29 Sep 2024 Artist of the Month: Reynolds Performance Hall 25th Year Celebration
By Donna Lampkin Stephens
Reynolds Performance Hall on the University of Central Arkansas campus is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and by the time the season is over, the venue will have hosted thousands of patrons at nearly 400 shows.
And that’s in addition to the hundreds more events and performances by local and state arts and educational organizations.
“A commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Reynolds Performance Hall should first recognize the visionary leadership of President Winfred Thompson and his dedication to making UCA the arts and cultural center of Arkansas,” said Rollin R. Potter, dean of the UCA College of Fine Arts and Communication from 2004-13. “Dr. Thompson’s plan included building Reynolds, forming the College of Fine Arts and Communication to provide artistic oversight, establishing a fine arts fee to guarantee funding for Reynolds’ artists/presenters and operations, and architectural adherence to Georgian buildings.
“Reynolds quickly became one of the major performance venues in Arkansas,” Potter said. “Now that 25 years have passed since its gala opening featuring the legendary Ray Charles, Reynolds continues to hold a prominent position as a presenter of important artists and performers, who regularly bring distinction to UCA and confirm its role as a cultural center throughout the region.”
Amanda Horton is just the third director of the hall, following Guy Couch and Jerry Biebesheimer. Serving since 2013, she has spearheaded the addition of the Main Stage Education Series, which serves schoolchildren across the state and is celebrating its 10th season. With the opening last year of the Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts, her role expanded as she became executive director of UCA Public Appearances.
“I’m extremely pleased with the way the community has embraced the addition of the Main Stage Education Series and Windgate and supported Reynolds Performance Hall throughout the years, especially overcoming a public crisis like COVID-19,” Horton said. “Even during COVID-19, we presented smaller-scaled shows, and the community responded to it, and we sold out those performances.
“My most proud moment is bringing in the little children and serving 65,000 of them in 10 years and the impact we’ve made on those children’s lives through performing arts.”
Before the shows, though, comes the behind-the-scenes work of each performance. “We start scouting out talent about 18 months in advance of a season,” Horton said. “We do this in multiple ways, like attending conferences where we’re able to see the work of artists, and we’re in constant communication with agents to find out who is routing through our area, just trying to piece our calendar together. We have to fit our series around all the university and community events that are going on. There’s a lot of research, conversations and organizing. It’s a complicated process.”
There is no such thing as a typical performance. The first thing she and her staff do is go through the performance/artist riders to determine what is required for a successful show. The list can include things such as additional instruments or equipment all the way down to a particular brand of bottled water.
“With Broadway shows, it’s very labor-intensive,” she said. “We have to secure not only our student workers but also contractual workers. Typically it takes 50 people to load it in, 20 to operate and 50 to load back out. The one thing that people really don’t realize is the Broadway performances are truly a labor-intensive gift to our community. We start loading in around 7 a.m., and we’re not done loading them out until sometimes 3 in the morning. It’s quite an undertaking.”
Her staff includes Avery Coonts, technical director (TD); Steven Oder, assistant TD; Rosalyn Williams, events manager; Shua Miller, director of patron services; and Wendy Sparks, director of marketing and finance.
Reynolds seats 1,172. Windgate has provided a more intimate space for 455.
“Windgate has offered a new music space that fits unique offerings such as classical music, jazz, world music and other genres that are important but just need a smaller hall,” Horton said. “The other specific thing about Windgate is that it is built for acoustics, for premium sound. There is not a better space on our campus to listen to a symphony or a classical music concert. It allows us to showcase those types of offerings in a suitable hall.”
The Main Stage Education Series is Horton’s baby.
“It was born from the necessity to bring youth into our hall,” she said. “When I first arrived at Reynolds, I didn’t change a thing the first year; I just thought, what are we missing? We were serving our students and the community quite well, but we didn’t have any school-age students in our hall. And it’s so important that you introduce the arts at a young age.”
If not for school buses, she noted, many K-12 students would not have an opportunity to see a professional arts performance.
The series started with three shows and a goal of serving 3,000 students. By the end of the year, 6,100 students had attended a performance.
“From there it has grown, and even during COVID-19, we did some special projects,” she said. “Now we’ve served 65,000 students from 65 different school districts and 30 counties from across the state.”
Main Stage has a sponsor, Partners Bank, for the Delta Project, which funds students from the Delta counties to enable them to see a show and have a free lunch. A bus stipend is also available.
“Many of those kids in the Delta are economically challenged and lack accessibility to the arts, so this is a way to serve them,” said Horton, who grew up in Stuttgart.
Another new initiative this year is Page to Stage, which connects literacy to the arts. “They will read the book, learn about it, and see it come to life on the stage,” she said.
UCA Public Appearances raises 100 percent of the programming funds for Main Stage.
“We’ve also started an endowment to ensure the longevity of the program so it will continue to serve long past Amanda Horton’s time,” she said.
The 25th-anniversary series includes something for everyone. “Every year, I strive for diversity in our offerings, so that no matter who you are or what you like, you’re going to find something you want to attend,” Horton said. “It’s an inclusive space for all.”
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