Walton Arts Center

On today's show, the surprising impact of social media on young people. Also, Lorie Tudor reflects on a four-decade career with the Arkansas Department of Transportation in this week's Northwest Arkansas Business Journal edition. Plus, we hear from actors in the Walton Arts Center's last production in 2024.

April Wallace of the "Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette" joins Ozarks at Large's Kyle Kellams to suggest local happenings this weekend, like Winter Nights and Blippi at the Walton Arts Center, a nutcrackin' Super Saturday at the Fayetteville Public Library, Avoca's Country Christmas Parade and following cookie social, and more.

Burt Bacharach's music can be a warm blanket, and it inspired the national tour of Mark Morris Dance Group’s “The Look of Love.” Original choreography will accompany more than a dozen Bacharach songs on stage at Walton Arts Center on Wednesday, November 20. Marcy Harriell will sing those songs, and she visited the Anthony and Susan Hui News Studio to talk about singing for performance.

Halloween comes to Walton Arts Center this week. Beetlejuice opens Oct. 22 with a cast of ghosts and a hyperactive demon. Ozarks at Large's Kyle Kellams talked with Megan McGinnis. She is the recently deceased Barbara Maitland in the musical and played the role for a time on Broadway. She said after working on stage and in film, Beetlejuice is her favorite work experience.

Peter Pan is coming to Arkansas this month at the Robinson Center in Little Rock from Sept. 13 through Sept. 15 and then at Walton Arts Center from Sept. 24 through Sept. 29. This production has roots in the nearly 70-year-old Broadway hit, but it also features a newly adapted script from Larissa FastHorse. The tour’s director, Emmy winner Lonny Price, visited the Carver Center for Public Radio to discuss the production.

The Starlight JazzClub season at Walton Arts Center begins Saturday, Sept. 7, with the Sean Mason Quartet performing in the Starr Theater. Mason’s jazz mixes old and new. Saturday night audiences will likely hear original music and interpretations of standards going back a century. Last week, Robert Ginsburg, host of Shades of Jazz on KUAF, talked with Sean Mason about the upcoming performance.

Kyle Kellams speaks with Ben Harris, the executive director of the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas about the upcoming season.

One of the most celebrated musicals in theater history will launch a national tour from Fayetteville. "Hamilton" will open at Walton Arts Center next week, but the cast and crew are here now as the national tour works through technical rehearsals before beginning a year-long trip across the county. Last evening Tyler Fauntleroy and Marja Harmon, Alexander Hamilton and Angelica Schuyler, in this production, respectively, sat down in the Walton Arts Center Lobby.

The Walton Arts Center is now accepting submissions for their fourth annual "Our Art, Our Region, Our Time" group art exhibition. Curated by local artist Kathy Thompson, the exhibit will feature and celebrate works exclusively from Northwest Arkansas visual artists.

This week, Mary Badham, of stage and screen "To Kill a Mockingbird" fame, came to the Carver Center for Public Radio to talk about the subtle changes in Aaron Sorkin’s script and the challenges of playing Mrs. Dubois. We wanted to share more of the conversation with you today, including Badham's recollection of another iconic performance, visiting botanical gardens and her joy of talking with students.