Mayhem, Murder, Mirth

UAFS turns traditional comedy up a notch

Bob Stevenson has quite a reputation. Although he is pretty much the whole theater department at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, he’s had an entry in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival regional competition in five of the last nine years, “and all five won a national award of some kind,” he says. “The only other school that hits at that kind of level is Sam Houston State — and they have 20 faculty.”

That’s not Stevenson bragging. That’s part of his explanation of the choice of this year’s rather traditional season, which this weekend includes “The 39 Steps.” The UAFS theater department has been so successful with avant garde, cutting edge, studentcreated and improvisational shows, but “it’s up to us to give students a well-rounded experience as performers and designers,” Stevenson says. “Most of the traditional shows are not that complex — whereas a show like this is. It has so many lighting and sound cues, scene changes, actors playing 17 or 18 characters!

“The show is a riot, and audiences love it. And students get to do something they need.”

“The 39 Steps,” based on a 1915 novel, came to acclaim as a 1935 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The play dates back to 2005, “when these guys got hold of it at the Edinburgh Festival and turned it into this freak show of a comedy,” Stevenson says. The premise remains the same: A man with a boring life meets a woman with a thick accent who says she’s a spy. When he takes her home, she is murdered. And, as Stevenson adds, “he spends the rest of the play running.”

“It may not sound that interesting — because it’s not,” he says. “But in the play, you’re watching the actors do all the things they have to do for four people to do this show — which is really designed for 57 people! There’s so much door slamming! And people wearing different costumes, sometimes in the same scene. You realize you’re watching the play, not getting engrossed in it. It’s like wonderful second act in ‘Noises Off.’

“I don’t know if there’s anybody who doesn’t love this show!”

COURTESY PHOTO Brett Alexander and Mikalyn Reif rehearse a scene from “The 39 Steps,” an action-packed comedy on stage this weekend at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.