"We are in the middle of striking 'Shakespeare in Love,' which we just closed two weekends ago, and now the big project coming up for the school district is 'Frozen.' We're the first high school in the River Valley area that has gotten the rights to do that.”
“The second in Arkansas.”
“So rehearsals are going on for that. In the meantime, we've got two, three touring shows that are coming up in August and September."
One of those shows this month is "Mrs. Doubtfire," on stage Sept. 29. It's a large production, and David Woolly says it's an example of another pillar of the center's commitment to students: backstage technical experience.
Stephen Sellers, technical director at Skokos Performing Arts Center, says there will be plenty of recognizable hands on deck.
"Crew for this will be probably 20 to 30% of local professional theater technicians. Another small percentage, probably 30 or 40%, I'm not sure what the math is on this, of alumni. I'm alumni and the rest I just fill in with students. And so there's probably 20 or so students.
"Along those lines, one of the grand things about that, in our theater program, those kinds of experiences have given multiple of our graduate students an opportunity to actually go on and work professionally on these touring shows.”
“Two different times we've had a show in and with students working it in two different times. Well, these were former students. They had graduated, but they left with the show. They hired them on the spot."
The center can seat 1,500 patrons or be a house of 1,000 or 600 with the balcony closed off. It was built with prop and costume capacity in mind. Other high schools in the region have been able to borrow costumes from the Alma School District collection, and the technical capabilities have benefits for actors and dancers. David Woolly says that was on display for a recent dance production called "Elements."
"It opened with earth. And the stage was full of sand and then the sea. And then there was then wind and then air. And most of the air act was aerial. Aerial work.”
“High school students doing aerial?”
“Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Flying and the whole thing. The third act was fire and that made me nervous. But there was a lot of fire on stage.”
“It makes me nervous hearing about it.”
“But the fourth act was water. And it came a flood on stage. Now they built a big bathtub. I mean, the whole stage was a shallow bathtub."
All of these theater components have made the Skokos Performing Arts Center an attractive venue for some national touring shows to tune up for a couple of weeks before they launch national tours.
"'Fiddler on the Roof,' 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' and 'Wizard of Oz' have been in house for 10 to 14 days at no cost.
“But at the end of their time here, they do usually two shows for us, at no cost to us that we sell as part of our professional series, so it's a win win."
Woolly spent 50 years with the district, starting as a band instructor and eventually serving as superintendent. He'll be in the orchestra pit for "Frozen" in December, conducting the 22-piece orchestra. He says he's proud of how this district has embraced the arts.
"The majority of school administrators do not come out of the art world. And they don't understand the importance of that. They're not malicious. They just don't understand.
"My philosophy, our philosophy, my predecessor's philosophy was, has always been no two students have the exact same abilities or interests. It's our job as a school district to provide as many programs as we possibly can to meet students' interests."
He's adamant arts are co-curricular, not extracurricular. Chuck King, executive director of the foundation, agrees.
"It's not necessarily that the faculty is trying to churn out the absolute best dancers or the absolute best technicians or actors. We're wanting to use those things as tools to produce outstanding human beings."
Now about that 25th season at the center. It will continue on Sept. 19 with the national touring production "A Man Called Cash."
"Johnny Cash, the Arkansas icon, legend here. This show features a man that has been chosen by the Johnny Cash Foundation, his family, to play Johnny Cash. And I think there was a tour that he had called the official Johnny Cash Experience, and now they've rewritten the show and relaunched it, and we're bringing it to the River Valley area for the first time. There's a lot of enthusiasm about that show, and the phone rings quite a bit for tickets for that one, so I'm sure this one's going to be a success."
“There are several Johnny Cash tribute shows out there. This is the only one that the estate and the family endorses.”
Then the big show as far as production elements are concerned, "Mrs. Doubtfire," on stage in Alma for one night, Sept. 29.
"Our challenge is always, as David said, because we're a small community, we can bring in a show like this for one night to sustain an audience. So we're just really fortunate that we're able to bring the national tour of 'Mrs. Doubtfire' to the area. And we've got a huge crew lined up to accommodate that.”
“It's a big show. Yeah, it's a big one and it's an expensive show.”
“We need to sell some tickets."
Productions like "Mrs. Doubtfire" also benefit from sponsors, including this year's headline sponsor, McDonald's. Then in December, Airedale Theatre at Alma High School presents "Frozen."
"One fun thing that we're doing is on the matinee, the Saturday matinee, we are booking an Elsa's Hot Cocoa party where the kids can come and decorate their, or juice up their own, hot chocolate. And then there'll be a karaoke with the singers from the show.”
“Part of the cast will be there.”
“So that's a lot of fun. We're already selling tickets for that."
In January, it's Kenneth Grahame's "Wind in the Willows," presented by Theatre Heroes.
"It's a one man show, and it's presented through the Mid-America Arts Alliance, which we've partnered with them several times for grants and so forth. They help us bring in regional shows. And so Noel has been with us before to do 'Call of the Wild.' And it's a multimedia show that's like 180-degree screens. And he plays all the characters in the book, an incredible performer. And we loved 'Call of the Wild' so much that we've asked him to come back and do 'Wind in the Willows,' and we'll do a workshop with him as well with our theater students."
In late January, gospel, inspirational and crossover singer David Phelps.
"He's been called one of America's best tenors. He's just got an incredible voice. He used to be a part of the Bill Gaither Trio. Now he's branched out into his own solo career. He performs in theater as well. He always brings a big crowd to our area. He's just so inspiring to listen to. Yeah, he addresses a broad range of music, but you'll definitely be inspired by David. He's incredible."
And the 25th season finishes up in the spring with Richard Thomas and "Mark Twain Tonight" on March 6, and then the Airedale presentation of "Musical Comedies of 1940."
Full schedule details available at skokospac.org. Our conversations were recorded at the Skokos Performing Arts Center last month.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
