Seventy Years Of Success

Fort Smith Little Theatre announces 2017 season

Directing Fort Smith Little Theatre shows during the 2017 season are, standing from left, Brandon Bolin, Summer Ferguson, Jill Ledbetter, Micki Voelkel and Eric Wells, and seated from the left, George Mann and Lora Rice. Ian Miller is not pictured.
Directing Fort Smith Little Theatre shows during the 2017 season are, standing from left, Brandon Bolin, Summer Ferguson, Jill Ledbetter, Micki Voelkel and Eric Wells, and seated from the left, George Mann and Lora Rice. Ian Miller is not pictured.

Carole Rogers laughs when she says Fort Smith Little Theatre is even older than she is.

But it's no joke that the community theater troupe is celebrating its 70th season in 2017, and Rogers has been around for 25 of those years. As 2016 president of the Board of Directors, Rogers helped shape the 70th season, along with production chairwoman Valerie Baldwin-Valentine.

FYI

Fort Smith Little Theatre

70th Season

Feb. 9-18 — “Sense and Sensibility” by Kate Hamill, directed by Micki Voelkel

March 30-April 8 — “Things My Mother Taught Me” by Katherine DiSavino, directed by Ian Miller

April 20-22 — “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” by Adam Long, Daniel Singer & Jess Winfield, directed by Brandon Bolin

June 1-10 — “Eurydice” by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Summer Ferguson

July 27-Aug. 12 — “The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson, directed by Carole Rogers, with music direction by George Mann

Sept. 21-30 — “Making God Laugh” by Sean Grennan, directed by Lora Rice

Nov. 9-18 — “The Odd Couple (Female Version)” by Neil Simon, directed by Eric Wells

Dec. 7-9 — “An Old Time Radio Christmas” directed by Jill Ledbetter

COST — Season ticket packages start at $60

INFO — 783-2966 (press 5)

Rogers says the success of the troupe, which built its own 200-seat theater at 401 N. Sixth St. in 1986, is entirely due to the support of the community.

"We have people that have been coming to our theater for years and support us financially," she says. "We have businesses that sponsor our shows. And we have been blessed with people that love theater and have put on so many quality shows on our stage.

"There's an amazing amount of talent in this area," she adds. "I'm just blown away by how much talent there is and the hard work people put in!"

Rogers and Baldwin-Valentine illustrate many of the facets of the company's success. Rogers had never acted, even in high school, when a friend suggested she try out for a small part in a comedy titled "Social Security."

"I was going through a terrible case of empty nest syndrome, and my husband literally shoved me out the door," she recalls with a laugh. "I was cast, and I did fine until they let people in! But I got the bug. That was almost 26 years ago."

Baldwin-Valentine was a theater major and wanted to continue to be involved with theater when she moved to Fort Smith.

"I just googled theaters," she explains with a laugh. "I saw FSLT, saw they did a lot of great shows, and saw they'd been around for a long time, so they had to be doing something right. I came to an audition in the winter of 2013, and my first show was 'Hickory Dickory Dead' in February of 2013."

"We have a very enthusiastic, talented group of young people, many with theater degrees," Rogers says. "And we have middle-aged people, and then you've got us old folks! We love having new people and particularly new directors!"

But even that process teams the veterans with the newcomers: Each new director has a mentor for his first show.

Although the company has returned to one matinee per production -- after several years of testing two matinees -- Rogers says she doesn't see much changing over the next 10 years except technology. It is probably time, she says by way of example, for the theater to offer online ticketing.

But Baldwin-Valentine says the tried and true formula of selecting a season remains the same -- "a little bit of drama, quite a bit of comedy, different genres and time periods, shows people know and some they don't know as well. We want a lot of variety so people won't feel like they're watching the same show time after time.

"The season chooses itself in that way."

NAN What's Up on 01/06/2017

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