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From the "Ouachitonian": Kacy Spears
January 01, 2020
Previously published in the 2017 Ouachitonian yearbook.
Hidden from the audience, Kacy glanced down at her notes and cued the next actor onto the stage for the final scene. A few moments later, the auditorium filled with the cheers and applause that brought a smile to Kacy’s lips as she continued to stand behind the scenes.
Kacy Earnest-Spears, a junior theater and mass communications double major from El Dorado, always enjoyed working in theater. During high school, she had an internship at the South Arkansas Arts Center in El Dorado where she focused lights, helped with costumes, painted sets and did ticket sales. She also communicated information from the director to the actors, or other people on the production.
“It really helped me understand how theater really fits together,” Spears said. “By doing all the little bits that can be done by one person, you see there are much larger bits being done by several other people that I am contributing toward, and how it all comes together to make one show.”
Whether performing on stage or making sure the show ran smoothly as stage manager, Spears knew she wanted to continue with theater in college. Spears explored an interesting aspect of her theater major by stage managing Ouachita’s production of “Not a Clue,” an improvisation performance. This was a mystery play with no script—the actors came up with the story as they went. It was just one example of the different things Spears learned.
“It’s a little more set in college when you’re training for one particular role, so I can have a myriad of experiences while I’m here, but it’s per show. So, I’ll stage manage one show, and I’ll act in another,” Spears said. “So, those are two very different experiences that I’d be getting.”
Although Spears enjoyed her roles in the plays and shows on campus, they sometimes kept her from participating in other college activities, such as being part of a social club.
“People in theater, or music or anything that requires doing things outside of class, it’s kind of difficult to be involved in a social club at Ouachita because so many events happen at the same time as rehearsal, or at the same time as a show,” Spears said. “And you just don’t get the opportunity to be at both. And it’s really sad to think about.”
That’s when Spears talked to her roommate and some other friends about founding Chi Mu. They met with Tim Harrell, director of Campus Activities, had an interest meeting and drafted a constitution. The club verse is 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, which talked about honoring one another’s spiritual gifts.
“That’s what we’re doing in having a club that’s flexible. We understand that you have these gifts that God gave you, and you need to focus on those first,” Spears said. “Sisterhood comes second, but the sisterhood is there to boost you up in your main goal of using these gifts that God gave you, whether it’s theater, or music, or art or whatever you may be doing.”
Spears’s commitment to and love for Chi Mu and theater came together in her first Tiger Tunes performance.
“It just felt really good to know that all this work that we’re doing, even though it’s just dancing and singing, it’s not only praising God,” Spears said, “but it’s also giving people an opportunity to come to Ouachita and praise the same God that we do and get the same religious experience that we’re getting currently. And so, in the singing and dancing, it really solidified for Chi Mu our club verse and why we do what we do.”
By Victoria Anderson
Photo by Andy Henderson
Hidden from the audience, Kacy glanced down at her notes and cued the next actor onto the stage for the final scene. A few moments later, the auditorium filled with the cheers and applause that brought a smile to Kacy’s lips as she continued to stand behind the scenes.
Kacy Earnest-Spears, a junior theater and mass communications double major from El Dorado, always enjoyed working in theater. During high school, she had an internship at the South Arkansas Arts Center in El Dorado where she focused lights, helped with costumes, painted sets and did ticket sales. She also communicated information from the director to the actors, or other people on the production.
“It really helped me understand how theater really fits together,” Spears said. “By doing all the little bits that can be done by one person, you see there are much larger bits being done by several other people that I am contributing toward, and how it all comes together to make one show.”
Whether performing on stage or making sure the show ran smoothly as stage manager, Spears knew she wanted to continue with theater in college. Spears explored an interesting aspect of her theater major by stage managing Ouachita’s production of “Not a Clue,” an improvisation performance. This was a mystery play with no script—the actors came up with the story as they went. It was just one example of the different things Spears learned.
“It’s a little more set in college when you’re training for one particular role, so I can have a myriad of experiences while I’m here, but it’s per show. So, I’ll stage manage one show, and I’ll act in another,” Spears said. “So, those are two very different experiences that I’d be getting.”
Although Spears enjoyed her roles in the plays and shows on campus, they sometimes kept her from participating in other college activities, such as being part of a social club.
“People in theater, or music or anything that requires doing things outside of class, it’s kind of difficult to be involved in a social club at Ouachita because so many events happen at the same time as rehearsal, or at the same time as a show,” Spears said. “And you just don’t get the opportunity to be at both. And it’s really sad to think about.”
That’s when Spears talked to her roommate and some other friends about founding Chi Mu. They met with Tim Harrell, director of Campus Activities, had an interest meeting and drafted a constitution. The club verse is 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, which talked about honoring one another’s spiritual gifts.
“That’s what we’re doing in having a club that’s flexible. We understand that you have these gifts that God gave you, and you need to focus on those first,” Spears said. “Sisterhood comes second, but the sisterhood is there to boost you up in your main goal of using these gifts that God gave you, whether it’s theater, or music, or art or whatever you may be doing.”
Spears’s commitment to and love for Chi Mu and theater came together in her first Tiger Tunes performance.
“It just felt really good to know that all this work that we’re doing, even though it’s just dancing and singing, it’s not only praising God,” Spears said, “but it’s also giving people an opportunity to come to Ouachita and praise the same God that we do and get the same religious experience that we’re getting currently. And so, in the singing and dancing, it really solidified for Chi Mu our club verse and why we do what we do.”
By Victoria Anderson
Photo by Andy Henderson
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