While many teachers spend summer break resting and recharging, a group of theater educators from North Texas have used their final weeks of summer break to hone their skills and put on a production without students. They are stepping out of their classrooms and onto the stage for a production of The Counter at the Lewisville Playhouse this weekend and next.<\/p>\n
Michael Valentine, who is Lewisville ISD’s coordinator of fine arts, has brought faculty members from Lewisville ISD, Frisco ISD, Richardson ISD and Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD together to collaborate for a second year. Last year was the first time they did this, and they performed Blind Date\u00a0by Horton Foote.<\/p>\n
“So I think both years have been kind of about, what’s a show that fits Lewisville and also fits what we want to do?” said Valentine, who is also the production’s director.<\/p>\n
This year’s production of The Counter will be one hour and 15 minutes long and will follow the back-and-forth relationship between a caf\u00e9 waitress named Katie and Paul, who is a regular at her caf\u00e9. The play, written by Meghan Kennedy, is about connection, conversation and finding things that we have in common. It premiered off-Broadway in 2024.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“If I had to summarize the play in one word, it would be conversations, about the conversations we strike up with people” said Jordan Barrett,\u00a0who plays Katie and is the theater arts teacher and tech theater director at Lebanon Trail High School.<\/p>\n
Barrett performs opposite Michael Holloman, who plays Paul. Last year’s production was Barrett’s first time returning to the stage in 10 years, and this will be Hollomon’s second time acting in 20 years. He’s the Frisco ISD fine arts coordinator.<\/p>\n
“It is so important for us teachers to go back and experience this as artists, not just as performers but as technicians and directors with adults,” Barrett said. “Because I think it invigorates why we’re doing what we’re doing.”<\/p>\n
The teachers make up the cast of three actors and crew of eight technicians.<\/p>\n
“We laugh a lot and cuss a lot because we can do that without kids around and just kind of enjoy the environment a little bit until we have to go back and act like we’re teachers again,” Valentine said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A lot research went into the designing of the set, which is a character in itself. Audience members will feel like they are experiencing the play from behind the counter, said set designer John Davenport, the manager of Frisco ISD’s Visual and Performing Arts Center. The audience will also get to order snacks and refreshments from the actual counter itself before the play, adding to the immersive experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Valentine and his crew want to encourage people to make an evening of checking out downtown Lewisville when they come view the play.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think that no matter who you are or what your story is, I think you’ll relate to this play and you’ll find something within the characters and the story that resonates with you,” Barrett said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Counter will be playing from August 6-8 at 7:30 p.m. August 9 at 2:30 p.m., August 15 at 7:30 p.m. and August 16 at 2:30 p.m. at the Lewisville Playhouse, 160 W. Main St., Lewisville. Tickets are $15. lewisvilleplayhouse.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While many teachers spend summer break resting and recharging, a group of theater educators from North Texas have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1260,27,29,28,93542],"class_list":["post-399466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-lewisville","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tp-performing-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}