A celebration of new works for the American stage concludes this weekend at TheatreSquared. Among the fresh scripts that will be read: "Bookends," an ensemble devised work from MFA students at the University of Arkansas. "Bookends" is inspired by Dickson Street Bookshop, the celebrated — some might even describe it as magical — used bookstore in Fayetteville.
MFA playwriting candidate Conor Johnson says "Bookends" developed in a collaborative state.
"We had been meeting on Zoom. This was last year. We knew that we were going to be producing or creating a show."
The sessions were with John Walsh, head of the MFA playwriting program at the University of Arkansas, and Leigh Fondakowski, director of New York City-based Tectonic Theater Project. Johnson says Fondakowski, during one of these sessions, asked each MFA student to reference an item with special Fayetteville significance. Johnson mentioned a book he had found at Dickson Street Bookshop in which a previous owner had made comments in the margins.
"And Leigh said, 'What's Dickson Street Bookshop?' And suddenly everybody had a story about Dickson Street Bookshop. So Leigh said, 'OK, everyone, go to your houses and find an item from Dickson Street Bookshop and come back.' So everybody went into their rooms in various corners of their houses and brought back an item, and we went around and shared what we had from Dickson Street Bookshop. And I think it was pretty clear in that moment that this play was going to be about it."
But epiphany isn't the only ingredient necessary for a finished play. MFA acting student Sean Patrick Ryan, part of the cohort, says "Bookends" developed through the moment work process developed by Tectonic Theater Project.
"Moment work is based on this idea that a moment is a unit of theatrical time, and it's a devising process that looks at the elements of theatre — like lighting and costume and all the other elements — and focuses on them, and less on the idea that a writer is going to go write a script and then we're going to all put it up. It's: How can we explore these together? And so we had spent two years kind of just learning the language of moment work and then playing in that sandbox and learning the trials and tribulations of it. So the 10 creators dispersed to consider moments, and then we all come back together. And with 10 voices, 12 voices in the room, that can be a lot. And then so it's like, how do we stitch this together?"
The MFA candidates aren't doing this blind. Tectonic Theater Project and the MFA department at the University of Arkansas are nearing the conclusion of a three-year comprehensive relationship. That training includes working with the artistic director of Tectonic Theater Project, playwright and director Moises Kaufman, author of "The Laramie Project," "33 Variations" and "The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde."
Kaufman is in town this month to further work with the students. He says for the last 100 years, the most common way to create theater in America is for a playwright to sequester, write a script and hand that script to a director, and for the work to then move into rehearsals. Kaufman says the moment work process is a different way to generate theater.
"Although that way of working has given us some wonderful work, one of the things that Tectonic Theater Project is devoted to is figuring out what are the other ways of making work, and what kind of work would other ways of making work make? And I think that's what we have been devoting the last 30 years of our lives to — figuring out how you create plays in a way that doesn't start exclusively from the text, but starts collectively from a group of theater makers coming into a room — writers, directors, actors, designers — and starting from the theatrical impulse."
Moment work process stresses collaboration. Kaufman emphasizes that theatricality is a language, and theater creators can speak that same language.
"I grew up in Venezuela, and I moved to the United States in my early twenties. And when I would speak in English, I would always think in Spanish and then translate into English. And then after about six months of being in New York, I was walking down the street and I heard myself thinking in English. And there was a great moment of joy — like, 'I've arrived.' Coupled with a great moment of sadness, of loss, of what was I leaving behind? But this idea that you can think in a new language is something that really inspired me to create moment work. Because if we accept that theatricality is a language, how can we train theater makers in the language of theater?"
John Walsh says the chance for MFA students to spend three years — not just three weeks or three months — training with Tectonic Theater Project is an extraordinary opportunity.
"To have world-class artists interacting on a consistent basis with our students and teaching them a method that is different — as Moises was saying, it's a process that asks you to start a text from something else, a different impulse. And I think as a person who's training theater makers for the next generation, having different approaches to how we make theater is vital."
Using this process in the development of "Bookends" is at the heart of everything in the play. MFA playwriting candidate Basel Parnell says books he's purchased from the store are being used as props, and flipping through those volumes can inspire what we hear on stage.
"Going through all of them, it's been really interesting to learn about this person. And even literally yesterday, bringing in more books, I did find a fantastic inscription from the author, who was this man's friend, that was beautifully personal. And, you know, part of the wonderful thing about moment work is you get inspiration from everywhere. And sometimes there is a little bit of text stealing — or borrowing — where we have taken some of these beautiful inscriptions."
So what will audiences hear? Connor Johnson says we'll get a slightly different version of the script that was read in public last year, a script that appears to have resonated with that reading's audience.
"It was pretty incredible, after our reading, how many people were raising their hands or even coming up to us after, just to tell us about Don and Charles, who are the founders of Dickson Street Bookshop, who they knew personally or they were related to. Even to tell us about the bookshop itself, to tell us about Sudhir, who's the current owner of the bookshop. Those three are our protagonists of this story. And as Basil said, it is an imagined history. There's some true events and there's some made-up events. And we've tried our best to honor their legacies and the legacy of the bookshop itself."
"Bookends" by the University of Arkansas MFA Theatre Cohort 2026 and Tectonic Theater Project is presented tonight at 7 and Sunday afternoon at 2 at TheatreSquared in downtown Fayetteville. More information at arkansasnewplayfest.com. Each member of the U of A cohort will earn a certificate signifying their training and certification to further teach the moment work process.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
