Unique Collaboration Brings Shakespeare to Augusta

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Students begin rehearsals for the ARCare Shakespeare Festival.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A unique collaboration involving the Brown Chair in English Literacy at the University of Arkansas, Trike Theatre for Youth in Bentonville, and ARCare, a rural community health care provider, is bringing the artistry and work of William Shakespeare to  the Augusta area. The community arts/community literacy project began in early April and will culminate with the ARCare Shakespeare Festival in Augusta, on May 28.

The ARCare Shakespeare Festival will feature a professional production of Shakespeare’s great romance, The Tempest, along with public readings by high school students who have studied the play, and a performance of choral music composed by Robert Boury, a professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. 

All the performances will be held on an outdoor stage on the banks of the White River in Augusta on the afternoon of May 28. Singers from a large community chorus will perform Boury’s music from 3 to 3:30 p.m. High school students involved in the Team Shakespeare project will present their work from 3:45 to 4:30 p.m. From 4:45 to 6:45 p.m., with a brief intermission, a troupe of professional actors from Fayetteville, Bentonville, Beebe, Hazen, Lonoke and Augusta will perform The Tempest. The entire event is free, and the public is welcome.

David A. Jolliffe, a professor of English who holds the Brown Chair in English Literacy at the University of Arkansas, has been working with ARCare (formerly known as White River Rural Health Center) for the past four years on community literacy and community enrichment activities, and the ARCare Shakespeare Festival is the latest effort in the Augusta Community Literacy Advocacy Project. For the Shakespeare initiative, Jolliffe recruited Kassie Misiewicz, artistic director of Trike Theatre, to head up a Teen/Team Shakespeare project. At the beginning of April, about two dozen 10^th- and 11^th-graders from high schools in Augusta, McCrory and Newport began work with Misiewicz, acting specialist Erika Wilhite, and creative writer Rodney Wilhite. The students are studying The Tempest in detail, working on scenes from it by using creative dramatic techniques, and writing imaginatively about the themes and issues in the play. The teenagers’ performance on May 28 will comprise both scenes from Shakespeare and from their own compositions.

Jolliffe, an experienced actor and director, will direct the professional production of The Tempest. Actors from Northwest Arkansas will take the roles of Prospero, Ferdinand, Miranda, Ariel, Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo, while actors from Augusta,Beebe, Lonoke and Hazen , will play the roles of Alonzo, Gonzalo, Antonio, Sebastian and Adrian. Mike Lynn Thomas, a well-known actor and playwright from Fayetteville, will portray Prospero, the central character in the play.

Sharon Oakes, an employee of ARCare, is recruiting a substantial community chorus to learn Boury’s music and accompany the performance on the afternoon of May 28.

Both ARCare and Trike Theatre are excited to work with the Brown Chair in English Literacy on this project.

“Trike thrives on integration of the arts with education and literacy,” said Misiewicz. “We look forward to helping students from East Central Arkansas bring Shakespeare to life through their own writing and creative performances.”

Joy Lynn Bowen, education director for ARCare, echoes her support. 

“ARCare knows that bringing Shakespeare to young people and citizens from all walks of life can only inspire them to learn more and work to improve their communities and lives,” she said. “We want to show that rural Arkansas deserves and loves the arts as much as other areas of the state and nation.”