Rogers Little Theater Board of Directors and Matthews, Campbell, Rhoads, McClure & Thompson, P.A. will host a fundraiser to benefit Rogers Little Theater. Playwright and director Oren Safdie is the guest of honor on Sunday, September 16, 6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. at 917 Sycamore Trace, Lowell, AR 72745. Tickets are $50 and can purchased online at www.RogersLittleTheater.org.

Checks and Balances will be directed by Sadfie and will be the first production staged at RLT employing professional actors and stage managers from Chicago and New York.

Oren Safdie attended the Graduate School of Architecture at Columbia University before turning his attention to writing. After receiving his MFA – also from Columbia – he was awarded a Woolrich Fellowship, which he used to launch The West End Gate Theatre Bar on New York’s Upper Westside. He is a playwright-in-residence at La MaMa E.T.C., and recently helmed the Malibu Stage Co. where the off-Broadway / London hit Private Jokes, Public Places. (The Wall Street Journal recently ranked it as one of the top six new plays of the decade.) His next play, The Last Word also moved off-Broadway, starring two-time Emmy Award Winner Daniel J. Travanti (Hill Street Blues). Other productions include The Bilbao Effect, West Bank, Uk, Jews & Jesus, Fiddler Sub-Terrain, and La Compagnie, which he developed into a ½-hour pilot for Castle Rock/CBS. As a screenwriter, Oren scripted the film You Can Thank Me Later starring Ellen Burstyn, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Newport Film Festival; and the Israeli film Bittersweet, which played the Jerusalem and Montreal World Film Festivals. Oren has written for Metropolis magazine, Dwell, Beyond, The Forward, Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, and The New Republic. Playwrights Canada Press and Dramatists Play Service have published his plays, and he is the recipient of numerous grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Le Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec.

RLT presented a staged reading of Safdie’s Private Jokes, Public Places last November when the playwright was in Northwest Arkansas for the grand opening of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

Checks and Balances is presented by Matthews, Campbell, Rhoads, McClure & Thompson, P.A. Highlands Oncology Group is the Celebratory Partner and SB Howard & Company is the Cast Partner.

For the past 26 years, Rogers Little Theater has focused on bringing high-quality community theater to Northwest Arkansas. Housed at the historic Victory Theater in downtown Rogers, RLT produces a wide variety of plays, musicals, and special events each year. With a subscription base of more than 450 members and funding support from some of the area’s most prominent businesses, foundations, and community groups, RLT is a vibrant part of the region. Over 20,000 audience members attended RLT productions in the past two seasons.

The theater relies on more than 700 volunteers, including approximately 125 volunteer actors. Their donations of time, talents, and financial resources bring vitality and strength to RLT and help to fulfill its mission to provide live theater experiences for audiences, performers and students, enhancing the Rogers Historic District and creating a regional destination.

For more information, visit www.rogerslittletheater.org.