One of the top Broadway plays of 2016 is coming to Northwest Arkansas. TheatreSquared will host a production of The Humans by Stephen Karam beginning on Jan. 24 and running Thursday-Sunday until Feb. 18. Tickets are on sale now from $17-$47 and can be purchased online or by calling 479-443-5600.
The Humans was the winner of the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and called the “best play of the year” by nearly a dozen top publications ranging from The New York Times to the Washington Post.
The play is a humorous and compassionate look at the anxieties of the modern age. Breaking with tradition, Erik Blake has brought his Pennsylvania family to celebrate and share a Thanksgiving dinner in his daughter’s new basement apartment in Lower Manhattan. The movers haven’t arrived, so they make do with folding chairs, paper plates, and — eventually — emergency lighting. As darkness falls outside the ramshackle split-level duplex, mysterious things start to go bump in the night, and the Blake clan’s deepest fears and greatest follies are laid bare.
“Choosing the TheatreSquared season is made so much easier when an exceptional play emerges,” said T2 Artistic Director Robert Ford. “The Humans is a brilliant new comic drama — funny, profound, even frightening at times. We may not know the Blakes, but we certainly know this family. The Humans has been universally praised as one of most deeply resonant new American plays of the past decade, and I’m thrilled that Northwest Arkansas is home to one of the first independent productions since its New York debut.”
Playwright Stephen Karam will visit Northwest Arkansas through a special partnership with the Fayetteville Public Library and the Arkansas Arts Council.  Karam will participate in several free public events on Feb. 14, including a limited-seating scene study workshop at 3 p.m. and a special T2 Artists’ Forum at 6 p.m., hosted by Ozarks at Large producer Kyle Kellams. For more information and to sign up for the workshop, visit faylib.org.
The Humans will be directed by T2 veteran Shana Gold, who returns following last season’s Intimate Apparel. The cast of The Humans includes TheatreSquared veterans Katherine Forbes (Transatlantic), Rick Holden (Tigers Be Still) and Halley Mayo (Fun Home, Sundown Town), as well as Deven Kolluri, Laurie Larson and Molly McAdoo. The creative team for The Humans includes scenic designer Kim Powers, lighting designer Shawn Irish, costume designer Ruby Kemph, sound designer Nok Kanchanabanca, properties master Brodie Jasch and production stage manager Shannon Jones.