Two Worlds, One Voice

When Marsha Jones, former Springdale Public Schools administrator, suggested to David Jolliffe that he brainstorm with Arts Center of the Ozarks' interim Executive Director Jenni Swain about possible theater opportunities for the youth of Springdale, he already had a kernel of an idea about what might be possible.

"I've been visiting Springdale High School as part of my outreach work for a decade now, and I absolutely love the energy and dynamism that the growing Latinx population there creates," says Jolliffe, the holder of the Brown Chair in English Literacy at the University of Arkansas. "Here are young people doing their best to thrive in two worlds -- trying to keep their native cultures alive and important in their lives and, at the same time, trying to understand and contribute to the identity and cohesion of their Northwest Arkansas communities. I think the arts, especially theater, can provide powerful tools for helping young people understand concepts. Live theater, in my view, is the most powerful of the arts for fostering a young person's sense of identity and community."

Jolliffe wasted no time in gathering like-minded partners together to form the Latin/x Youth Theatre Project. Latin/x will debut its first workshop production, "Follow me @ TioSam," next week at ACO in collaboration with Northwest Arkansas Community College and the Brown Chair in English Literacy, with additional support from the Walton Family Foundation. Collaborators include Latina theater artist Laura Crotte, UA poet Vicente Yepez, NWACC's Ashley Edwards and Megan Looney, UA's Michael Landman and Crystal Bridges' Ana Aguayo.

Samuel Rivera Lopez, one of the founders of the Springdale art collective "Stitches," was one of the collaborators Jolliffe first reached out to for help with the project.

"He asked me if I could find people who were interested in theater -- artists, writers," says Lopez, who became part of the 11-person company of writers and actors who are both creating the show and acting in it. "The actual manifestation of writing and then changing that to something that can be depicted on stage -- it has a lot of character, a lot of emotions behind it. It's going really well. We have amazing, talented people involved."

"The project began with an impulse to give these people who might not otherwise be heard a voice," says director Michael Landman, head of the University of Arkansas M.F.A. directing program. "And then David had the idea of making a theater piece inspired by what they wrote. It's so beautiful and vulnerable and poetic."

Jolliffe asked Northwest Arkansas Community College coordinator of theater and poet Ashley Edwards to help organize the company members' written pieces into a cohesive script.

"The play follows a young Latino artist and his friends as they re-created the moments in their life where they did not have a voice in their community," explains Edwards. "Their approach is humorous, poetic and truthful. Not all of the characters are Latinx, and that has also brought a great complexity to the story, which is about respecting and understanding different cultures."

"The central question that has led the writing group and the theater groups is, 'Where am I from?' says Landman. "So that question doesn't mean, 'I'm from El Paso, Texas,' it's a more poetic question than that. As it turns out, a lot of them are brilliant young writers. These young people are doing the creation of new work that is even challenging in the professional world. We're throwing them all into creating a new play, participating in the writing and playing characters who are somewhat personal. They're all handling it beautifully."

Lopez says he hopes that the production will send a strong message to the youth population of Springdale.

"It's a message for the kids who look like me and don't have that much," he says. "If you put enough dedication in the work and put yourself out there in the world, you can really do something and change something. If anything, I just want to tell people to believe in social change and be accepting of other people, no matter where they come from, and give other people a chance to be themselves and not feel pressured to do otherwise."

NAN What's Up on 04/14/2017