Kyle Kellams: This is Ozarks at Large. This is a theater-rich region. National tours come here. We have locally produced professional plays, community theater and more. To support all of those productions, there are theater programs like the one at NorthWest Arkansas Community College.
Playwriting and acting students at NWACC will present some of their works in progress to the public next month. The works will be presented with no admission charge on Thursday night, Nov.13 at 7 p.m. in White Auditorium on the school’s campus.
This month, also inside White Auditorium, two theater faculty and four students discuss their work and the value of theater. We’ll first hear the voices of Stephanie Freeman, theater professor and theater department coordinator, and Paul Moore-Chavez, professor and writer, and then from students Julie Wilson, Noah Hidgens Leonard, Payton Wimberly and Matthew Cornog.
Stephanie Freeman: We’ve got students who, some are bringing a shorter format into a longer format of writing. Some are starting from scratch and building on a new idea. But we’re hoping to have audiences view a 10-minute excerpt of each playwright’s work as presented by our wonderful theater students — with music stands, with little music lights — and we’re making it as theatrical as possible. But it’s all about getting those words out, getting that pattern of action on stage for the first time so our playwrights hopefully can sit back, relax and really start taking note of what’s going on with their work.
Paul Moore-Chavez: I think we’ve explored a lot of different areas. It’s been nice working with the students and feeling the atmosphere of collaboration. And, yeah, it’s kind of a subjective world — a lot of this stuff, creativity and storytelling and writing. And so I’m just there to facilitate, help, help bring it out.
Julie Wilson: I’m in early education, have been in early ed for my entire life. And so this is kind of a new journey for me. But I think when you’re in the right head space and you have the ability to be creative and be around other creatives, ideas just keep flowing, and feedback. It’s been a good group that we have that have been able to kind of bounce ideas off each other and life experiences and different viewpoints and things.
Noah Hidgens Leonard: From my experience, when it comes down to writing, it’s helpful to have two other people who write differently. That way you can get different mediums, because not everybody’s going to appreciate one form of writing. And it’s best to have other thought processes and just seeing other forms of perspective and writing. That way you can at least appeal to a bigger audience when it comes to your show. I think that not only just with writing, but acting as well.
Leonard Peyton Wimberly: Just get it out of my head. You know, just the act of creation is very fulfilling and just trying to express things that can’t really be expressed in any other way.
Julie Wilson: I’m currently working on a fairy tale adaptation called Femme Fatal — about kind of a journey of wanting to go down a path that they set for themselves versus a path that’s set out for them. Humor involved, but then a lot of one-liners that get you thinking, hopefully.
Payton Wimberly: I guess you could call it an absurdist buddy adventure where these two guys — you know, everyone has enemies, and sometimes bad things happen to your enemies and you didn’t do it.
Matthew Cornog: It can definitely be a challenge to tell your story, tell your characters, tell your genre just in what’s said. And it’s just something you’ve got to iron out. Just trial and error.
Julie Wilson: Honestly, sometimes you’re going to wow an audience and sometimes you’re not. And if you stay true to yourself and write what’s true to you, then at the end of the day, I think that’s what matters. Not everybody is going to like every piece of work, and that’s okay.
Noah Hidgens Leonard: I think it also really fosters the inherent community of theater because it’s one of the most collaborative performance arts. Because you have artists, technicians, designers, playwrights, different types of actors. You have marketers, and it’s just trying to create something for someone else and connect, whether it be with your other creatives or the audience.
Stephanie Freeman: I’m just always impressed by the eclectic nature of all the pieces of our students. And also it warms my heart for them to feel like they have a place to come and try out their material because, you know, investing in playwrights means that theater gets to live on. So I’m just super proud of them.
Kellams: Stephanie Freeman is theater professor and theater department coordinator at Northwest Arkansas Community College. We also heard from Paul Moore Chavez, professor and writer at NWACC and students Mattew Cornog, Payton Wimberly, Noah Hidgens Leonard and Julie Wilson.
You can see excerpts from their plays in progress, as well as works from other students, on Thursday night, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. in White Auditorium on the NWACC campus. There will be no admission charge. Donations to the department will be accepted.
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