SEARCY — With an infectious smile and an inviting voice, Kelsey Sumrall has made it a goal to instill confidence in the students she teaches in her drama classes at Harding Academy in Searcy.
“Not everyone who comes through my classes is going to want to be a performer,” Sumrall said. “I know that. Some of them aren’t meant to be, but if anything, getting up in front of everyone is putting yourself out there. Learning that it is okay to be afraid of something, but sometimes you just have to make yourself do it anyway. I want to leave them with the idea that they don’t have to not be nervous when they get in front of people, but that they just have to be able to overcome it. They are going to have to put themselves out there in situations in life. I want them to leave here being able to put themselves out there even if they are nervous or not the best at it.”
Sumrall said that she wants her students to know that they can put themselves out there in whatever situation they may face in life.
“I try to put together lessons that are interesting and that are relatable to them.”
Sumrall graduated from Harding University in December of 2015 where she majored in Drama and Speech with a teaching licensure. This is her first teaching job since graduation.
“I like it a lot,” Sumrall said. “I’ve done a lot of shows and I have always been proud of them, but it was always something I was in. It’s neat to be proud of someone else doing it.”
Sumrall, who is from Poplar Bluff, Missouri, first became interested in theater because it allowed her to tell the stories of other people.
“I think that I have always found myself very easily and quickly interested in other people and their experiences,” Sumrall said. “Theater allows you to really get down to the core of that. It’s about the delivery of other people’s stories. “
Sumrall chose to go to Harding University and study theater after seeing several productions.
“A lot of people from my church had gone to Harding and really enjoyed it. It was also only two and a half hours away from home, so it was far enough away, but also close enough to go home if I wanted. It was just a good environment. My sister went before me, so I also got to visit a lot with her.”
Sumrall began her time at Harding University thinking she would teach elementary education.
“It was the teacher side of things that I picked first. After I had been out of high school theater for a while, I realized that I could not do without theater. I picked teaching because it is such a direct way to influence kids. I am comfortable in front of people, so it was kind of a combination of those things that led me to teach drama.”
Sumrall teaches three classes consisting of beginning drama through advanced drama to grades 9-12. She began the year by developing an overall structure of what she wanted her students to learn. Sumrall believes that its best for her students to be able to build on each lesson and use the knowledge they gain to reach the next goal.
“I try to make sure that I give the information that has to be given,” Sumrall said. “All of the necessary information that you can’t teach without. Then I like to share the information that I find most interesting and the most relatable to them.”
One of the features of her class includes the daily “Playbell,” which is a play on words of the famous Broadway playbills. She shares news from the world of theater just after the bell rings. For example, Sumrall recently shared with her students that Tony and Grammy nominated singer songwriter Sara Bareilles would be joining the cast of the hit Broadway musical Waitress in the lead role. Bareilles received a Tony nomination for scoring the hit show. Sumrall also played Bareilles’ hit song “Brave” while the students entered class.
In January, Sumrall, along with Harding Academy chorus teacher Craig Jones, put on a large-scale production of the classic musical The Music Man. The production included a cast of over 80 students, making the play one of the largest productions at the school to date.
“I chose The Music Man because it was something that could involve a lot of people,” Sumrall said. “You also have to consider the community that you are in. I thought it was something that would appeal to this community easily, and it did. So many people had heard of it, and it’s kind of a classic. Mainly, I felt like it fit our school, and it could get a lot of people involved.”
Sumrall said having The Music Man as the school’s musical this year was a chance to get many students from Harding Academy involved, even if they were not in the cast.
“It was awesome,” Sumrall said. “It was fun, and we went the route of having the chorus in it. It was a chorus production, along with other people who auditioned and wanted to be in it. The art department was involved and painted the back wall. The journalism department took care of the programs and things like that. It was really neat to see [the production] become kind of a community of people instead of just one group at the school doing its own thing. [The musical] brought a lot of audience and community interest that way.”
Students in Sumrall’s drama classes also participated by promoting the show on various social-media sites.
Sumrall said that in addition to counting The Music Man as one of her favorites, her most favorite musicals are composed by Jason Robert Brown.
“I like a lot of piano and strings,” Sumrall said. “The Bridges of Madison County is one of my favorites. ‘Once, the musical, is another favorite. It’s kind of got an Irish feel.”
This Spring, Sumrall has picked the play All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, which is based on a book of short essays by American author Robert Fulghum.
“I chose it because it is very simple,” Sumrall said. “It’s a simple sets and simple costumes. We can cast as many or as few as we want. After doing such a huge production, I knew I had to pick something that could be scaled down.”
Sumrall said the piece can be performed as either a musical or a play, but the school has chosen to perform the production as a play.
The dates for the performances of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten are still to be determined.
In addition to introducing students to the world of theater, Sumrall hopes her students will learn some important lessons that will help them, no matter where their lives take them.
“I hope I can find those students who do want to choose this as a career path and help keep the arts alive,” Sumrall said. “I think my main goal, though, is to help keep the theater arts relative to this generation, while also helping the students gain skills that theater gives you, such as confidence, empathy, spontaneity and things like that.”