In The Press
What they're saying about us
Sabine Schmidt Photography
Houses Inside and Out
By Sabine Schmidt June, 2011
Recently, the Fayetteville-based Artist’s Laboratory Theatre launched The Place Project, a research/performance concept for investigating what “place” means to humans–how we create and change place, how we define it, and how it relates to the idea of “home.” The group’s artistic director is the multi-talented actor, producer, and teaching artist Erika Wilhite. Since Fayetteville has a compact but active arts community, Erika and I knew about each other. It was only a matter of time before we would meet. MORE...
Ozarks Unbound
ALT’s Place Project brings theater home … literally
By Sonia Davis Gutierrez June 30, 2011
The Place Project asks a fundamental question: What defines a sense of place and how does space echo experience.
The dramatic effort was led by Artist Laboratory Theatre founder and director Erika Wilhite. The one-night only performance Saturday was, by far, one of the most creative experiences I have ever participated in this city.
I could have easily been off-Broadway in New York City, but in fact, 10 of us were in a home of a Fayetteville resident who generously donated their space for art. MORE...
Ozarks Unbound
Sheet Fort’s Show and Tell is giddy and gutsy
By Christopher Spencer April 9, 2011
Sheet Fort’s Show and Tell is giddy and gutsy. Unpredictable, tears-in-your eyes hilarious and edgy at points. Entering the Sheet Fort is an adventure. It’s money well spent on an evening of experimental theater.
The first hour of the show has the talented cast performing in a “reader’s theater” style from these anonymous and entertaining little scripts. The selection of material was incredible and each actor works the material with the utmost skill. “Le Rant” is the climax of the first hour with almost all of the actors reading excerpts that are woven together in an ever-rising hilarious and intense audio pastiche… It’s brilliant.
It succeeds much more than it fails because of the artistic risks it takes. MORE...
KUAF Ozarks at Large
Radio Interview
By KUAF Staff April 6, 2011
Artist Laboratory Theatre will create a sheet fort this weekend for artists and audience members to experience theater in an alternative manner. MORE...
Testimonials from the Fax and Message Center
The Sheet Fort
By Audience Members April, 2011
“Hello, sheet fort. We just saw the sheet fort and it was very good. We laughed very hard. And uh, we were pretty surprised to find a sheet fort like this in the middle of downtown… an anomaly in the city.”
“Oh, my GOD it’s the Sheet Fort!!!”
Testimonials from a Post-It note
The Sheet Fort
By Audience Members April, 2011
“I have not laughed this hard in so long. I think that, as well as stimulating my mind and tickling my funny bone…my period finally came. So…thank you? Ha. Relief tastes better than shame.”
“Thank you for helping us to think for a few hours. Beautiful and moving work!”
OKGazette.com
Two University of Central Oklahoma alums return for the metro debut of ‘Bombs, Babes and Bingo’
By Eric Webb November 10, 2010
Based out of Fayetteville, Ark., the Artist’s Laboratory Theatre (ALT) was formed earlier this year under the direction of University of Central Oklahoma alums Erika Wilhite and Alan Schwanke as a collaborative effort dedicated to the storytelling process through experimentation. MORE...
The Free Weekly
Fundraiser to help theater group take show on the road
By Richard Davis
Artist’s Laboratory Theatre took on a challenge for its inaugural production back in August. After six weeks of experimentation, followed by about two weeks of rehearsal and set design, the Lab opened with “Bombs, Babes & Bingo” in a small venue behind Foghorn’s on College Avenue. MORE...
The Free Weekly
Sheet forts, fringe festivals and bingo as art | Five Questions with Erika Wilhite of the Artist’s Laboratory Theatre
By Christopher Spencer November 4, 2010
Erika Wilhite is the artistic director of the Artist’s Laboratory Theatre, Fayetteville newest theater troupe. The ALT emerged during a down economy, bringing together a number of the city’s artistic talents. MORE...
American Theatre Magazine
Clue Us In
By Robert Ford July 30, 2010
Artistic director, TheatreSuared, Fayetteville, Ark.
"Artist's Laboratory Theatre (alt) made an auspicious storefront debut here in Fayetteville in August with a new play-in-progress by Merri Biechler called Babes, Bombs and Bingo, more evidence of the burgeoning theatre scene in northwest Arkansas. The play is bound for the New Orleans Fringe Festival (Nov. 17-21). Work-shopped using what co-artisitc director Erika Wilhite calls alt's 'scientific method,' the result was edge-of-your-seat fascinating, with two fixed scenes bookending a set of eleven others whose order was determined randomly. It's a structure that very smartly expressed the play's disturbing subject--the disolution of a bomb scientist's mind."
Fayetteville Free Weekly
From Chaos To Order: Lab Distills Art Into Applied ‘Technology’ For ‘Bombs’
By Richard Davis July 30, 2010
FAYETTEVILLE — Erika Wilhite is counting on disorder to work in her favor for “Bombs, Babes & Bingo.”
“The chaos is going to be part of the energy of the show, and I’m counting on it being kind of a good thing instead of a bad thing,” said Wilhite, artistic director for the Artist’s Laboratory Theatre in Fayetteville. MORE...
NWA Online
THEATER Process Informs Performance: Artist’s Laboratory Theatre plays with memories
By Becca Bacon Martin July 30, 2010
FAYETTEVILLE — Here’s what the audience needs to know: “Bombs, Babes and Bingo” is an original play by Merri Biechler, the story of how one man’s memories are unraveling due to an unspecified brain injury.
“It’s going to look, smell, taste, act just like theater,” says Erika Wilhite, co-artistic director of the Artist’s Laboratory Theatre, where the play will debut Thursday. MORE...
The Fayetteville Flyer
Artist’s Laboratory Theatre introduce themselves to Fayetteville
By Dustin July 22, 2010
Have you ever watched a painter paint? Ever been in a room or recording studio while a band or a songwriter arranges a new song?
Sometimes, being involved in the process of creating art can lead to a better understanding, and a new appreciation for the finished product. MORE...