Amber Carson of Searcy
The Rented Christmas director aims to empower, inspire children
In community theater, few people have just one role in order to make a production succeed. The lead actor might help make costumes. The youngest cast member might find props at home to contribute to the show. Backstage, actors and actresses might help others fix their hair or finish their stage makeup before they step into the limelight.
When the curtain closes on the last show of a run, many community-theater participants are already thinking about the next show, preparing audition pieces and reading scripts for background. Then the lead actor of the previous show might be cast as a minor character, and an actor who had a role in the previous performance might now find himself in the director’s chair.
Amber Carson of Searcy is directing Center on the Square’s Christmas production, The Rented Christmas, and her involvement in community theater has touched all facets of the community theater — from a backstage volunteer to onstage roles to in front of the stage as director.
Carson grew up in Grubbs, and she said the small Arkansas town was more focused on sports than on the arts. Her school consolidated with Newport High School, and when she was a junior in high school, she was in her first play.
“We did Grease when I was in high school, and I was in the ensemble,” she said. “Then I was Glinda in The
Wizard of Oz, which was a great experience. Those are actually some of my favorite high school memories.”
Although some of her favorite times in high school were on stage, Carson said she did not participate in theater again until her children expressed an interest in theater.
Carson worked professionally in sales management for radio and marketing for local businesses until she decided to scale back and focus on her life at home. She
started home-schooling her children — Sierra and Khya — when they were in the fourth and third grades, and with that change, her daughters started becoming more involved with local theater.
“Theater was a part of our lives before home schooling,” she said. “Still, we may not have ventured into some other opportunities if it wasn’t for home schooling. The freedom that comes with that and the time management helps us do other things.”
It was actually at a business expo that Carson’s oldest daughter caught the acting bug. Sierra was 5 years old, and it was a group of children posing in rags who caught her eye.
“There was a group of adorable little girls dressed as orphans who were singing ‘It’s a Hard Knock Life,’” Carson said. “I approached the adult, who happened to be Lana Hallmark, the woman who founded Center On the Square.”
Carson’s daughter wanted to start acting. Hallmark told Carson about Center On the Square’s KidStage program for young actors, but Sierra was still too young to participate. The minimum age is 7, so Carson’s daughter had to wait a couple of years before she could join.
“We waited,” Carson said. “The first session that she was 7, we were here with bells on.”
Sierra was a bird girl in the musical Seussical JR. that session, and Carson was a diligent volunteer, pitching in wherever she could to make her daughter’s show a reality.
“We were hooked,” she said.
After Seussical, Sierra was asked to participate in Center On the Square’s 2009 Main Stage Christmas program.
The following Christmas, Carson joined her two daughters on stage as cast members for Miracle on 34th
Street. She said that experience was incredibly special to her family, and thinking about it still brings tears to her eyes.
“It was just the coolest experience,” Carson said. “It was really special. My oldest was little Susan. It’s amazing what kids can do. What I’ve witnessed in theater, things I would have never imagined charging a 9-year-old with. She had nine costume changes and over 100 lines. She managed it just fine.”
That show was Carson’s youngest daughter, Khya’s, first Main Stage show, and Carson said she witnessed firsthand how theater helped Khya express herself and become more open when interacting with others.
“This kid is a kid who when someone asked her name, she would hug my leg and hide her face,” Carson said. “We were all floored when she got on the stage the first time. She completely came out of her shell. The arts for her have been such a form of self-expression, and I’ve seen that happen with other children as well. It’s really a beautiful thing to watch.”
Since then, Carson has served as a Center on the Square board member, interim executive director, board chairwoman and director for a KidStage production, and she said her time in the theater has shown her what children are capable of if given the chance to shine.
“Children are building a foundation of support, developing life skills, expressing self, establishing friendships and creating memories that will last throughout a lifetime,” she said. “It’s beautiful to watch. I’ve served in many roles here at Center on the Square, and seeing children grow in confidence, responsibility, creativity and love is the greatest reward.”
Now, as director of the Main Stage Christmas show, Carson said she has done her best to give as many actors as possible — many of whom are children — a chance to experience the stage for themselves.
“I did something that some tell me is a little crazy,” she said. “We had a large number of children turn up for auditions. I decided to cast three groups of children because we are running three weekends. I wanted to use as many children as possible. I wanted to be able to say ‘yes.’”
The Rented Christmas is a story about a man who has everything — money, a nice home, lots of material things — but does not have love and family. During the holiday season, he goes to a store and asks to rent Christmas. The shopkeeper is not sure if he is joking, so she plays along to see how she can help.
Carson said her favorite aspect of the show is the sense of community the cast and crew members have created among themselves.
“I love seeing their surprise at the challenges; their commitment to the project; their contributions to set, props, costumes and endless hours of rehearsal; working through the frustrations, the personality conflicts; and finding mutual respect and appreciation,” she said. “You come in as strangers, and you leave as friends that are somehow more than friends because you’ve experienced a sort of collaboration that’s intimate and taxing, a sort of collaboration that reveals strengths and weaknesses. It creates a vulnerability and intimacy that allows you to love the bad with the good.”
Center on the Square is at 219 W. Arch Ave. in Searcy. Tickets for The Rented
Christmas are $29 for adults and $24 for seniors and students, and the price includes dinner. For more information on the show and the theater’s other programs, visit www. centeronthesquare.org.
Outside of theater, Carson said, her time is spent home-schooling her children, hosting an annual bicycle tour called the 65 ROSES Tour that is a fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and selling Young Living Essential Oils.