Pocket Community Theatre to present The Prince and the Pauper
HOT SPRINGS — The Hot Springs Pocket Community Theatre will present Mark Twain’s classic tale, The Prince and the Pauper, adapted for the stage by Anne Coulter Martens.
The play will open at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Pocket Theatre, 170 Ravine St., off Park Avenue in downtown Hot Springs. Additional performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Dec. 12 and 13, with matinees set for 2:30 p.m. Sunday and again Dec. 14.
Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students in kindergarten through the 12th grade. For reservations or more information, call (501) 623-8585 or visit www.pockettheatre.com.
Stephen Fryar directs the local production. Fryar, who teaches Spanish at Lakeside High School, has directed several plays for the community theater group. He has also directed the Pocket Theatre’s Children’s Theater Workshop for the past two summers.
“A lot of these kids were in the summer workshops with me,” he said, noting that the directors choose the plays they want to direct during
the regular season at the Pocket Theatre.
“I wanted to incorporate the kids from these workshops in a play [during the regular season],” he said. “I really enjoyed working with them.
“Plus, I think this is a good play to be doing at this time of the year.”
Fryar said both of the young actors playing the lead parts in
The Prince and the Pauper have been in past workshops.
“Colby [Wilson, who plays Edward, the prince of England, in The Prince and the Pauper], played the wolf in Red vs. the
Wolf, which was the production presented by the students in the 2013 workshop,” Fryar said.
“That play told the story of Little Red Riding Hood from the wolf’s perspective.
“Colby also was in this past summer’s workshop, which presented Happily Never After,” Fryar said.
Colby, 11, lives in Hot Springs and is a student at Fountain Lake Middle School.
The director said Hayden Woods, who plays the part of Tom Canty, the street urchin in
The Prince and the Pauper, was also part of the 2014 Children’s Theatre Workshop.
“He played the Frog Prince in Happily Never After,” Fryar said. “He had only one line — ‘croak.’ He did a spectacular job with it.”
Woods, 12, is from Malvern and is a student at Malvern Intermediate School.
The Prince and the Pauper tells the story of two young boys who change clothes with each other and, in turn, become part of a different life. According to information on the Pocket Theatre’s website, www.pockettheatre.com, “When Prince Edward changes clothes with Tom Canty, the beggar boy, everybody on the stage is convinced that Tom, now dressed in royal clothing, is actually the heir to the throne. The true prince, now dressed in rags, is booted out of the palace. From here on out, the two lads lead an extraordinary existence as each tries to get along in a strange new world.”
Other members of the cast of The Prince and the Pauper include the following:
• Madelyn McCutcheon, 14, of Magnet Cove, a ninth-grader at Magnet Cove High School, plays Lady Jane, Edward’s cousin.
• Hayley Johnson, 13, of Hot Springs, a student Lake Hamilton Junior High School, appears as Lady Gwen, a lady-in-waiting.
• Jake Tillman, 17, of Hot Springs, a senior at Lake Hamilton High School, portrays Lord Hertford, Edward’s uncle.
• Tyler Swearingen, 9, of Hot Springs, a student at Lakeside Elementary School, plays Bumble, the whipping boy.
• Peter Montgomery of Hot Springs appears as a guard, a constable and a jailer.
• Timothy D. Sopel of Benton plays a guard, a madman and the first fellow.
• Russell Oxley of Hot Springs appears as a guard and the second fellow.
• Jack Anderson, 8, of Pearcy, a student at Lake Hamilton Elementary School, portrays a page boy.
• Joan Huddleston of Hot Springs plays Mrs. Canty, Tom’s mother.
• Zoe Wozniak, 11, of Hot Springs, a student at Lake Hamilton Middle School, appears as Bet, Tom’s sister.
• Kerri Douberly, 16, of Magnet Cove, a junior at Magnet Cove High School, portrays Old Biddy, a beggar woman, during the first weekend of performances.
• Kelli Hernandiz of Malvern plays Old Biddy, a beggar woman, during the second weekend of performances.
• Remy Wozniak, 7, of Hot Springs, a student at Lake Hamilton Elementary School, appears as a girl.
• Steve Robinson of Hot Springs portrays Miles Hendon, a gentleman.
• Emily Peterman, 14, of Hot Springs, a freshman at Hot Springs High School, appears as Mrs. Hobbs, a landlady.
• Kalli Brashers of Hot Springs plays a shopper.
The townspeople include Madelyn McCutcheon, Timothy D. Sopel and Jack Anderson.
Members of the street rabble (mob) include Kalli Brashers and Taylor Oxley of Hot Springs.
The prisoners include Remy Wozniak, Kerri Douberly and Russell Oxley.
Robert Simpson, assistant director and stage manager for
The Prince and the Pauper and treasurer of the organization’s board of directors, said the Pocket Community Theatre was established as Marlin Productions, performing a melodrama in a tent outside the current Temperance Hill Mall. The theater group moved indoors to a storefront in 1993, then to Higdon Ferry in the skating-rink complex and finally to the current facility, the former Ramble Elementary School auditorium.
Simpson said the Pocket Community Theatre is a nonprofit volunteer organization with a mission to provide a quality product at a reasonable price to residents and visitors in the Hot Springs area. The Pocket Theatre is a member of the American Association of Community Theatre.