'Outside Theater Walls'

Studying theater at NorthWest Arkansas Community College isn't like studying theater at the University of Arkansas, Ashley Edwards, the department coordinator, admits.

In some ways, she says, it's better.

"We focus a lot on the process," says Edwards, a UA graduate herself. "I'm not saying that the product isn't important," she adds, but a lot of her students -- who range in age from 16 to their 70s -- will not go on to a career in theater. So they learn more than a traditional program might teach.

Among the unusual opportunities are studying drama in educational settings with Trike Theatre and doing improvisational work as patients for NWACC nursing students.

"It helps students understand how to be an actor outside of theater walls," Edwards says.

But all actors need audiences, and the first show of the fall season combines chances for students to delve into both Shakespeare and comedy in an audience favorite, "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)." Bryce Kemph, an adjuct professor at the UA and TheatreSquared actor, will direct the play.

In the spring, students will present the 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner "Water by the Spoonful" by Quiara Alegria Hudes. The New York Times describes the subject of the play as "... a Puerto Rican veteran of the Iraq war who faces personal demons when he returns to the United States."

"This is a living playwright," Edwards says, "and the play has some themes that are interesting and could be familiar to our students -- war veterans, different nationalities of characters, addiction, classes in society. It's also a way to introduce our students to theater now, instead of doing the classics. This is what playwrights are writing now. Even the 'intro to theater' students will study it."

In between, the theater department will also present "An Evening of Devised Theatre" on Oct 15; the Play-In-A-Day High School Competition, a collaboration with Trike Theatre, in November; and a 10-minute play festival for NWACC students, staff and community members. The plays selected will be student-written, and new plays will be chosen in December for a March 11 performance. They will be directed and performed by NWACC students as part of the Spring Arts Festival at the college.

"Our Achilles heel is we do not have the theater (space) some of these high schools have," Edwards says. "We have to sell it more on 'we can create theater anywhere.' It's good for the students, I think, and they get good instructors.

"We just need to let the public know that we're doing real theater here."

-- Becca Martin-Brown

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