FAYETTEVILLE — Warren Rosenaur knows good acting when he sees it. For more than 25 years, Rosenaur has been on the search for talent in the theater arts as drama instructor at Fayetteville High School.
The search for top actors and actresses throughout the years at Fayetteville has led Rosenaur through the school halls. From his own fine arts classrooms, to choir and band halls, a wide variety of students has helped Fayetteville develop one of the finest drama departments in the state.
Almost from the beginning, Rosenaur noticed another avenue also served as an ideal place to grab key roles for his productions.
The athletic complexes.
“Some athlete has been in one of our shows forever,” Rosenaur said. “I think the first time I noticed it was back in like 1989 when we had a baseball player drop baseball to be in ‘West Side Story.’ And about six years ago we had a couple of basketball players who left basketball to be in ‘Guys and Dolls.’
“So you always have them in the shows. A football player here or there, a cheerleader, a runner, a soccer player, a swimmer. We always have them in there.”
Fayetteville recently completed its latest production, the classic musical “Oklahoma!.” And while athletes have played a big part in past plays at Fayetteville, this group of Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs gave the show a sporting feel almost like none before.
Ramsey Jones, a junior at Fayetteville, plays football for the Purple’Dogs in the fall. Jones had never been in a school play before trying out for “Oklahoma!,” and landing the key role of Will Parker.
“I was in all-state choir and my teacher asked me to try out and give it a shot,” Jones said. “It’s a little more time-consuming than I thought. There’s times when you think, I don’t really want to go today. But now that we’ve put the time into it I think it’s been really fun.”
Jones sees a parallel between athletics and acting. On the football field, teamwork is the key to success. On the stage, the same rings true.
“The teamwork aspect of just being dependent on one another is the same,” Jones said. “Because if someone doesn’t say their line or misses their cue, then you’re going to mess up or you have to back them up. So it’s the same thing as in sports where you’re working with each other and helping each other out.”
Of the 37 cast members in “Oklahoma!,” eight compete in one Arkansas Activites Association recognized sport or another. Logan Dallas, who played Ado Annie Carnes in the production, is part of Fayetteville’s three-time state champion cheerleading squad. Like Jones, a choral background led Dallas to trying out for the play.
“It was weird at first. When we first started there were a lot of people I didn’t know,” Dallas said. “But now I do consider it like a big team. And the team aspect is definitely here.
“I know in cheer if we don’t get something right we do it over and over again until it’s perfect, and that’s really similar here. And just like a team we’re all really encouraging of one another and we just want the best for one another. So I think it’s a lot like a team sport, because we want to do well and put on a great performance.”
Having athletes involved in fine arts is always a positive, Rosenaur believes, as a competitive drive carried over from athletics works well on the stage.
“They’re committed to the process,” Rosenaur said. “They’re committed to putting on a good show. ”
Josh Parisi is part of the Fayetteville swim team. Parisi played the part of Curly in “Oklahoma!” and said the thrill of a big performance on stage equals that of a big effort in the pool.
“Swimming is a team sport. It is also an individual sport, but it’s all about the team having to come together to combine the points to try and win,” Parisi said. “And in this, a person has to say the right line in front of you or it’s all messed up. Or the guy next to me might skip a line and I’ll have to go right into the next part to help cover it up. So you’re working together to make sure the show goes well.
“It’s really awesome no matter what sport you’re in when you do well and beat somebody else out. But up here it’s really hard work and it’s just like training for a sport. And when we finally get to the end and see the reactions and the laugther from the crowd it makes it all worth it.”