The Art of the Comeback
THE PAST SEVERAL MONTHS HAVE BEEN FULL of emotional ups and downs for Ruth Shepherd, board chair for the Arkansas Repertory Theatre.
It all started on April 24, 2018, when the longtime Little Rock institution, known locally as the Rep, went dark and stopped producing shows. That day, Shepherd spoke to the staff and gave local media interviews letting everyone know that the capital city’s beloved theatre’s future was uncertain.
“It was an awful, awful day,” Shepherd remembers. “Tears all around.”
Going dark was heartbreaking, but the public rallied, hosting events to save the Rep, sporting “I heart the Rep” T-shirts around town, and most importantly donating money. Less than two years after going dark, the Rep has all but staged a complete comeback.
Indeed, while things are looking up, the organization remains in rebuilding mode. “It’s going to take us a bit to get through it,” concedes Will Trice, the Rep’s new executive artistic director, who took over in August. There’s an upside to an emergency, he notes. “A really exciting thing about coming into a leadership role in an institution that is in turnaround is everything you do has an immediate impact, every change you make, every evaluation of what’s been happening. There’s so much opportunity to improve on an operation.
