Students Benefit From Serendipity

LITTLE ROCK — Unique programming selected just for area students has been a tradition at the Arts Center of the Ozarks as far back “as ancient history, almost,” says Harry Blundell, ACO director of theater.

Now, in the arts center’s 46th year, the legacy continues in the first half of 2013 with performances by the Cimarron Opera company of Norman, Okla.; Shakespeare Festival St. Louis;

Harmony, a storytelling folk music group from Mountain View; and Bits ’N Pieces Puppet Theater from Tampa, Fla.

That’s in addition to locally created offerings such as “Go, Dog, Go” and the visual arts showcases for elementary, middle school, junior and senior high students. People know about those, Blundell says, but sometimes the school-only events go unnoticed - except by the 23,000 youngsters who attend every year.

When Blundell and wife Kathi, ACO administrative director, came to the arts center in 1975, the first thing they did was mount a touring series for the schools, he remembers. The plays, usually musical and based on fairy tales or folk tales, went throughout the region, from Bentonville to Siloam Springs, he says, at a time when there were fewer schools and significantly fewer arts offerings.

Between 1984 and 1993, the arts center offered a few guest artists a year, usually doing a show for adults and a second show just for children, Blundell remembers. Among those performers was Jonathan Frid, the actor who portrayed Barnabas Collins on the original “Dark Shadows”; folk musician Jimmy Driftwood; magicians; and more. It wasn’t until 1993 that the Serendipity Series for Schools came into official existence, Blundell says, when the Arts Center of the Ozarks moved into the building currently being refurbished.

Individual offerings are targeted for age groups from kindergarten through senior high school and include the ACO’s mainstage shows when they are age-appropriate.

“There isn’t an age group within ourschool system we don’t target with at least one production,” Blundell says, “although the younger children seem to have the easiest time getting out of school to get here.”

Students pay $3 for the daytime performances, “and we do have a program folks can donate to help defray the cost for kids who might not be able to see a show otherwise,”Blundell says. Visiting artists do two or three performances a day, and sometimes stick around for an evening show for adults.

Next in the Serendipity Series for Schools is Cimarron’s Scholastic Opera Tour, offering “Fumbelina,” described as “a charming story which centers on a young girl who is quite a klutz but finds that she’s not so clumsy after all once she starts thinking of others and stops worrying about her own shortcomings.” The production, set for Thursday, features music from famous Gilbert & Sullivan operettas.

“The series encompasses a lot of different things now, theater, music, performance-oriented history lessons,” Blundell says. “We try even with our own Child’s Play series to find a way to keep it curriculum driven - but sometimes it’s just strictly for entertainment, and I don’t think there’s enough of that going around !”