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The root of TheatreSquared: Intimate programming adds up to success for NWA’s first professional theater company

BY KEVIN KINDER Northwest Arkansas Times

Posted on Sunday, May 27, 2007

URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Living/53475/

In many ways, it began like a spooky whodunit caper. One dark and stormy January night forced Kassie Misiewicz and her husband, Dan Hintz, to forgo the windy and dangerous drive from Fayetteville to their residence in Eureka Springs and take refuge in the home of strangers. The clichés of corny theater run deep in the plotline regarding the beginnings of TheatreSquared, Northwest Arkansas’ first professional theater company. That night in early 2004, TheatreSquared was just a much-talked-about idea. Now, just a little more than three years later, that idea has grown into a full-fledged company who has employed more than 50 actors, set designers and teaching assistants and announced its first five-show season on Thursday.

Talking theater

The seeds for T ² were planted months before that January evening when Misiewicz and Hintz decided to move from Seattle to Northwest Arkansas with the goal of starting a theater company that would produce plays for young audiences. The couple had experience working in theaters in Milwaukee, Chicago and Nashville, and Fayetteville seemed like a good place to start a professional theater company. Local playwright Bob Ford and his wife, University of Arkansas drama instructor Amy Herzberg, were weighing the idea of creating a professional theater group for adult audiences. Misiewicz’s mother-in-law, Eureka Springs resident Sandy Wright, encouraged the couples to meet. And so three months after arriving in the area, Misiewicz and Hintz sat down to talk theater with Herzberg and Ford.

During the evening’s chat, torrential rains and sleet caused Misiewicz and Hintz to reconsider the drive back to Eureka Springs and search for a hotel instead. But Herzberg and Ford would have none of it and offered their visitors a place to stay for the night. Their discussions continued later into the evening, and the vision of a new theater company, one that would serve audiences young and old, began to come into focus.

Within the week, the group contacted David Pickens, an actor, director and musician with more than 30 years of experience, and he joined the planning process. Morgan Hicks, a UA drama department graduate who had experience on the business side of theater through work in Arkansas, Illinois and Missouri, rounded out the crew. Hintz left the planning to his five colleagues when he was named executive director of Fayetteville Downtown Partners in April 2005. From the beginning, the group planned to make T ²different, Hicks said. While many theaters begin as an underground operation and build respect before calling themselves professional theater, T ²’s founders intended to have a fully functional theater that paid its actors for the first show. Unfortunately, there wasn’t exactly a template for building such an organization, Misiewicz said.

“ If it were only that easy. There is no model. We’re still trying to figure it out, ” she said.

But they did know that community support would be critical for the company’s success. The group held its first fundraiser in April 2005, asking local donors to support a theater organization that had yet to produce a play.

Curtains up

About 13 months later, T ²staged its first production, “ Bad Dates, ” a show about an obsessive-compulsive woman struggling to find love in New York City. “ It was surreal. It felt as though we had launched not just a theater company but a ship. We were sailing, ” Misiewicz said. Popularized off-Broadway in 2003, the play fit nicely into T ²’s niche. Misiewicz believes T ²is one spoke on a larger wheel that represents Northwest Arkansas’ theater community: Arts Live Theatre produces youth theater with local actors. University Theatre trains student actors. Ceramic Cow Productions produces professional fringe theater. The Arts Center of the Ozarks and Rogers Little Theater have established community theater programs, and the Walton Arts Center delivers large, professional-quality productions. That left a void T²hopes to fill, Misiewicz said. It will never be a “ Cats” -type theater, she said, but will show groundbreaking shows in an intimate setting. Postshow discussions, seminars, acting classes and T²’s Summer Drama Academy further the group’s desire to turn theater into an experience. Shows staged by T ²are those that are best viewed in the close confines of a black-box theater such as Studio Theater in Nadine Baum Studios, which the company calls home. “ What we can do are these intimate theater experiences that are humorous, gut-wrenching or have these ah-ha moments, ” Misiewicz said. The company will afford nationally known playwrights a chance to try out their material. The first such production, “ My Father’s War ” by Ford, a founding member and T ²’s playwright-in-residence, is set to make its world debut in May 2008. Of utmost importance to the company is the actors who perform in the shows. Early on, organizers decided to employ Equity actors. Being an Equity affiliated company means the group compensates its actors, directors, designers and technicians and follows union guidelines that set pay and working standards. It raises the performance level, Hicks said, as the Equity actors are professionals. Even the non-Equity actors who are hired — T ²holds yearly auditions for local talent — are paid similarly to their professional counterparts.

On with the show

For T ²’s inaugural season, shows were announced when enough money had been raised to stage the next. The company presented three shows: “ Bad Dates, ” “ Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse” and “ The Last Five Years. ” It also hosted a French-themed gala event in October that netted about $ 10, 000. During the event, the company presented its first Premiere Award to longtime local theater maven Sarah Burnside. The award will be given annually to a theaterminded community member. The first round of shows were a success, Hicks said, netting about 40- to 50-percent returns on production costs, which is close to the national average. And at every turn, people were asking how to fill in the fundraising gaps, coming to shows and volunteering for the organization. The nonprofit organization has never been in the red. “ We believe we were absolutely right: People demanded, needed and deserved what we had to offer, ” Hicks said. And with a taste of success under their belt, the founders want more. The group’s first five-show season was announced Thursday and includes two shows for children, two for adult audiences and one that falls nicely in between. And Ford’s play isn’t the only one making a Northwest Arkansas debut. None of this season’s shows have been produced in the area before, at least in recent memory, which was what drew the organization to the scripts in the first place, Misiewicz said. There are still more steps to take toward achieving the master plan. Eventually, the troupe hopes to offer two consecutive seasons, one for adults and one for children. As the company grows, the hope is to hire more full-time employees, as Hicks as the business manager is the lone fulltime employee. The group also offers administrative apprenticeships and acting and production internships and is working on a Young Playwrights Project, which is tentatively set to debut at the Fayetteville Arts Festival. And if its second season is any indication, it seems that T² ’s offerings will only continue to multiply over the coming years.

T ²Season 2

June 30-July 7 — “ Jungalbook, ” ages 3 and older
Sept. 9-23 — “ The Mystery of Irma Vep, ” adult audiences Nov. 23-Dec. 13 — “ Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, ” ages 10 and older
Feb. 29-March 9 — “ Noodle Doodle Box, ” ages 3 and older
May 2-18 — “ My Father’s War, ” for adult audiences

Season packages