The name might not ring a bell, but Audra McDonald has the street creds, whether that street is Broadway, Bourbon or Hollywood andVine.

McDonald, who will open the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith’s Season of Entertainment series tonight, won her first Tony Award forBest Actress in a Musical for “Carousel” in 1994 at Lincoln Center Theater; her second forTerrence McNally’s “Master Class” (1996); and her third for “Ragtime” (1998) - all before she was 30 years old.

And she was just getting started. Two more Tonys followed, for “A Raisin in theSun” and “Porgy and Bess.” She’s also earned two Grammys, for Best Opera Recording and Best Classical Album; sung with virtually every major American orchestra and many others around the world; and appeared in TV dramas such as “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years,” “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Private Practice.”

All that aside, McDonald says the highlight of her life has been the birth of her daughter, Zoe Madeline Donovan, now 12½ , who is “beautiful inside and out.”

“I’m a mom, just recently remarried (to actor, writer and director Will Swenson), and my husband has two children, so (my personal life) is filledwith lots of school lunches being made and lots of cars to different after-school activities and then running around doing our jobs. It’s never the same.”

Professionally, McDonald says “the moment I hold on to is the very first preview of ‘Carousel,’ on stage with my hands on the mill right before the curtain was about to rise. That’s the moment burned in my brain.”

It’s all she ever wanted, she says.

To get there, McDonald chose Juilliard - and acting instead of music.

“I started doing dinner theater at the age of 9, and I knew from a pretty early age I wanted to be on stage and be on Broadway,” she says.

Now, she’s on a 22-city tour to promote her new album “Go Back Home,” but in general she tries to stay a lot closer to home herself.

“I’d rather be on a stage that stays in the same place,” she says. “If I could bring audiences all over the world to me, that would be my goal. Just show up in my living room, and I’ll sing for you. But that’s not reality.”

What she does wish for is what she calls “a holy communion between an audience and a performer.”

“We’ll all know more about each other when a concert is over. We’ve come to a common moment in time and shared an experience. Will we both be changed? Maybe.”

Whats Up, Pages 15 on 11/01/2013