TheatreSquared Executive Director Martin Miller and Artistic Director Robert Ford announced a $1 million leadership gift from TheatreSquared Board Chair Lynn Carver and her husband Dr. Joel Carver toward the Our Next Stage capital campaign, supporting Northwest Arkansas’s first permanent, dedicated home for professional theatre.

The box office at the new TheatreSquared facility will be permanently named the Carver Box Office as  recognition of the Carvers’ commitment to the theater. In honor of former TheatreSquared board president and founding member, Bob Kohler, the Carvers have also designated $500,000 as a matching challenge gift. Once the match is complete, the conspicuous public meeting and education space on the new Circle Level will be named the Robert C. Kohler Community Room.

“This wonderful commitment toward the future of professional theatre in our region is deeply and sincerely appreciated,” says Robert Ford, TheatreSquared’s artistic director, “and Carvers’ choice to honor Lynn’s predecessor in the role of board president is incredibly meaningful. Bob Kohler’s energy and heart have continued to guide us even as his legacy takes visible form in both the company and the permanent home he is so fundamentally responsible for.”

The Carvers’ are proud to make the gift to TheatreSquared, and it’s a privilege to issue the matching challenge in memory of their friend, Kohler, Lynn Carver says.

“As our board gathers in that room, as kids take part in free workshops, as teachers train for in-school residencies, and as community groups take advantage of this open, public space — we will be able to honor Bob’s passion and legacy for generations to come,” she says.

The architecturally significant new theater at the corner of Spring Street and West Avenue in downtown Fayetteville is slated to open in August and is one of the newest, most intimate, and immersive performance spaces in the country, according to a press release.  London-based theater planners Charcoalblue and New York-based Marvel Architects designed the 50,000 square-foot, two building, two-venue site. The new TheatreSquared houses “two state-of-the-art theatres, the Walker Rehearsal Room, offices, education and community space, design workshops, eight dedicated guest artist apartments, and an open-all-day café and bar,” according to a press release. The facility also has a patio on Spring Street, a second-level terrace on West Avenue and a rooftop deck, which all support the organization’s ethos of transparency to the community.

TheatreSquared will host the first performances of Shakespeare in Love in the new space in August.

See current construction progress, design images, backstory, and learn how to join the campaign in support at ournextstage.org.