By CD Eskilson / Photos by Cheiko Hara
One Monday afternoon last February, Honors College Fellow Ella Scurlock took her seat in TheatreSquared’s West Theatre, though it wasn’t in the balcony or dress circle. Surrounded by boom mics and cameras, she sat onstage in front of the aisles of chips and candy composing the set for an ongoing production of Kim’s Convenience. Scurlock reviewed her notes while across from her Kat Wepler, TheatreSquared’s director of production, was fitted with a microphone.
Throughout the past year, a team of six students — Ethan Brown, Miceala Morano, Janna Morse, Ella Scurlock, Sydnie Smith, and Sarah Wilson — produced an oral history of TheatreSquared, the award-winning regional theatre located in downtown Fayetteville. They met weekly in the theatre’s downstairs commons space to arrange and conduct over a dozen interviews with its staff and longtime supporters. Working with staff from the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, the group compiled a record of the theatre’s enduring cultural impact on Northwest Arkansas over the last 15 years.
“I think especially in the South, a lot of people don’t realize just how much incredible creative stuff is going on here. To be able to be there at the forefront of documenting that is such an incredible experience.”
Alessandro Salemme filming student interviews
Video producer Alessandro Salemme was an adviser and the videographer for the project, coaching students through interview best practices and the recording process. He was particularly excited by how quickly the students became comfortable working with members of the staff.
“Some of the people that we interview are very high up, are very well-known in the community, and just how comfortable the students are is impressive,” he noted. “I always tell them when you’re comfortable, the interviewee is going to be comfortable, and they do a great job of making all our interviewees feel at ease.”
The process was familiar to some students in the group who had been a part of a similar project last year. They compiled stories around the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas (SoNA) that offered insight into its six decades of performances. Scurlock, an anthropology and history major from Jonesboro, Arkansas, found a passion for connecting with people’s stories while working with SoNA and wanted to continue this work with TheatreSquared.
“I fell in love with the process of getting to talk to people — asking them questions and learning about their experiences,” she noted. Collecting the memories of staff and supporters also allowed Scurlock to pursue her academic interests in people’s histories and reconstructing the past. “You slowly put together their experiences, and it’s kind of like piecing together the organization’s history like a puzzle.”
Students joined the project from a variety of majors, spanning law, journalism and engineering. Honors student Miceala Morano, a Bob and Ruth Shipley Fellow majoring in journalism, was new to conducting oral histories. She found the project to be a great way of documenting Arkansas’ vibrant but less well-known creative community.
“I think especially in the South, a lot of people don’t realize just how much incredible creative stuff is going on here,” she said. To Morano, oral history presents an opportunity to provide people with stories they might not encounter in daily media or news. “To be able to be there at the forefront of documenting that is such an incredible experience,” she added.
The oral history project is a collaboration between the Pryor Center’s Arkansas Story Vault and a research team grant from the Honors College. The partnership creates community-based research opportunities for honors students, and it also offers the TheatreSquared staff the chance to share their stories.
Miceala Morano prepares questions for the T2 staff
“We’re delighted to be encapsulating so much of our shared history and culture to create not just a snapshot in time, but an archive spanning more than a decade,” said Martin Miller, TheareSquared’s executive director. “Future staff, leaders, audiences and artists can return to add their voices to TheatreSquared’s story here as well.”
In a broader sense, the Oral Histories Project aims to showcase the vital role local arts organizations have played throughout Northwest Arkansas. The students also hope to highlight and celebrate the individuals who have made a difference at these organizations.
“What I want people to take away from the oral histories is how organizations like TheatreSquared interact with our community, how they contribute and influence everything that goes on here,” Scurlock said.
Morano agreed, adding that she hoped audiences learned more about the theatre’s plans for growth and their value for the Northwest Arkansas area. “TheatreSquared is working to expand its youth programs into areas where arts education isn’t always accessible, for the purpose of teaching people empathy and compassion through the arts,” she said. “I think that’s something really important that people should know about.”
The oral history project will continue next year with a new topic and focus. As the students’ adviser, Salemme hoped that the project provided students with a sense of agency to carry forward into other future projects.
“I want the students to come out of the project feeling a sense of ownership,” he noted. “I want them to leave the project thinking they’ve done something for a community that is important.”
Listen to the TheatreSquared Oral History Project
Image Below: T2’s Director of Finance Elliott James (right) sits for an interview with Alessandro Salemme (left) and Miceala Morano (center);