For the past ten years, young adults from the community of Searcy have been given the opportunity to practice their acting skills.
“Center on the Square is a community theater that is open not only to the town of Searcy, but to White County,” said regular actor Caleb Burley.
Many of Searcy High School’s students have participated in plays put on by Center on the Square.
“I’ve done plays here since I was in the third grade…I started out just doing Kid Stage and now I’m doing big [deal] plays,” said senior Tyler Norris.
“I started in Kid Stage when I was ten years old and grew to love the theater,” Burley stated.
Last month’s production featured The Diary of Anne Frank. There were countless hours of vigorous work put in from the actors. Burley played Mr. Dussel.
“My character comes in midway through the story; he is very pessimistic because he sees that they are not going to make it out,” Burley said.
Martin McLeod, the director, played Mr. Frank in this production.
“We are a Dutch/Jewish family in 1943 and have to go into hiding because of the nazis,” stated McLeod.
“I was Peter Vandan, Anne Frank’s love interest,” said Norris.
Aside from the actor’s preparing themselves for the play, there was another member of the show who was a little more difficult to train.
A live cat was used for the nights the play showed, to be a key part of this production.
“To actually have a live animal on stage is not something I have ever done before; I was the only one on the stage who really got to mess with him,” said Norris.
Tiger the cat, although a sweet and furry animal, frustrated some of the actors because of the large amounts of fur that shed off of his body.
“Center on the Square really wants to use actors that are from the community for these projects; not just theater people,” commented director Marin McLeod.
This is a great opportunity for people who are looking in to getting into the acting career and preforming arts. If anyone is interested in future productions, the doors are open every Saturday from 8-12pm. You can also visit their Facebook page for more information.
