LOL @ WAC Series

“I love the way that comedy is responded to in Northwest Arkansas,” Ross says. “I think it’s a need that was there for a long time, but we weren’t getting a lot of touring acts in. I’m looking forward to [the lineup] because it’s a broad range of humor that we have in LOL this year”

OCT. 17 — Reduced Shakespeare Company’s “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised]”

OCT. 31 — “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” Halloween Party

NOV. 3 — David Sedaris

DEC. 6 — Randy Rainbow Live

DEC. 7 — Tim Hawkins, with special guest Dustin Nickerson

“One on here that I really love is Tim Hawkins,” offers Jennifer Wilson, public relations director. “Just the opportunity to get to see a Christian comedian and singer/songwriter really would be a

family night out for comedy, which is something that you just don’t always get. So, that’s a great opportunity to serve another section of our community.”

Coca-Cola Night Out Series

OCT. 29 — Mystery Science Theater 3000 Live: The Great Cheesy Movie Circus Tour

“A lot of our team are really excited about it,” Ross enthuses of the first show in the Night Out Series. “It’s the show live on stage; the robots will be on stage with them, the film they’re watching and commenting on is ‘No Retreat, No Surrender,’ and the creator and original host, Joel Hodgson, will be here. So it’s going to be a fun night of cheesy movie and cheesy commentary about the cheesy movie.”

DEC. 5 — The Swingles “Winter Tales” DEC. 8 — Boston Brass “Christmas Bells

are Swingin’”

FEB. 27 — Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

“‘The Trocks’ are an all-male dance company of classically trained ballet dancers who will be dancing all the parts,” Ross explains. “The male roles, the female roles, in the tutus and everything. And toe shoes.”

“It’s amazing dance and often hysterically funny. But more than that, it is brilliant execution,” Galbraith adds.

“The juxtaposition of the heavier male body dancing on toe shoes I think is something that’s just really fascinating to watch — because they can,” Ross continues. “It’s just going to be a really fun night.”

APRIL 23 — Bollywood Boulevard

Land O’Lakes Concert Series

DEC. 17 — Robert Earl Keen “Merry Christmas from the Fam-O-Lee,” with special guest Shinyribs

OCT. 4 — Lyle Lovett and His Acoustic Group

“Lyle keeps coming back with different groups — it’s either his big band or with John Hyatt, just the two of them — and this time it’s with his acoustic group,” Ross shares.

JAN. 10 — Jesse Cook

MARCH 20 — Arlo Guthrie: Alice’s Restaurant Back By Popular Demand “Arlo’s humor is such that he’s making fun of himself by still being on tour with the ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ anniversary, so the name of the tour is ‘Alice’s Restaurant: Back by Popular Demand,’” Ross says with a laugh. “It’s what made Arlo a household name, and we’re looking forward to having him back.”

Mattel Kids Series

“I think it’s so important for families to attend live performance together,” Goodwin begins of the Kids Series. “When you come to the theater and you see a drama, it gives you the opportunity to grapple with life’s biggest questions. So whether you’re 80 or 8, it’s an important way for families to communicate with one another and have those good conversations. I think it’s important to make time in our lives to do that.”

DEC. 23 — “The Polar Express”

JAN. 25, & FEB 1, 8 — Trike Theatre’s “A

Year with Frog and Toad”

FEB. 8 — Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood

LIVE!

APRIL 28 — “Erth’s Prehistoric Aquarium Adventure: The Mystery of the Dinosaurs of the Deep”

“They have these amazing puppets that are huge, in some cases. They really span the scale from very intimate puppets to huge whale-like puppets,” Goodwin shares. “The particular show that we’re going to see is based on underwater creatures, so it will give children and families an up-close and personal view of what these creatures looked like back in the day.”

MAY 1-2 — Windmill Theatre Company’s “Beep”

Non-Series Offerings

OCT. 12 — “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azakaban” in Concert, at the Walmart AMP

JAN. 18 — Arkansas Filmmakers Showcase

“We’re really excited to work with the Fayetteville Film Festival to curate evenings of film,” Ross says of the WAC’s new artistic affiliate partnership with the festival. “With the Arkansas filmmakers evening in January, that’s where we kick off our relationship, and I’m really looking forward to exposing our patrons to more Arkansas filmmaking.”

MARCH 6-7 — Opera Fayetteville “Glory Denied”

“A resident company essentially is one that does the bulk of their work in our buildings, on our property, in our venues,” Galbraith explains of some of the industry vernacular. New partnerships with the Fayetteville Film Festival and Opera Fayetteville, similar to WAC’s relationship with Trike Theatre, are providing opportunities for artistic growth in the coming year.

“An artistic affiliate may do work in many different places, but what they do here with us is exclusive to us.”

Festivals

VOICEJAM — April 3-4: Competitors from all over the country travel to Fayetteville in April for the Walton Arts Center’s original a cappella festival where the champion group wins the opportunity to attend and perform at Vocal Asia Festival, VoiceJam’s sister event, in Japan. MOSAIX — April 20-25: A new festival will debut in April that seeks to elevate the intersection of arts and the rich cultures (hence the “x”) that make up the mosaic of Northwest Arkansas. Born out of the desire to ensure every part of the community sees themselves reflected in WAC’s content, organizers consulted and collaborated with community organizations to incorporate more culturally specific programming. The inaugural Mosaix festival will celebrate the vibrant cultures of India. ARTOSPHERE — April 28-May 15: Next year marks the beginning of the second decade of WAC’s art, music and nature festival. In celebration, the festival will see the return of a few fan favorites that organizers have heard through the years the community couldn’t get enough of.

ART OF WINE — June 11-12: The premier wine tasting event in the South, and WAC’s largest annual fundraiser, celebrates its 20th year in 2020.

Courtesy photo “Jason Marsalis is the youngest sibling of Wynton and Branford, and of course Ellis Marsalis,” shares jazz curator Robert Ginsburg of the Starrlight Jazz Series musician. “He’s a percussionist and vibraphonist and less outspoken than his big brothers, so in some ways, less known. But I can tell you from personal conversations with Wynton and Ellis and Branford that they’ve all said he’s the most brilliant musician in the family.”

Photo courtesy Anne Whitman Photography As part of both the Night Out Series and the new Mosaix festival, Bollywood Boulevard, coming April 23, is an example of an opportunity for intersecting programming with the WAC’s new season.

Photo courtesy Daniel Coston “I am super pumped about the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare,’” public relations director Jennifer Wilson enthuses. The outrageous show will present “37 Shakespeare plays in 97 minutes” as part of the LOL @ WAC Series Oct. 17. “And this would be something that would be great for families. I think the opportunity to get an overview of all the plays in a funny CliffsNotes version would be a great opportunity.”

Photo courtesy Luke Cardew “With Windmill Theatre’s ‘Beep,’ that’s a very intimate experience,” says vice president of learning and engagement Laura Goodwin of the Kids Series addition. “It’s for younger children, very gentle storytelling, very small-scale puppets in a very intimate theater. So a really different kind of experience using puppetry.”

Courtesy photo “The Nace Brothers have played at George’s [Majestic Lounge] for years. I mean, the very first time they played here was 1992 Springfest, and I was there, at George’s, in the garden,” WAC programming director Jennifer Ross says of the performers joining the West Street Live lineup. “Their music and the songs they write themselves are fun and fascinating and compelling. I’m really looking forward to having them, not in a club setting where you’d want to get up and dance, but in a quieter space where you can really focus on the lyrics.”