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors (55 and up) and students, and $8 for children (under 12), when purchased in advance; prices are $3 higher if purchased at the door by standing in the cold wind and rain of early March in the Ozarks…

 

OAC Ticketing Link

Comedy & Dinner Theatre: Wild Women of Winedale! Twelve Oaks Estate, April 5-6, 2024 at 7:00pm and April 7, 2024 at 2:00pm

Wild Women of Winedale will be performed at Twelve Oaks Estate on April 5-6 at 6:00pm, and Sunday April 7 at 1:00pm as a dinner theatre. Tickets are $40 for dinner on Friday and Saturday and $30 on Sunday for chartcuterie, wine, and dessert. Tickets at TheLyric.org.

This joyful and exuberant, yet ultimately touching, comedy focuses on three women at crossroads in their lives—the Wild sisters of Winedale, Virginia—Fanny and Willa and their frustratingly quirky sister-in-law Johnnie Faye. This feisty and fun-loving trio has supported and cheered one another through life’s highs and lows through the years, including the early demise of two of their husbands. And they really need each other now, as Fanny experiences a hilariously inappropriate reaction to her 60th birthday, while Willa is so stressed out from her nursing job she resorts to vodka and speed-knitting to cope, and Johnnie Faye, determined to put her year of fraught widowhood behind her, desperately tries to find a man—preferably a man with a house, since hers is somewhere at the bottom of a Florida sinkhole. These women’s lives are further upended by the responsibility of caring for their free-spirited, ailing aunt and the realization that they are drowning under loads of family keepsakes and possessions nobody wants—especially them! With equal doses of hilarity and heart, these extraordinary women come up with delightful and surprisingly unorthodox ways to clear the clutter from their lives, their homes and their relationships so they can move their lives forward. Together they prove it’s never too late to take another one of life’s paths for a grand new adventure. This Jones Hope Wooten comedy is guaranteed to drive you wild with laughter—and motivate you to keep hounding the kids to please take that stack of quilts and Granny’s Christmas china!

More information to come soon!

OAC Ticketing Link

Dramedy: Lone Star and Laundry & Bourbon, at the Lyric Theater May 2–4, 2024 at 7:00pm and May 5, 2024 at 2:00pm

Northark Drama and
The Ozark Arts Council Present:
Lone Star
and
Laundry & Bourbon
Thursday–Saturday, May 2–4, 7:00PM
Sunday, May 5, 2:00PM

Lone Star and Laundry and Bourbon, two one-act plays by James McClure that are meant to be performed together, will be performed Live at the Lyric May 2–4, 2024 at 7:00PM, and Sunday May 5 at 2:00PM. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors (55 and up) and students, and $8 for children (under 12), when purchased in advance; prices are $3 higher if purchased at the door.

PLEASE NOTE: Adult themes and language.

In the first of our plays, Laundry and Bourbon, the setting is the front porch of Roy and Elizabeth’s home in Maynard, Texas, on a hot summer afternoon. Elizabeth and her friend Hattie are whiling away the time folding laundry, watching TV, sipping bourbon and Coke, and gossiping about the many open secrets that are so much a part of small-town life. They are joined by the self-righteous Amy Lee who, among other tidbits, can’t resist blurting out that Roy has been seen around town with another woman. While the ensuing conversation is increasingly edged with bitter humor, from it emerges a sense of Elizabeth’s inner strength and her quiet understanding of the turmoil that has beset her husband since his return from Vietnam. He is wild, and he is unfaithful, but he needs her, and she loves him. And she’ll be waiting for him when he comes home—no matter what others may say or think.

In Lonestar, we are brought to the cluttered backyard of a small-town Texas bar. Roy, a brawny, macho type who had once been a local high-school hero, is back in town after a hitch in Vietnam and trying to reestablish his position in the community. Joined by his younger brother, Ray (who worships him), Roy sets about consuming a case of beer while regaling Ray with tales of his military and amorous exploits. It’s quickly apparent that Roy cherishes three things above all: his country, his sexy young wife, and his 1959 pink Thunderbird…but with the arrival of Cletis, the fatuous, newlywed son of the local hardware store owner, the underpinnings of Roy’s world begin to collapse as it gradually comes out that Ray had slept with his brother’s wife during his absence and—horror of horrors!—has just demolished his cherished Thunderbird, as well! But, despite all, the high good humor of the play never lapses, and all ends as breezily and happily as it began.

More information coming soon!

Lone Star and Laundry and Bourbon, will be performed Live at the Lyric, May 2–4, 2024 at 7:00PM, and Sunday May 5 at 2:00PM. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors (55 and up) and students, and $8 for children (under 12), when purchased in advance; prices are $3 higher if purchased at the door…maybe even more for the Sunday afternoon performance, depending on how blisteringly the May sun comes through the box office window, scorching the eyeballs of our poor volunteer. No, seriously: do yourself a favor and save that three (or more) bucks.

(Many thanks to Dan Zadorozny, the artist who runs Iconian Fonts, for graciously allowing us the free use of his Texas Ranger font for our graphics!)

OAC Ticketing Link

Become a Patron of the Arts!

It’s OAC Membership Time!

It’s time to renew your membership in the Ozark Arts Council (or to become an OAC member for the first time) by visiting Join.TheLyric.org!

History has taught us that the most vibrant societies are produced by giving, not by taking—and the very most vibrant are those that have a thriving and active Arts community! Having such a thriving Arts community has always been a matter of patronage, and it is no different today.

It’s a New Season

In a time when many are still struggling, some may think the Arts a luxury, something only of which those with ‘extra’ time and money on their hands may partake. Often, people feel that it’s too lofty a pursuit for communities that are rooted in farms and factories and retirees. But both history and statistics tell us that these contentions are untrue: the Arts are what help such communities survive!

The very nature of the Arts is to be both welcoming and challenging, to bring you in and to lift you up…and in a time of upheaval and widespread dissatisfaction, isn’t that exactly what you want to encourage and support? The Lyric and the OAC’s Member Organizations provide a place full of experiences that put all of the noise of this world’s discontent aside, a place that welcomes you into a moment where you neither have to be consumed with the woes of the world, real and imagined—or even what you’re going to make for supper, or find on your next day at work. For all of the ‘escapism’ that television promised, it is no match for joining with the rest of your community in a place where all that divides us is set aside and a team of volunteers seeks to be their best selves and to help us, at least for a few hours, to be ours.

This is what membership in the OAC promotes, so please consider becoming part of a community that truly builds community…that welcomes, educates, enjoys, and feasts on those things in our culture that build better people, stronger communities, and the general promotion of love and joy: please join the Ozark Arts Council today!

Below, you can find the perks that come from being an OAC member (with some fun new swag!), but we also want to hear from YOU! What would YOU like to see as a perk from being an OAC member? Email in**@oz**************.org and let our Executive Director know!

Some OAC Membership Perks

  • Early Bird Ticket Sales: For most events, we are able to offer tickets to our members between a few hours and a few days before they go on sale to the general public, so you have a better chance of getting your favorite seat.
  • No Ticketing or Card Fees: We consider your investment in the OAC as what provides us the ability to have ticketing and card processing in the first place, so we give you a code to eliminate fees when you purchase online (and enter the code for you if you purchase them in advance in person or over the phone).
  • Super Popcorn Discount and Collectible Bucket: While we are introducing a new giant-size popcorn for anyone to save on popcorn (and on trips to the concessions stand!) on a per-event basis, we are also introducing a refillable and reusable bucket with our logo and our theme for the year on it. Buy a popcorn for all of the year’s events in advance!
  • Special Merchandise Offers and Discounts: Promotional and event mugs, shirts, window clings (and who knows what else?!) are being developed to help you help the Lyric to thrive and to allow you to remember and celebrate fun times at the Lyric once you return home.
  • Season Passes (and Discounts): All our members have been able to buy Season Passes to productions by the Theatre Company of the Ozarks…and now we’re adding Northark Drama and HHS Theatre productions, as well! Members who join at the $100 level or above also get discounts on season passes, with discounts growing along with membership donations.
  • The Arts Investor Appreciation Pass: Take the lead in providing plays, concerts, or both by making a Membership donation that helps us keep booking artists and paying rights and royalties, and we will provide you free passes that allow you to come and check on your investment.
    • A Theatre Investor ($500) receives a code for two free tickets to every play in our season!
    • A Concert Investor ($750) receives a code for two seats at every concert we produce.
    • An All the Arts Investor ($1,200) receives two tickets for every concert and every play we put on!

Please Note: There may be some events that we do not produce, those that are via a rental arrangement by an outside organization or that are a fundraiser for another nonprofit. We keep these to a bare minimum…and if we can work out a contract with them to get you seated for free, we will do so, and we will let you know in advance. Examples of such events: the recent Buffalo River documentary; the Ozark Rape Crisis Center’s lip sync battle; the Ozarks Dynacom Five Star Talent Contest.

Beauty & the Beast, Jr., July 20, 25, 27! #LiveAtTheLyric!

The Theatre Company of the Ozarks and the Ozark Arts Council Present:
Beauty & The Beast, Jr.

Saturdays, July 20 & 27, 2:00PM & 7:00PM
Thursday, July 25, 10:00AM

What you’ve been waiting for all summer is almost here: the enchanting and exciting story of Beauty and the Beast! The Theatre Company of the Ozarks and The Ozark Arts Council, under license from Music Theatre International, will present Beauty and the Beast, Jr. LIVE at The Lyric Theater in Harrison, Arkansas, on July 20, 25, and 27. Saturday performances will be at 2:00pm and 7:00pm, and the Thursday performance will be at 10:00am. 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.

Shade Roberts and Liani Cash

Don’t let the “Jr.” in the title lead you to expect a watered-down production missing your favorite songs: when Disney commissions an adaptation for young performers, it’s name is still on the line! Based on the original Broadway production that ran for over thirteen years and was nominated for nine Tony Awards, and the Academy Award-winning motion picture, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Jr. is a fantastic adaptation of the story of transformation and tolerance.  Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Jr. features some of the most popular songs ever written by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman, along with new songs by Mr. Menken and Tim Rice.

As with many of our children’s plays, rehearsals were preceded by a two-week-long workshop, which 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.

Beauty and the Beast tells the story of an arrogant young prince and his castle’s servants who fall under the spell of a wicked enchantress when he turns her away from his door. The enchantress turns the prince into the hideous “Beast” until he can learn to love and to be loved in return. The spirited, headstrong village girl Belle enters Beast’s castle after he imprisons her father, Maurice. With the help of his enchanted servants, including the matronly Mrs. Potts, Belle begins to draw the cold-hearted Beast out of his isolation. But when the similarly cold-hearted Gaston and his henchman Lefou decide to destroy the Beast, will Belle be able to save the Beast from eternal doom?

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.

Says Director Debbie Waters:

“I have been blessed with the best cast of young people between the ages of 6-18 who are a joy to work with.  We have a cast of 30 who are working hard and excited to ask everyone to ‘Be Our Guest’ at the Historic Lyric Theater during our 90th Birthday Celebration season.”

Our Cast and Crew include:

Caleb Lord and Liani Cash

Belle: Liani Cash
Beast: Shade Roberts
Gaston: Caleb Lord
LeFou: Jacob Cothran
Maurice: Logan Cole
Mrs. Potts: Alayna Davis
Chip: Ivan Hanschu
Lumiere: Nicholas Prpich
Babette: Chyler Caraway
Cogsworth: Bannon Jones
Madame de la Grande Bouche: Lexi Sprenger
Silly Girls: Brinkley Brewer, Avery Skinner, Emily Still
Enchantress: AnneJanette Cole

Ensemble: Kaden Allen, Zoë Arthur, Laura Bracken, Callie Caraway, Ethan Causey, Landon Clements, Joshua Cothran, Ella Domino, Dierdra Goldman, Jadah Gregory, Kalel Lewis, Tarron Lewis, Mia Ostberg, Emma Claire Pruitt, Natalie Sims, Jerome Sweatman, Jenna Wilson

Director: Debbie Waters
Assistant Directors: Courtney Lantis, Yaffah Lewis, Michele Reynolds

Back: Caleb Lord & Emily Still
Front: Avery Skinner & Brinkley Brewer

Join us at The Lyric for this heartwarming tale of the transformative power of love on July 20, 25, and 27. Tickets for Beauty and the Beast, Jr. are available now through TheLyric.org by clicking any “Get Tickets” link, by stopping by the OAC office at 115 W. Rush
Ave. between 8 & 2 Tuesday through Friday, or by calling (870) 391-3504 (please leave a detailed message if you get our voicemail).

OAC Ticketing Link

Winona Wilde — Thursday May 17 at 7pm — #LiveAtTheLyric!

“Just your
run of the mill,
post-structuralist
cowgirl Americana…”
Crooked Creek presents Winona Wilde!
Thursday, May 17 at 7:00PM

Photo by Brandon Albert, Flare Magazine

“Over simple, well-worn chords, Wilde’s voice sounds weary and wise, and yet still full of life…Her storytelling binds together personal experience and political ideas in relatable ways, the way only the best songwriting can.”

–  Peter Ellman, Exclaim

Crooked Creek Concert Association presents 2017 Kerrville NewFolk Songwriting Award winner Winona Wilde, who will perform at the Roots Music Palace of the Ozarks, Harrison, Arkansas’s historic Lyric Theater, on May 17 at 7:00PM, with special guest opener Fayetteville’s Elizabeth Scott. Tickets are available in advance for $10; at the door, they will be $15. 

Karl Magi recently profiled Winona Wilde for Spinditty, so we’re going to borrow some quotes from his excellent article there. He shows her love for the Roots Music fans and culture: “If I had known all of these people and festivals existed when I started law school, I probably would have quit instead of suffering through it. The sense of community I have felt from the folkies is unlike anything on this earth. It has made me a better person.”

It’s not having gone to law school that makes people wonder most at her rise to prominence in the Americana scene—nor even her being Canadian, since that’s “North Americana,” at least—but the fact that she is a Canadian of Iraqi descent

Photo by Sim Al-Surraj

who has so embraced—and been embraced by—Western “Roots Music”/Americana and its fans.

Wilde (whose non-stage name is Noosa Al-Sarraj) says that music was a part of her life from her earliest days. “I do not come from a musical family, but opportunities for making music always came into my life at the right time. As a little tiny baby, I used to sing my mother’s lullabies back to her, and as a toddler, I was really good at clapping back rhythms and freakishly repeating back entire verses from the Koran, so my mother suspected there was something at play there.”

Her musical influences are wide-ranging. “I grew up on classical music. My faves were the moody, dense composers like Beethoven and Schumann. I spent hours every day alone with the piano, deciphering the language. To this day, I can still recognize a composer from just a few bars of music. Nobody generally cares when it happens, but it always feels like a little bit of a fist-pump moment.”

“When I hit my teens I got all the way into older blues artists like Ray Charles and Nat King Cole and then started to experiment with the edgier stuff like Tool and Nine Inch Nails. I loved the melodic metal my younger brother Sim listened to, he got me into Opeth, Dream Theatre and stuff like that. The heaviness of my lyrical content might have something to do with that.”

Magi writes: “Her transformation into a country/folk artist is something for which Noosa has an interesting explanation. She says, ‘My parents both worked a ton so we had a nanny whom we affectionately called Nana. She may have had country music radio on all day, so my young brain had the country music of the 80’s hammered into it without my even noticing. When I eventually heard John Prine and Loretta Lynn as an adult, all of this country music came pouring out of me.’”

Photo by Mary Matheson, BC Musician Magazine

 

Eleni Armenakis makes it clear in her review of the Wilnona Wilde album “Wasted Time” that as much as her music can reach the heights and depths of introspection and social commentary, her music is not one dimensional: “‘Buy a Round’ marks a change in the album, as Al-Sarraj laughs into a pure country number that fittingly rolls in and around itself. There’s more of a folk sound to ‘Black Forest Black Forest’ before ‘To The Corner’ finds a balance between the two to quietly see out the album.” Armenakis concludes, “Al-Sarraj knows what she wants to say and how she wants to say it. Despite the title, she’s clearly not wasting any time.”

“The best introduction to troubadour songwriter Winona Wilde’s wry sensibilities is through her delivered-with-a-wink song, ‘Chick Singer’…She sings with both exasperation and good humour, because, as we all know, sometimes the truth is so bleak, it’s hilarious. The same autobiographical song also references the blank stares she gets from people surprised to see an Iraqi-Canadian woman singing country songs. Wilde, whose real name is Noosa Al-Sarraj, fell in love with country music thanks to a nanny she had as a kid. Her kickass songwriting abilities led to win an award at the Kerrville Folk Festival’s New Folk competition this year—one of few Canadians to do so, and certainly the first of Iraqi descent.”

– Sarah Boesveld, Flare Magazine, 2017-10-18

Winona Wilde will perform at the Roots Music Palace of the Ozarks, Harrison, Arkansas’s historic Lyric Theater, on May 17 at 7:00PM,with special guest opener Fayetteville’s Elizabeth Scott. Tickets are available in advance for $10; at the door, they will be $15.

Can you recall the first song you ever wrote?

From age 11-17, my subjects were mainly animals — for example, “Everything tastes like chicken when you’re not around,” a musical adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s One Fish, Two Fish, and a mini-opera about a donkey who eats spaghetti. Although one early song I remember went something like “darkness into darkness” and had some complex chord changes and a heavy subject. I gave it to my teacher and I never got it back, so I am really curious about what was going on in that song. Perhaps she passed it along to a psychiatrist.

– Interview in BC Musician Magazine, 2015-11-07

 tickets

David Church RFD TV Star with Terri Lisa and their band — Saturday, January 6, 2018 at 2pm — #LiveAtTheLyric!

RFD TV Star David Church with Terri Lisa
Saturday, January 6 at 2:00PM 

 

Steeped in the music of Hank Williams Jr., David Church brings classic country and his own roots music compositions to the Lyric stage.

From the iconic “Hank Williams” to his own “roots/retro” country music, David Church has made a huge impact on music enthusiasts all over the world. David & Terri Lisa have reignited a passion for traditional “RETRO” country music. They have made a connection that has crossed generations, from college students to great grandparents.

The “Star” of RFD-TV’s MIDWEST COUNTRY for over 10 years, David Church, along with his wife, Terri Lisa, has been lighting up TV sets throughout the US. Midwest Country is featured on prime time Saturday night. With Nielson ratings in the top 3 on the RFD-TV network, David Church is the “most requested and most popular” artist! They have captured the hearts of millions, from baby boomers to college students. With their dazzling rhinestone suits, this dynamic couple has thrilled audiences around the world. David Church is recognized for his authentic rendition of “Hank Williams,” and  recognized by music historians, celebrities, and family members as the “#1 tribute to Hank.”

David Church carries the torch for traditional Country music! His voice and music touches the soul of millions around the globe! The true fans of traditional Country music need a standard-bearer to help keep this sound alive. Luckily, they don’t need to look any further than David Church.

The RFD-TV network has grown by leaps and bounds and is now broadcast to over 65 Million viewers throughout the US. Church has been featured as a regular on the popular show “Midwest Country.” It is easy to understand why he is RFD-TV’s “most requested” artist. Amazingly, without a major hit on mainstream radio, Church has millions of fans all over the world. Bruce Maier, the editor of a major music magazine, Damn Good Tunes called David, “a rare entertainment entity”. He went on to say “he creates a visual presentation that is absolutely dazzling to witness. He does something that 99% of all other artists cannot do and that is stand on their own with their own music.”

A strong advocate for American made products, David and Terri Lisa made the decision a few years ago to only sell American manufactured products on their merchandise table. In April, 2014, The Church’s joined forced with “American Made Matters®” organization as members and ambassadors. The mission is, “to educate consumers that buying US-made products strengthens the American dream,” and to bring awareness of American made products and manufacturers to consumers and strengthen the economy.

David Church can be mesmerizing when performing, as you close your eyes and go back years listening to Hank’s songs. His presentation is done with style, integrity of the music, and from the heart. David has some songs of his own that I believe are some of the very best country music has had in many a year. Catch his performances live and I’ll guarantee you’ll come away totally satisfied and waiting to tell your friends about it and ready for another show.

Minnesota Times, Larry Rose 5/2013

David has been featured in numerous major country music magazines including, Country Weekly, Country Music Report, Nashville, Music Guide, Dreamwest, Damn Good Tunes, Furious, and many others.
Church attributes his success in the music business to the millions of “true country fans” that are tired of what they hear on the radio. “The success that I have had has come from the fans that so long for the traditional sound of country that they have heard in the past, but no longer find in mainstream country music. Those are the fans that have been forgotten. I also feel that a lot of RFD-TV’s success can be attributed to the country music shows that they have been airing, which go along with the country and farm lifestyle. We are proud to be a part of this family oriented TV network.”

David performs throughout the world along with his talented wife, Terri Lisa Church. Terri Lisa is also a recording artist/songwriter. She sings lead and backup vocals. Terri Lisa is a published journalist.

David Church is a rare entertainment entity. David performs the songs and creates a visual presentation that is absolutely dazzling to witness! And, if that were all that David could do in this music business, one would think that’s quite an accomplishment, but David stands on his own with his original music. And that, my friends, makes for a very powerful package! My Rising Star pick: David Church.” 

– Bruce Maier, Editor, Damn Good Tunes Magazine, 3/12/11 www.damngoodtunes.com

RFD’s most requested artist, David Church and Terri Lisa will perform at downtown Harrison’s historic Lyric Theater on Saturday, January 6, at 2:00. Tickets available now at our ticketing page or by calling (870) 391-3504.

 

OAC Ticketing Link

POSTPONED: Máire Ní Chathasaigh and Chris Newman: Traditional Celtic Music, Baroque, Bluegrass, and Swing with Harp and Guitar — Thursday, November 2, 2017 at 7pm — #LiveAtTheLyric!

Máire Ní Chathasaigh and Chris Newman:
Celtic Traditional, Baroque, Bluegrass, Swing
with Harp and Guitar
POSTPONED Due to Visa Problems Thursday, November 2 at 7:00PM 

The celebrated virtuoso partnership of “the doyenne of Irish harpers” (Scotland on Sunday) and “one of the UK’s most staggering and influential acoustic guitarists” (fRoots) is coming to “The Roots Music Palace of the Ozarks,” Harrison, Arkansas’s historic Lyric Theater, Thursday, November 2, at 7:00! Their performances—described by The Irish Times as “music of fire and brilliance from the high-wire act in traditional music”—are rooted but eclectic, emotional but adventurous: a breathtaking blend of traditional Irish music, hot jazz, bluegrass and baroque, coupled with striking new compositions and Chris’s delightfully subversive wit.

The children of the neighborhood teased Máire Ní Chathasaigh and her sister as they walked down the street. Her family in Brandon, West Cork, Ireland was the only one playing traditional music, so they would be teased for being out of step with the times. “We used to be laughed at by other kids because they thought we were being old hat, she says. But that first Planxty album let people see that traditional music could be modern and sophisticated, that it wasn’t some sort of hick music.” (Quoted from “Harping in the Traditions,” by Rob Adams.)

Not only her name (pronounced, Moyruh Nee Kha-huuh-sig), but her upbringing was in keeping with the traditional ways of the Gaelic-speaking Irish, her family featuring generations of musicians and poets carrying forward the folklore of her heritage. She and her sister, fiddler Nollaig Casey (Casey being the Anglicised version of Chathasaigh), were trained in both classical and folk music, both instrumental and vocal. While many worked at bringing forward the old music in new forms for pipes and fiddle, Máire revitalized the harp tradition virtually all by herself. “Since then, there’ve been lots of young people playing traditional music on the harp but there wasn’t anybody else playing when I was coming up,” she says. “If you played the pipes there were loads of recordings and a whole tradition to learn from. But I had nobody, just my ears, and I created techniques and ornaments, ways of doing things, and it was all done by trial and error, by myself. So if I got a lot of attention, it was because I was the first to do it.” (Quotes from “Harping in the Traditions.”)

Having become the first harpist to record an album primarily off Irish dance music in 1985, Máire first teamed up with English guitarist Chris Newman two years later. Celebrating their thirtieth anniversary of collaboration with their current tour of the United States, Máire and Chris will bring their internationally-heralded mastery of styles from traditional Celtic to Baroque to Swing along with a penchant for inventive soloing and challenging interaction between the artists to Harrison’s Lyric Theater for a 7:00 performance on Thursday, November 2.

“When I met Chris, he liked, but didn’t know that much about, traditional music, so he spent a lot of time learning from me,” says Maire. “Then we started experimenting with things he was proficient in, like swing, which he played with Stephane Grappelli as a teenager. We’re completely open, if we hear something nice, we’ll just say, ‘let’s play that.’ It’s extremely enjoyable to experiment and see just what your instruments can do, and we never run out of things to play.” (Quotes from “Harping in the Traditions.”)

Máire won the Senior All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil Harp Competition three times in succession, in 1975, 1976 and 1977—a record that is still unsurpassed. More recently, she was Female Musician of the Year in the Live Ireland Music Awards 2016, where she was described in the citation as “the greatest Celtic harper of our age”. This recognition is not confined to Ireland, though, as she also was named Female Musician of the Year in the Chicago Irish American News Top TIR Awards 2016.

She is the best harp player in Irish music. There are several great Irish harpists—we think of Michelle Mulcahy, Catriona McDonald, Ailie Robertson, and Emer Mallon. There are more. They are all uber-fab. But, then there is Maire. Her new album is called Sibling Revelry. Really, there are no words. Just know this.

– , writing for Live Ireland about
the 2016 Live Ireland Female Artist of the Year Award

Máire has also won awards with Chris Newman, including “Album of the Year” (Live Ireland) and also the “Best Celtic Instrumental Album” (JUST PLAIN FOLKS AWARDS Nashville, Tennessee), 2009 for their album FireWire, as well as “Folk Album of the Year” (The Daily Telegraph) for their 1987 album The Living Wood.

Traditional Celtic music, along with Baroque, Bluegrass, and Swing will be performed by Máire Ní Chathasaigh and Chris Newman at downtown Harrison’s historic Lyric Theater, Thursday, November 2, at 7:00. Tickets available now at our ticketing page or by calling (870) 319-3504.

 

OAC Ticketing Link

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

October 8 & 15 at 7:00 pm; October 9 & 16 at 2:00 pm
The Historic Lyric Theater – Harrison, Arkansas

In a plantation home, on a single summer evening, a family gathers for a boisterous celebration the 65th birthday of baron of the Delta’s biggest cotton
plantation, Big Daddy Pollitt (Bill catweb-jjEdwards). In spite of the festivities, the mood is somber as the news that Big Daddy is dying spreads throughout the family and they must prepare to tell his wife, Big Mama (Mary Bishop).

Upstairs, Big Daddy’s son, Brick (Marrick O’Quin), is laid up in his room after the preceding night’s ‘outing’ has left him with a broken ankle; he’s decided that staying in a mild alcoholic haze will solve his inner turmoil and get him through both the evening and his wife’s machinations. His wife, Maggie (Julianna Stefanski), catweb-famis more concerned with making sure that their position in Big Daddy’s will is secured, and that Brick forgives her for a past indiscretion…because, meanwhile, on the lawn, Brick’s brother and sister-in-law, Gooper (Michael Amburn) and Mae (Kelly Raynor) have begun their own crusade to win Big Daddy’s favor, by using their children to impress upon Big Daddy and Big Mama how well they are passing on the family name while Maggie and Brick still have not.

By evening’s end, will Maggie’s ingenuity, fortitude, and passion, and Brick’s love for his father, never before expressed, be able to retrieve Brick from his path of destruction?catweb-croq

The Ozark Arts Council and The Theatre Company of the Ozarks are proud to present the most famous of Tennessee Williams’ plays (the winner of his second Pulitzer Prize), a stunning and heart-rending tale about a family that is caught in the grip of multiple evils: lying; greed; the sins of the past; a desperate, clawing hope for the future; and the ever-present feeling of being a cat on a hot tin roof.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof will be performed the second and third weekends of October, 2016: Saturdays October  & 15 at 7:00 pm and Sundays October 9 & 16 at 2:00 pm Tickets on sale now through our ticketing web site or by calling the OAC office at (870) 391-3504.

Please Note: While considered a modern classic, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof contains mature subject matter and coarse language, so parental guidance is suggested.

catweb-brimagstandcatweb-castOAC Ticketing Link