What's Up! — "ArtHeist" A walking play

The Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville will kick off the 11th annual Artosphere Art+Nature Festival May 6 with an engaging new theater piece. "Art Heist" is a socially distanced, covid-safe, family friendly walking play about the world's largest art robbery. The play is based on the true 1990 crime at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston where 13 pieces of art, valued at $500 million, were stolen and 31 years later, remain unrecovered. Audiences - in the role of new recruits to the FBI's art recovery department - will be introduced to a cast that includes experts on the crime and the four primary suspects. The audience members will interrogate the suspects and try to determine the true culprit for themselves. What's Up Associate Editor Jocelyn Murphy spoke with TJ Dawe, the production's co-writer and director, ahead of its Arkansas premiere. Tickets and full schedule at waltonartscenter.org.