NORTHWEST ARKANSAS (Walton Arts Center) - Walton Arts Center is proud to announce the third year of Digging Up Arkansas, an original play based on Arkansas history.
The fall tour will have over 60 performances and reach nearly 7,500 3rd-5th grade students in Northwest Arkansas and all over the state. Digging Up Arkansas is presented by Walton Arts Center, written by Mike Thomas and performed by Trike Theatre.
Digging Up Arkansas is a play about Arkansas history that helps make facts relevant and inspire students to care about history. The play takes place in a tent that encircles the audience making the students part of the story, which is about three writers from the Federal Writer's Project who invite students (3rd-5th graders) to explore and organize historical artifacts before President Roosevelt's scheduled arrival in Arkansas. The writers unearth Arkansas mysteries and demonstrate how communication, cooperation, courage and culture have shaped history.
Digging Up Arkansas is delivered on the school's campus and is offered free of charge. This is the third year that Walton Arts Center has presented Digging Up Arkansas to students across the state, and this tour will reach new schools and students who have never seen the play. Last year, Digging Up Arkansas traveled to 64 schools, inspiring over 14,000 students and teachers.
Many of the teachers whose students saw the show reported that, as a result, their students learned in new ways, they cared more about the history of the state, and had a better understanding of facts and concepts relating to Arkansas history. Laura Goodwin, Vice President of Learning & Engagement at Walton Arts Center said, "Walton Arts Center works to provide every child access to live performance and to ensure that the arts are central to the Northwest Arkansas school experience. Digging Up Arkansas is an exciting part of that effort with expanded outreach in the state.
Teachers tell us how effective the play is in engaging students in history. To know we're reaching kids-and for many, Digging Up Arkansas is their first live performance experience-and teaching them to value and remember Arkansas' history, that's Walton Arts Center's mission in action."
The goal of taking Digging Up Arkansas across the state is two-fold; to provide students with key Arkansas history information as well as bring an interactive component to learning by providing a different way of retaining information, accessing students who benefit from visual, auditory & kinetic learning styles. Digging Up Arkansas meets the Arkansas state history curriculum standards, and state benchmark exams test over content covered in the play.
*Digging Up Arkansas Fall Tour Schedule:
- Monday, October 8 - Friday, October 12 at 9:30am & 11:30am at the Walton Arts Center
- Monday, October 15 at 9:30am & 12:15pm in Siloam Springs at Southside Elementary
- Tuesday, October 16 at 3:15pm in Springdale at Sonora Elementary
- Thursday, October 18 at 12:30 pm & 2pm in Gravette at Gravette Elementary
- Friday, October 19 at 9am & 10:30am in Pea Ridge at Pea Ridge Intermediate
- Monday, October 22 - Times TBD in Little Rock at Little Rock Central Christian
- Tuesday, October 23 - Times TBD in Little Rock at Pike View Elementary
- Wednesday, Oct. 24 - Friday, Oct. 26 - Times TBD in Little Rock at Historic Arkansas Museum (field trips)
- Monday, Oct. 29 - Friday, Nov. 2 in Fort Smith/Van Buren at Times & locations - TBD
- Monday, December 3 at 8:30 & 10am in Harrison at Forest Heights Elementary
- Monday, Dec. 3 - Friday, Dec. 14 State wide tour TBD
For a more complete schedule and updates, visit www.waltonartscenter.org, or contact Katie Williams, Learning & Engagement Manager, at kwilliams@waltonartscenter.org.