PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 21, 2016
RE: Arkansas Public Theatre
announces Season 31
Rogers - Arkansas Public Theatre (APT) unveiled the Season 31 show line-up on Thursday, January 21, 5-7 p.m. at
The Victory Theater in downtown Rogers during their annual Season Announcement Party. Arkansas Public
Theatre’s (APT) Season 31 features several Tony nominated musicals and plays. The season’s unique mix of new,
straight-from-Broadway productions and perennial classics were chosen with APT’s diverse audience in mind.
ROCK OF AGES (Musical) by Chris D’Arienzo
Auditions: August 1, 2016
Performances: September 9-11, 15-18, 22-25, 2016
This five-time Tony nominated Broadway musical features the music of the Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake,
Poison and many more. It’s the tail end of the big, bad 1980s in Hollywood, and the party has been raging hard.
Aqua Net, Lycra, lace and liquor flow freely at one of the Sunset Strips last legendary venues, a place where sex
machine Stacee Jaxx takes the stage and scantily clad groupies line up to turn their fantasies into reality. Amidst
the madness, aspiring rock star (and resident toilet cleaner) Drew longs to take the stage as the next big thing
(and longs for small-town girl Sherri, fresh off the bus from Kansas with stars in her eyes). But the rock and roll
fairy-tale is about to end when German developers sweep into town with plans to turn the fabled Strip into just
another capitalist strip mall. Can Drew, Sherri and the gang save the strip–and themselves–before it's too late?
Only the music holds the answer.
Recommended for audiences 13 and older for content and language.
ANNAPURNA (Non Musical) by Sharr White
Auditions: September 12, 2016
Performances: November 4-6, 10-13, 2016
Annapurna, written by acclaimed playwright and producer, Sharr White, is once again lauded as “a skillful
hand…with an uncanny ability to know exactly how much to give away and when” (The New York Press). White is
the author of The Other Place and one of the producers of Showtime’s The Affair.
After twenty years apart, Emma tracks Ulysses to a trailer park in the middle of nowhere for a final reckoning.
What unfolds is a visceral and profound meditation on love and loss with the simplest of theatrical elements:
two people in one room. A breathtaking story, both funny and dramatic, about the longevity of love.
Recommended for audiences 13 and older for content and language.
THE SANTALAND DIARIES AND SEASON’S GREETINGS (Non Musical) by David Sedaris
Auditions: November 7, 2016
Performances: December 2-4, 8-11, 2016
Using his personal experiences as inspiration, David Sedaris once again shares his talent as a playwright,
comedian, author and American humorist is the Christmas play. The Santaland Diaries is a brilliant evocation of
what a slacker's Christmas must feel like. Out of work, this slacker decides to become a Macy's elf during the
holiday crunch. At first the job is simply humiliating, but once the thousands of visitors start pouring through
Santa's workshop, he becomes battle-weary and bitter. Finding consolation in the fact that some of the other
elves were television extras on One Life to Live, he grins and bears it, occasionally taking out his frustrations on
the children and parents alike. The piece ends with yet another Santa being ushered into the workshop, but this
one is different from the lecherous or drunken ones with whom he has had to work. This Santa actually seems
to care about and love the children who come to see him, startling our hero into an uncharacteristic moment of
goodwill, just before his employment runs out.
Recommended for audiences 13 and older for language.
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (Musical) Music and Lyrics by Mel Brooks, Book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan
Auditions: December 5, 2016
Performances: February 10-12, 16-19, 23-26, 2017
From the creators of the record-breaking Broadway sensation The Producers comes this Tony nominated musical
comedy. The comedy genius Mel Brooks adapts his legendarily funny film into a brilliant stage creation - Young
Frankenstein! Every bit as relevant to audience members who will remember the original as it will be to
newcomers, Young Frankenstein has all the panache of the screen sensation with a little extra theatrical flair
added.
OF MICE AND MEN (Non Musical) by John Steinbeck
Auditions: February 13, 2017
Performances: March 31-April 2, 6-9, 2017
Of Mice and Men is the literary classic written by Nobel Prize in Literature winner John Steinbeck. It’s the tale of
two drifters, George and his friend Lennie, with delusions of living off the "fat of the land.” They’ve just arrived at
a ranch to work for enough money to buy their own place. Lennie is a man-child, a little boy in the body of a
dangerously powerful man. His obsessions with things soft and cuddly have made George cautious about with
whom the gentle giant with brute strength associates. His promise to allow Lennie to "tend to the rabbits" on
their future land keeps Lennie calm, amidst distractions. But when a ranch boss' promiscuous wife is found
dead in the barn with a broken neck, it's obvious that Lennie accidentally killed her. George, now worried about
his own safety, knows exactly where Lennie has gone to hide, and he meets him there. Realizing they can't run
away anymore, George is faced with a moral question: how should he deal with Lennie before the ranchers find
him and take matters into their own hands?
VELOCITY OF AUTUMN (Non Musical) by Eric Coble
Auditions: April 3, 2017
Performances: May 12-14, 18-21, 2017
This drama, ripped from today’s headlines, is sure to pull at the heart. Eric Coble is “A Playwright to Watch: An
unqualified original with rich and idiosyncratic works… A spirit of playful invention pervades Coble’s repertoire,”
states American Theatre. Velocity of Autumn swirls around Alexandra, an 80-year-old artist in a showdown with her
family over where she’ll spend her remaining years. In Alexandra’s corner are her wit, her volcanic passion, and
the fact that she’s barricaded herself in her Brooklyn brownstone with enough Molotov cocktails to take out the
block. But her children have their own secret weapon: estranged son Chris, who returns after 20 years, crawls
through Alexandra’s second-floor window and becomes the family’s unlikely mediator. No sooner are the words
“Hi, Mom” uttered than the emotional bombs start detonating. The Velocity of Autumn is a wickedly funny and
wonderfully touching discovery of the fragility and ferocity of life.
DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE (Non Musical) by Sarah Ruhl
Auditions: May 15, 2017
Performances: June 16-18, 22-25, 2017
Sarah Ruhl is one of today’s hottest playwrights and has been Tony-nominated and a Pulitzer Prize finalist for
her many works. Dead Man's Cell Phone, a wildly imaginative new comedy by the MacArthur "Genius" Grant
recipient. It’s a play about how we memorialize the dead—and how that remembering changes us—it is the
odyssey of a woman forced to confront her own assumptions about morality, redemption, and the need to
connect in a technologically obsessed world.
Recommended for audiences 13 and older for language.
THE WEDDING SINGER (Musical) Music by Matthew Sklar, Book by Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy, Lyrics by
Chad Beguelin
Auditions: June 19, 2017
Performances: July 28-30, August 3-6, 10-13, 2017
The Tony-nominated Broadway musical The Wedding Singer takes us back to a time when hair was big, greed was
good, collars were up, and a wedding singer might just be the coolest guy in the room. Based on the hit Adam
Sandler movie, The Wedding Singer's sparkling new score does for the '80s what Hairspray did for the '60s. Just
say yes to the most romantic musical in 20 years.
Recommended for audiences 13 and older for language.
All performances and auditions will be held at the historic Victory Theater in downtown Rogers, 116 S. 2nd St.,
Rogers. Auditions begin at 7 p.m., doors open at 6:30 p.m. Performance times are 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday,
with Sunday performances at 2 p.m. Doors and concessions open at 7:00 pm. Cabaret seats are $30/per person
or $50/table (includes 2 individual seats) and balcony seating is $17/per person. Season and individual show
tickets can be purchased online at www.arkansaspublictheatre.org or at the APT Box Office at 479-631-8988.
Now in its 30th year, APT is Arkansas' Public Theater, producing classic, cutting-edge, and
fresh-from-Broadway plays, musicals and special events at the historic Victory Theater. Annually, more than
1000 volunteers and performers have propelled APT to be recognized as one of the region’s top live theater's—
among the area’s two professional live theaters—during the past six years. APT is the only all-volunteer
community theater in Northwest Arkansas. With a large subscription base and funding support from some of
the area’s most prominent businesses, foundations and community groups, Arkansas Public Theatre continues
to be a vibrant part of the region. For more information about the upcoming season, including season
memberships, sponsorship opportunities and audition information visit www.arkansaspublictheatre.org or
contact the Box Office at 479.631.8988. APT is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. For more information,
contact [email protected]
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EDITOR: For more information or to arrange publicity photos, please contact [email protected]