FAYETTEVILLE — A choir of seven rang hand bells to the tune of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” as Mr. Scrooge complained, “Couldn’t you play those blasted bells somewhere else?”
About 60 people watched Scrooge transform from a greedy businessman into akinder, more generous person Wednesday during an 80-minute production of A Christmas Carol by TheatreSquared at Nadine Baum Studios.
TheatreSquared Director Martin Miller had expected 175 students from six schools Wednesday. But, all but Fayetteville Christian School canceled classes and their planned field trips because of road conditions. Miller and the cast and crew went on with the show for the 40 students and staff members, and offered the remaining seats for free to anyone who had cabin fever. Tickets normally cost as much as $34.
Performances run through Dec. 29, and the theater company scheduled two additional performances Wednesday and Friday to assist with a researchstudy by Jay Greene, a professor of education change at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Greene recently published the results of a research study in Education Next on the value of field trips to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville. The New York Times published an opinionpiece by Greene and two other researchers discussing the research on Crystal Bridges. The piece titled “Art Makes You Smarter” was the 17th-most-emailed article over the past 30 days.
Greene is continuing his research on the value of field trips with a study on the impact of live theater on children, and he worked with TheatreSquared to offer free performances for schools. Some students are seeing A Christmas Carol this week. Other classes will see TheatreSquared’s production of Hamlet in the spring.
Miller said he understood the cancellations considering that residents in hilly areas still were having trouble venturingout. He was impressed with the fortitude of the private school.
“We have all these seats,” he said. “It seems a shame to leave all of them empty.”
Rogers mother Priscilla Clemons took Miller up on the offer after seeing the invitation posted on Facebook. She took her first-grade twins to see the production.
“We are doing good,” she said. “We love the snow. We’ve been out in it every day. They’re ready to go back to school.”
Fayetteville Christian School senior Kelley Zornes, 19, said she was sad to learn that her school would open Wednesday, but then was excited that it meant she would see a production of her favorite Christmas story.
“It’s centered around God,” she said. “It captures the true meaning of Christmas. I was really impressed. The actorswere so good.”
TheatreSquared began performances of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol on Dec. 5. The performances coincided with the arrival of a winter storm that dumped as much as 12 inches of snow in some parts of Northwest Arkansas and caused many schools to close.
Despite the weather and poor road conditions, TheatreSquared has not missed a performance, Miller said. The performances Thursday through Sunday drew audiences of 30-80 people.
“It went off without a hitch and partly without an audience,” Miller said. “The people who came really seemed to have fun.”
The UA researchers will visit classes after the new year to survey students who saw A Christmas Carol, Greene said.They also will visit classes that had applied to see a play but were not chosen to see one. The surveys are designed to measure the impact of live theater on students’ critical thinking, values and interest in cultural activities.
National conversations about improving education focus on preparing students for jobs, but such a narrow focus detracts from a broader purpose of education, Greene said. Greene also was interested in studying other outcomes of education beyond what is reflected in reading and math scores on standardized tests.
“If we push too hard toward reading and math score achievement, we are going to begin to take away some things that really matter,” he said. “We aren’t just training workers. We’re training human beings.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 12/12/2013