As the Murphy Arts District continues to grow in El Dorado’s downtown, it is already attracting notice from arts enthusiasts across Arkansas, including those looking to become a part of the area’s developing theater scene.
The Muses Creative Artistry Project will present a fully staged production of “Man of La Mancha,” the musical tale inspired by Miguel de Cervantes’ 17th century novel “Don Quixote,” at 7 p.m. June 13 in the Griffin Music Hall. The play takes place during the height of the Spanish Inquisition and tells the story of a “kind but insane gentleman who has set reality aside to become Don Quixote De La Mancha,” according to the play’s description on the Murphy Arts District website.
Deleen Davidson, artistic director with the Muses Creative Artistry Project, said the Hot Springs-based group hopes to make El Dorado a regular stop for their performances, especially since the community has so fully embraced the arts as a way to attract new residents and tourists through the Murphy Arts District.
“The Muses, we are fascinated and delighted and cheerleaders for what’s happening with the Murphy Arts District,” Davidson said. “I think it’s a wonderful role model for any other community that decides what can we do to encourage people to come and stay here.”
This month’s show won’t be the first time the Muses have performed in El Dorado. In 2012, the group performed the Mozart opera “Cosi fan Tutte” on the Rialto stage, in what Davidson said was the first, and last, performance in that venue in 50 years. Rehabilitating the Rialto is part of Phase II of the Murphy Arts District, which has yet to begin.
That performance was made possible through the work of Austin Barrow, president and chief operating office of the Murphy Arts District, who Davidson described as “just an amazing gentleman and really loves the theater, loves the arts.”
“We began visiting very early (with Barrow to look at) what is going to work for this community,” Davidson said, adding that the group recognizes the area already has some strong arts programming through the work of groups and organizations such as the South Arkansas Arts Center.
The 2012 performance, she said, was risky as it was in Italian, but the group saw the overwhelming interest from the community when the audience was full of people eager to see the performance.
“One of our goals was to continue coming back to El Dorado,” Davidson said. “We want to come with all of our programming.”
The show on June 13 will follow the 1964 iteration of the musical theater production, she said, that reframes the 400-year-old story into something different and unique, but still relevant to today’s audiences, which is exactly the type of performance to which the Muses are drawn.
Davidson said the Muses operate a 52-week program in Arkansas, where they produce different shows every three months and travel to perform them across the state.
“Each quarter of the year we shift genres,” Davidson said, noting that June is always their Broadway time, hence “Man of La Mancha” for the El Dorado performance later this month. “Our main criteria is to select arts, whether its visual arts, dance, instrumental, vocal or poetic, that is transformational and inspiring and we draw on the classical arts to do that.”
By “classical arts,” Davidson said the group means the type of work that has staying power or enduring value.
For the June 13 show, the cast comes from all over the country, with performers from Portland, New York and New Orleans. Davidson said she hopes the audience will be transported by the performance and completely immersed in the story, much like the characters from within the play itself.
“Everyone who participates on stage is transformed by the belief that Don Quixote carries for his own quest that each of them are individually inspired then to have another shot at their own individual quest,” Davidson said. “It’s deep but it’s simple, it’s basic, it’s transferable, it’s something everyone can relate to if they choose to come into the story.”
In planning to take a more prominent role in El Dorado’s growing art scene, Davidson said the group is looking at coming at least four times per year to build “a cultural audience for our particular type of programming.” In doing that, she said, the group hopes to not only fill a particular need but to one day be seen as El Dorado’s own.
“We want to get to know that particular slice of the El Dorado community, and the surrounding areas, and have them come and build a relationship with us,” she said. “We want to be El Dorado’s hometown favorites.”
Tickets, which are $25 for general admission, can be purchased at eldomad.com.
Madeleine Leroux can be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected].