WANTED

TUSCULUM COLLEGE HEADLINES
'Kiss Me, Kate' was final curtain call for A.C.T.
It’s final. When the curtain closed on the May 8
“Kiss Me, Kate” show, it also closed the era of
A.C.T. – Actors Coming Together.
Since the spring of 1992, Greeneville/Tusculumarea
theatergoers have looked forward to the annual
production of A.C.T. Each spring, students from
the five local high schools, some home-school students
and a few out-of-town students have collaborated
on a production filled with show-stopping
numbers, glitzy costumes, professional-level sets
and young actors honed and polished by the trio of
Marilyn duBrisk, director; Angie Clendenon, musical
director; and Carolyn Gregg, accompanist, as
well as innumerable
volunteers, accumulated
and appreciated
over the
years.
A.C.T. has been
under the auspices
of Tusculum
College’s Arts Outreach
Program,
reigned over by
the nearly six-foottall,
blonde, British-accented
duBrisk, artist-in-residence at the
College.
Clendenon called the finale “bittersweet.” Looking
at the positive side, she said, “when one door
closes, another opens.”
That’s what duBrisk is hoping also.
A.C.T. was started because of lack of drama programs
for local high schoolers. Now, however, with
teachers in place, new possibilities are opening for
the students inside the schools.
She says that her position is to support these activities
and possibilities. “I would never compete
with the school programs. We like to dovetail our
efforts.”
Gregg, who retired from the city schools after
31 years at Tusculum View and is now chairman
of the Education Department at Tusculum College,
is sorry that, with the move of drama back
into the individual schools, “it won’t be a collaborative
effort” as it was under A.C.T.
Clendenon, who is the music teacher at
Greeneville’s EastView Elementary School, sees that
lack of collaboration as one of the negatives also,
because the students will miss forming “friendships
they wouldn’t have if they didn’t have this (A.C.T.)
experience.”
Just because A.C.T. will not do another show, that
does not mean that the trio of duBrisk, Clendenon and
Gregg won’t work together again. They’re already
planning “Oliver!” for this fall as a production of Theatre
at Tusculum, the community arm of Arts Outreach.
It’s taken 20 years for the group to grow from the
original three to include
Delina Hensley, who is
assistant director of Arts
Outreach; Frank
Mengel, technical director
and set designer;
Ann Birdwell, costume
"Too Darn Hot" was one of the familiar numbers in the "Kiss Me, Kate,"
Arts Outreach's A.C.T. production this spring.
13
director; Jennifer
Hollowell, box office
manager; and innumerable
volunteers who are
well-known, talented
artists in their special
fields and have contributed year after year.
If duBrisk claims a talent of her own, she will acknowledge,
“I’m awfully good at finding really talented
people to help me. I feel so blessed with all
the talent I have to help me.”
Clendenon calls it magic. “Marilyn has a magical
way to get the community involved.”
Clendenon’s and Gregg’s involvement for the long
hours over the years is attributed by duBrisk to the
two teachers’ love for the students.
When the show stopped for the final time, and
the cast of 45 exited the Annie Hogan Byrd Fine Arts
Center on that last Sunday, they joined hundreds of
others of “Marilyn’s kids.”
“We have handled literally hundreds of kids. It’s
nice,” duBrisk says. ”We have so many good memories
But life goes on.”
The story above is a revised version of an article by Velma Southerland
of the editorial staff of The Greeneville Sun, used by permission.
•