Spring 2023 Artists in Residence

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L.A. THEATRE WORKS | audio theatre | FEB. 15-16

Lucy Loves Desi is the true story behind one of America’s most beloved TV comedies. Lucille Ball paved the way for many of today’s top comediennes, while forcing Hollywood to begin dealing with the rising power and influence of women artists both on screen and behind the scenes. Playwright Gregg Oppenheimer, son of I Love Lucy creator Jess Oppenheimer, wrote this fast-paced tale of Lucy’s and Desi’s battles with CBS over the pioneering ideas that changed the face of television forever. Written for L.A. Theatre Works, this radio style production tells these stories with heart and humor.

Presentation/Discussion: “Women in Theatre”
Feb. 15, 2023 | 6:30 pm | Keystone Steps, Windgate Center

Masterclass: Acting Workshop
Feb. 16, 2023 | 1:40 pm | Bridges Larson Theatre, Snow Fine Arts

Performance: Lucy Loves Desi: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Sitcom*
Feb. 16, 2023 | 7:30 pm | Reynolds Performance Hall
*ticketed event; free tickets to UCA students at the Reynolds Box Office

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JOHN BRANDON | fiction writing | MAR. 1-2

Novelist and short-story writer John Brandon creates works that fit into the overlapping and burgeoning “Southern noir” and “rural noir” sub-genres of 21st century American letters. Brandon’s first novel, titled Arkansas (2008), combines readability and mystery while insisting on defamiliarizing its reader. Arkansas was adapted into a 2020 film by that title starring Vince Vaughn, Liam Hemsworth, Vivica A. Fox, John Malkovich, and Michael Kenneth Williams, among others. In addition to Arkansas, Brandon is also the author of Citrus County (2011), A Million Heavens (2012), and Further Joy (2014). His latest novel, Ivory Shores (2021) is a work of historical fiction, as well as an adaptation of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Film Screening: Arkansas (2020; 117 min.), directed by Clark Duke, based on the novel Arkansas by John Brandon, with post-screening Q&A with the author
Mar. 1, 2023 | 6:00 pm | Reynolds Performance Hall

Class Visit: The New Southern Noir in Fiction and Film (ENGL 4335)
Mar. 2, 2023 | 10:50 am-12:05 pm | Fireplace Room, McCastlain Hall

Presentation/Discussion: “From Page to Screen, Adventures in Adapting Books to Film” 
Mar. 2, 2023 | 1:40-2:30 pm | Keystone Steps, Windgate Center

Public Reading and Q&A, Followed by a Book Signing
Mar. 2, 2023 | 4:30-6 pm | Fireplace Room, McCastlain Hall 107

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MATTHEW SALESSES | fiction writing | MAR. 15-16

Matthew Salesses is the author, most recently, of the national bestseller Craft in the Real World, an Esquire Best Book of 2021, which explores alternative models of craft and the writing workshop, especially for marginalized writers. His latest novel is the PEN/Faulkner finalist Disappear Doppelganger Disappear, a Thrillist.com Best Book of 2020. In 2015, Buzzfeed named him one of 32 Essential Asian American Writers. His essays can be found in Best American Essays 2020, NPR Code Switch, The New York Times Motherlode blog, The Sense of Wonder (Little, Brown). Salesses was adopted from Korea and is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Columbia University.

Master Class with Graduate Students
Mar. 15, 2023 | 4-5 pm | Win Thompson Hall 331

Public Reading and Q&A, Followed by a Book Signing
Mar. 15, 2023 | 7:30 pm | College of Business Auditorium

Craft Talk with Undergraduate Students
Mar. 16, 2023 | 12:15-1:30 pm | Win Thompson Hall 331

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HIDEAKI TSUSTUI | lighting design | MAR. 28-31

Hideaki Tsustui has designed lighting for numerous artists and productions including Lantern Floating for Peace at the Lincoln Center; Garth Fagan’s Thanks 40 at the Joyce Theatre; Osvaldo Golijov’s Las Pasión Según San Marcos (national tour); Moscow Circus (US tour); Sweeney Todd at Madison Opera (Madison, WI); and Gravity Radio at New York’s Brooklyn Academy of Music. He was also invited to light the 20th Anniversary Dance Gala for the Virginia Arts Festival, which included such dance companies as the American Ballet Theatre, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Tokyo Ballet, and many others. Tsutsui has also provided lighting design for 100 corporate events, concerts, and television shows including Kevin Hart Live, Cindy Lauper, IBM, Herbalife, New York Life, Intuit, APEC Conference, PBS Hawaii, and General Motors. During his UCA residency, he will provide lighting for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, a play by Simon Stephens.

Master Class: “What is Lighting Design? How to Tell a Story Through Lights”
Mar. 28, 2023 | 1:40-2:30 pm | James M. Bridges Black Box Theatre, Windgate Center

Class Visit: Professional Issues in Theatre
Mar. 29, 2023 | 9:25-10:40 am | Snow Fine Arts Black Box

Public Presentation: “A Life of Lighting Design”
Mar. 31, 2023 | 7:30 pm | James M. Bridges Black Box Theatre, Windgate Center

Opening Night Performance: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, a play by Simon Stephens with lighting design by Hideaki Tsutsui*
Apr. 6, 2023 | 7:30 pm | Black Box Theatre, Windgate Center
*Students may receive up to 2 complimentary tickets by bringing their student ID to the box office at Reynolds Performance Hall or Windgate Center

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KIM CHI | fashion design and tv personality | APR. 6-7

Kim Chi, born Sang Young Shin, is a Korean-American artist and entrepreneur who owns Kim Chi Cosmetics. Born in the U.S. and raised in Korea, Kim Chi studied graphic design in college before moving into fashion design, painting, and sculpture. Kim Chi gained international notoriety in 2016 for competing on the eighth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, finishing in the top three. She was the first Korean-American drag artist on American national television and now has 1.9 million followers on Instagram. About her love of art, she writes on her website, “I realized drag was the medium where I could mold my love and knowledge of art, painting, fashion, and photography into one vessel. I believe your face is a canvas to create art. Whether it’s subtle or out of this world, makeup can elevate the way you feel about yourself. With the right mug, I feel invincible and confident!”

Make-up Tutorial and Informal Conversation with Students
Apr. 6, 2023 | 1:30-3:30 pm | Keystone Steps, Windgate Center

An Evening with Kim Chi
Apr. 7, 2023 | 7:30 pm | Reynolds Performance Hall

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KRISTIN LEWIS | opera | APR. 13-22

Kristin Lewis, a lyrico-spinto soprano, has graced the stages of many of the world’s leading opera houses. Noted for her well-focused, majestic sound, rich in overtones, and rare blend of piano culture, she has been directed by and among the most illustrious conductors. A native of Little Rock, Lewis grew up in a musical family and began singing and performing at an early age. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Central Arkansas under the guidance of Dr. Martha Antolik and a Masters of Music degree while studying with Kay Paschal and Andrew Wentzel from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Post graduate study was endeavored under the tutelage of Dr. Janathan Retzlaff, and currently with Carol Byers. Lewis resides in Vienna, Austria. Her dedication to her calling of opera performance, her passion in humanitarian work, and her commitment in leveraging resources for young, talented artists encapsulate her image as a global ambassador of the arts, culture, and philanthropy.

TAWNY CHATMON | photography-based mixed media | APR. 18-20

Tawny Chatmon is a photography-based artist residing in Maryland. In 2010, after photographing her father’s battle with cancer, she changed from commercial photography to art photography as a way for her work to serve a higher vocation. Chatmon takes a multi-layered approach to her process by overlapping her digital photographs with collage, 24-karat gold leaf, and materials such as paper, semi-precious stones, glass, and other mixed media. As a Black woman and mother of three Black children, she is motivated to “leave something important behind” for the world her children will grow up in, while creating imagery that celebrates and honors the beauty of Black childhood and familial bonds. Her work also addresses, at times, the absence and exclusion of the Black body in Western art. Chatmon is one of eight African American artists featured in the 2022 Venice Biennale exhibit The Afro-Futurist Manifesto: Blackness Reimagined. She is currently collaborating with Fabiola Jean-Louis on The Roots of Freedom project.

Class Visit: Special Topics in Art
Apr. 18, 2023 | 2:40-5:20 pm | Cogdell-Penny Sculpture Studio, Windgate Center 116

Artist Talk with Tawny Chatmon and Fabiola Jean-Louis
Apr. 20, 2023 | 7:30 pm | Lecture Hall, Windgate Center